After a day of pampering (mani/pedi, wine/cheese lunch and shopping spree), I came to the rooftop patio of one of my favorite restaurants to find my boys waiting for me. They asked and I said, Yes!

I am Engaged!

Those are three words that I never thought I would say, but when you find the right person you change your mind! Now it’s time to plan a wedding! Yippee!! I’m 36 (yes, I just put that out there…yikes!!) & I have waited a long time to get here, but the time has finally arrived!

WARNING, WARNING!! Long post alert with lots of pictures because I’m ENGAGED!!

Don’t say I didn’t warn you, but I wanted to capture the entire experience in a blog post so I could have it forever! I wanted to write down every detail so I never forget how special April 4, 2015 was in my life!!

My sister, brother-in-law and lil Z had planned to come home for Easter weekend and we were going to do family pictures that Saturday. We were going to be able to get Hank for Friday and Saturday. I had bought cute coordinating outfits for Chris, Hank and I to wear for our pictures. The plan was to do these pictures Saturday afternoon.

The girls wanted to get manis and pedis before the pictures. The boys had gotten all of us gift certificates at Lemongrass Spa (a really nice spa here in town) for Valentine’s Day that we hadn’t used yet. We wanted to wait until my sister was in town, so that the four of us could enjoy them together. Well…of course…they couldn’t get all four of us in on the Saturday before Easter. So I thought my other sister (the one that lives here) had just made an appointment at another nail place that we like. Then we were supposed to meet the boys for lunch and then pictures.

So Saturday morning arrived and we headed to town for our appointment at the nail salon.  I thought everything was going according to the plan that I knew at this point…. Then the receptionist sits me in the pedicure chair and she goes to hand me the pillow that you hold and she flips it over and there are a bunch of mini yellow roses and a card!

Then I turn about 50 shades of red as everyone in the nail salons oohs and ahhs!! I read the card which tells me to enjoy the mani/pedi that he has taken care of and that there has been a change of plans and he has setup lunch for us girls at the Tipsy Cow.

So at this point I am mildly suspicious but won’t let myself get too excited!! I just kept thinking, “Nah…it is just a nice Easter surprise for us…nothing more than that…” So I finish getting my pedicure and then manicure and then we head over to lunch.

We get to the Tipsy Cow, get a table and order a glass of wine (because my nerves are starting to get the best of me). Then manager comes out with another bunch of mini yellow roses and another card!!!

At this point, I start shaking like a leaf and I haven’t even read the card yet!! My sisters and mom are just grinning from ear to ear but swear that they don’t know anything…spoiler alert…that was just one of many lies that were told to me.

So I open this card (my face is beet red again) and this card says that we are still doing pictures but I have another stop to make. I am supposed to go to this cute boutique called Southern Sensations in town and pick out any dress, shoes whatever I like and don’t look at the price tags. For those of you that don’t know me very well, I am a VERY frugal person and don’t like to spend money on anything…especially stuff for me. I NEVER buy anything unless it is on sale!!

And he is normally very frugal too!! So between the mani/pedis, lunch and now outfit shopping, he was spending some cash!! At this point, I told my sisters and my mom that this better be ending with a ring!! I was either going to kiss him or kill him!! LOL 🙂

So off to the boutique we go…once we got there I was given another bunch of mini yellow roses and another card!! This one was telling me that he wants me to feel like a queen and to remember that today is my day!! Then he said that he would see me soon for OUR  pictures!!

Shopping Spree Time!! I was so nervous at this point that my sisters just said that they would start picking out dresses and I should just go to the dressing room and try them on. My sisters are so much better at picking out clothes for me than I am, so I was perfectly happy letting them decide. Oh, we forgot to get good pictures at the boutique but I snapped a quick pic of the bag afterwards. But we did decide on a really cute summer dress and shoes that were really high for me!! I loved the whole look though 🙂

At this point, I really didn’t know what was next…that last card didn’t tell me. But I get changed and we start driving toward downtown. My sister hands me Chris’s iPad and says to push play. The first of six videos start playing. They are each from my friends telling me how much I have meant to them and a memory of good times that we had. Some were my high school friends, some I met in college and others I had met since graduating from college. It was so sweet and meant so much to me!! I was both laughing and crying!!

At this point, we pulled up outside of one of my favorite restaurants downtown, called Steel Magnolias. My sisters took off and I was told to wait in the car for a minute or two and then mom would take me where I needed to go. I followed my mom into the restaurant and up four flights of stairs (not an easy feat in the shoes I was wearing…nobody mentioned that I would be climbing stairs when we were picking out shoes). I arrived at the door to the rooftop patio and when I opened the door, this is what happened next…

And here come all the pictures…

My two favorite guys!!!

Isn’t he just the cutest??? I about lost it when he got down on one knee too and said, “Will You Marry My Daddy?”

He also had this table setup with lots of photos that we had taken during our relationship (so far) & little decorative signs (that now will be going in my house) and more mini yellow roses! I think he really thought of everything!!

There are my sisters!! The other masterminds behind this 😉

3 sisters and 3 rings!!

Check out that bling!!

Sorry last one of the ring…and why I am I doing the “spock hand” here?

This is going to be my step-son!! Am I lucky or what???

Lil Z had to try on Hank’s hat!!

My parents 🙂

His dad and stepmom!! And Hank being totally cute…AGAIN!!

And I will end with that one because I love the expression on his face!! I am so thankful to my now fiancé Chris, his son Hank and our families for making this day so special for me!! It will be a day that I will never forget!! I am so excited to take this leap in our journey and can’t wait to see what the future has in store for us!!