The Proposal Story
(written by Brittany)
Let’s just say that the last week of my life has been a complete whirlwind and my world has completely been turned upside down in the most amazing way possible.
Ryan has had quite the summer with work- working 15-20 hour days and planning and hosting 2 big events with his company. I love that he is so committed to his work, but was hating the limited phone conversations, texts, and date nights. I knew coming into the summer that it would be challenging, just because he would be so busy with work. Ryan was always great about calling me when he had the chance and seeing me when he could, but it was still hard. There is NEVER enough time spent with that boy.
So the week of July 26… Ryan is working his last big event with work. It was ending that Wednesday, the 28th. We had planned a week ahead of time to have a date night that Friday night, just ME and HIM. Of course, we planned to go to our favorite place, Hacienda (our favorite Mexican place in Lexington).
Tuesday, July 27: In the middle of the week I get a phone call from Mark, Ryan’s best friend. He called to tell me that he was coming into town that weekend and that he wanted to double date with his girlfriend, Ryan, and I. I was excited at the thought of this, but wanted it to be Saturday night. I was trying to make sure that Friday night was just me and Ryan. I was wanting to spend some good quality time with him and not share him with anyone else. I mean, it had been a good while since I had spent some good time with him. I found out also that day that Ryan had called another good friend, Jeff, who is also in Ryan’s Bible study. He called Jeff to ask him and his wife, Rhonda, to go out on a date with me, Ryan, Nicole, and Mark.
Ok, first…I was livid that Ryan would call Jeff and not me. He can call whoever he wants, but seriously, not when I haven’t had the chance to talk to him at all. If was too busy to call me, how was he not too busy to call Jeff?!? THEN, I found out that he had asked them to dinner and hadn’t really even discussed it with me. He asked everyone out on OUR date night. I was praying real hard for the Lord to help to overlook this. I loved that we were going to go out with our closest friends, but honestly, was a little upset that they were going to go out on “our” date night. I mean, why couldn’t we have done this on Saturday night or something. Anyways…I figured Ryan was just exhausted and wasn’t thinking clearly, and after talking long talks with my sister venting my frustration, she helped me to see that the Friday night date with the other 2 couples would be fun. Whatever.
July 28: Moving day for me. I was moving back to Wilmore that day. I had to go to Ryan’s house to pick up my stuff, because he was sweet enough to let me keep my things there for awhile until I could move back to Wilmore. I had seen Ryan the night before at one of the work events he had planned. It was good to see him, but I just got really sad at the end of the night. I hated the thought of having to leave him, AGAIN, and not getting to see him again until Friday night. And, was still a little peeved that our Friday night date night now included 4 other people.
I got to the house to get my stuff. In front of all my stuff was a letter that he had written me. I sat on the floor. I bawled. I read. I bawled some more. I read. The letter was absolutely precious. He talked about how he promised that he would make it up to me for working so much lately and just thanked me for being patient with him. He told me that he was ready for “us”, and ready for us to be together. Every word in that letter was exactly what I needed to hear. My “lividness” of the Friday night plans were gone and I couldn’t wait to see him.
Friday, July 30: I went to kickboxing that morning with Nicole. Then, we decided to go the pool all day since it was our last day of freedom before having to start work. We had fun all day just hanging out. We decided to carpool to dinner together, since we live close to each other. So, after the pool, I went home and got ready for dinner. I went over to Nicole’s so that we could ride together. We are pulling into the restaurant parking lot and I notice a black stretch limo in front of this Mexican restaurant. I am laughing to Nicole and saying, “Who would come to a Mexican restaurant in a stretch limo.” We pull into the parking place and Ryan’s best friend, Mark, came up to me and hugged me. I’m thinking why aren’t you going over to hug Nicole first? He pulls out from behind his back a single red rose and a card. I start freaking out because I have NO idea what’s going on. Mark pulls my arm, will not let go, and takes me to this limo. Mind you, I’m already red all over my face because I got severely sunburned from the pool that day. Then, more red on top of that because I’m having a spaz attack mixed with lots of blushing. I open the card and it says…
“Brittany, I promised I would make it up to you. Please just get in the limo and watch the DVD. I will see you in a few minutes. Ryan”
I still have no idea what is going on. You think I am joking…oh no! A proposal had not crossed my mind. There was absolutely no way he was going to propose because of how busy he had been with work. I’m still clueless.
I get into the limo (side note- Nicole had taken my cell phone away from me), and try to play the DVD. The first part of the DVD was a note written to me from Ryan. The music in the background was beautiful- the lyrics telling “our” story. I cry. I’m quite emotional at this point. This is the moment where I thought, MAYBE, this could be him setting up to ask me to marry him. The limo takes me to his house, where there are 50 dozen roses…yes, that’s 600 roses. The rose bouquets lined the driveway all the way to the front of the house. I walked and peeked in the front door… more roses, over 100 tea-lights lit, and our favorite song playing in the background. There he was waiting on me with his arms opened wide. He grabbed my hands and looked at me and told me that he had never been so sure of anything in his life. He has never for one moment doubted us. He got down on his knee and asked me to marry him. I said YES!!, grabbed his face and CRIED!! (But that’s not all…scroll past the pics for the rest of the story!)
Oh my goodness, I could not believe this had happened. I had absolutely NO idea about any of this. NONE!
We got back into the limo. It took us back to the restaurant where 30 of our friends were waiting on us. He had a surprise engagement party planned. My other surprise…he took me to Knoxville the next day to see my family and celebrate with them.
July 31: Ryan and I went to the nursing home where he has volunteered for a couple of years. I know a lot of the residents there just from the short time that I have been able to volunteer there also. We took a lot of the roses and handed them out to the women in the nursing home. You talk about happy…I have never seen so many lit up faces over a red rose. They LOVED it. I loved it. I loved it even more that Ryan had arranged for us to do this together.
August 8: I am still in awe of Ryan. He has blown me completely away. He has surpassed any expectation that I have ever had and he is a daily reminder to me of God’s love and blessings.It took some time to get over the shock of being engaged.Ryan and I had talked some about getting married, but I had convinced myself that we would be getting engaged at the end of the year and get married next year. Ryan is my everything. He has helped me to understand God’s love for His children; he has taught me to love and accept myself. He is my best friend, my soul mate, and better half. There is not a day that has gone by that I have questioned his love for me. You know that saying, “You just know when you know.”It’s true. I just knew. Ryan is it. He is the one that I cannot wait to spend the rest of my life with. While all the wedding planning can be kind of overwhelming and stressful, I have never been more excited in my life. I am giddy. I am on cloud 9. He has completely swept me off my feet. I will be forever grateful for him.
October 23, 2010: Our wedding day. We’re ready. Why wait?!
Here’s the video Ryan put together that played in the limo:
