Wednesday, October 31, 2007

How Did You Get Engaged?

One of my favorite questions to ask couples is, "How did you meet?" One of my other favorite questions is, "How did you get engaged?" (if in fact the couple is engaged or married). I love it when the couples tell me their stories, and try not to get too dejected when the answer is, "None of your business" or "It's private!"

Minh Le of Bottom Shelf Books has just gotten engaged to his long-time girlfriend Aimee, and he spills the storytelling beans here. Mazel tov, Minh. Just you wait until you find out that all your blogfriends are planning to hide behind the trees on your wedding day and jump out to surprise you with silly-string and confetti. It's going to be a blast.

I invite the rest of you to share your engagement stories today's comments section. Bede's and my official engagement was bittersweet, as he had planned to propose to me on the Victoria Clipper precisely a year after we'd started dating. However, when my grandfather went into the hospital, he rushed to get the engagement ring early so that I could show it my grandfather before my grandfather died. (I had said I didn't need an engagement ring, but when I got it, of course I loved it.) One of the last things my grandpa said before he died was, "Give Orpha [my grandmother] a great-grandchild." Thankfully, I delivered.

8 comments:

twinmommy said...

What a beautiful story of your engagement. Bittersweet, indeed.

My own engagement was wonderful! My husband rented a cabin for us in Winthrop complete with walk-out deck from the master bedroom. He took me to dinner at Sun Mountain Lodge and had planned to propose on a horse-drawn sleigh ride. Unfortunately there wasn't enough snow for that, but we had a lovely dinner at the restaurant and watched the moon rise as we ate. He had some beautiful words, got down on one knee and proposed.

There were only two or three other couples in the dining room with us, and they clapped for us when he shouted, "She said yes!"

One of the couples picked up the tab; quite a thoughtful gift for a grad student and a teacher, both living on tight budgets!

The next day while walking through town, we ran into one of the couples from the dining room. They congratulated us again and we had the most wonderful time shopping and spending time together, alone, before announcing the happy news to our families.

Yorkshire Pudding said...

I never wanted it to be that way but somehow in the middle of love-making I popped the question and Shirley said yes. I wish I'd walked her by a babbling brook on an Autumn afternoon and posed the question in a romantic scene that we would always have remembered and been happy to tell nosey bloggers like you about! But it wasn't that way.

Saints and Spinners said...

YP: I knew some friends who got engaged in the shower. They had to make up a story to tell their relatives! I'm guessing that the question had been on your mind for awhile, otherwise you would have had some explaining to do after the afterglow had worn off.;)

Twinmommy: Thanks so much for telling your engagement story. That's so sweet that someone else picked up the cheque for you.

Minh said...

Thanks Alkelda... I'm looking forward to the silly string and confetti!

Anonymous said...

The Rock Star and I knew were were going to get engaged, but I left it up to him when and where. We saw eachother twice a year for our 4 years of courtship and I wasn't expecting to see him again until March. However, when I returned to my apartment in Minneapolis after Christmas, he was waiting for me. :)

Saints and Spinners said...

Blogopotamus-- Now, I only wish I had known you well enough at the time to come to the wedding!

Anonymous said...

My story is more bureaucratic than romantic. Mr Goddess and I had been country hopping between Scotland and the US for nearly two years. I got a student visa, he got a student visa, I got another student visa. Soon I had to head back to the US to actually finish my degree and he was about to finish his degree and we were out of student visas. We were sitting on the bed in our Glasgow bedsit surrounded by brochures for various work-visa programs, camp counselor programs, etc., and Mr. Goddess sighed and said, "I think we're just going to have to get married."

The things you do when you want to live in the same country. That was 15 years ago.

Lone Star Ma said...

I'm glad YP told his story first because mine was like that and I was too embarrassed to say so!

Your story is beautiful, Alkelda.