The Proposal

Y'all, I get married this month.

No matter how many times I say it, or type it, or think it, it just doesn’t seem real!

Between our engagement last June, planning a wedding across states, a move home to Ohio (way sooner than anticipated) and a new job, life has been a little crazy. There has been so much going on, and weirdly enough, now that we are in the home stretch I think I am finally starting to catch my breath. Maybe all of the to-do’s or done? Or maybe I’m forgetting something on the list? Either way, there is a welcome change of pace happening right now, and I am not going to fight it.

Now that I am starting to slow my roll and have a moment to think, I wanted to write down Michael and my engagement story. Partly to share with you, but also to have it documented before I forget all of the details.

So let’s take a trip down memory lane, shall we? It will be short and sweet and it will answer the often asked question about the duck costume ;)

The Proposal

My mom, sister, and nephew flew to Connecticut for a mini vacation to visit me and celebrate my mom’s 50^th. Michael and I had already discussed engagement, I knew he had the ring, I knew he had asked my parents’ permission, and I knew he was going to ask that summer. What I did not, was when it would happen.

I suspected he would ask while my family was in town. In fact, I was pretty certain of it and had my nails prepped and ready just in case. (If you couldn’t tell from the above paragraph, I don’t like being surprised lol.)

Days came and went, as did seemingly opportune moments and picturesque scenes. The last day of their trip was the only day I was sure it would not be: my mom’s birthday. It was pretty much the only day during the entire summer that I assumed I didn’t need to be at the ready.

I’m sure you’re all super shocked to read that I was wrong.

June 26, 2018

I really don’t remember what we did for the first part of the day on June 26^th. I remember messaging my friend, Michelle, for the name of the Italian restaurant she recommended a while back. (I would later find out that Michael also messaged her about the restaurant and made his own reservations thinking I had forgotten. He collected the information before I did and did a great job playing dumb when I said I had gotten the name of it. Michelle also played along and practiced some serious restraint by not showing up to see the proposal happen. I told her I would not have put two and two together - and based on how the rest of the evening went, I stand by my statement that I would have been oblivious.)

I also remember wanting to wear jeans to dinner and my sister insisting I put in a little more effort for mom’s birthday. She also offered to do my hair and makeup which should have been a big clue, but like I said, I was positive it wasn’t happening that day. I remember being slightly suspicious when after I was ready she forced me to take off my watch, but by the time we were at dinner, I had already forgotten.

Dinner

When we arrived at Arezzo's (highly recommend if you’re near Westport, CT), and after a little confusion regarding the double reservation (again, I had no clue), we were seated outside in the beautiful weather. We ordered a bottle of white wine for the table and decided on our meals. (I don’t remember what everyone chose, but I had the gnocchi and it was amazing.)

After we finished dinner, my sister announced she had to go change Mason. He was 16 months old, so this was normal.

What was not normal, was when she came back to the table with him dressed in a duck costume. You might be thinking, “Surely you knew something was up at this point,” and my answer would be, “nope!” My thought process basically went, “Oh, he must have had a blowout. Weird that all you had was this Halloween costume in your bag…”

… and then I saw the ring box in my tiny nephew’s hands. (I’m actually tearing up thinking about this now.)

Michael took my hand and started saying the sweetest things in front of my mom and sister. At one point he took the ring from Mason and, as you can imagine, the babe did not like that. To compromise, he took out the ring and gave back the box and continued his speech, which at that point had caught the attention of neighboring tables (crying babies tend to do that lol).

M finished his sweet words, got down on one knee, and asked me to marry him. I, of course, said “yes!” and everyone around us clapped and clinked their glasses as he slid the ring on my finger and we shared our first kiss as an engaged couple. The restaurant brought us champagne and our dessert and we finished our meal on cloud 9 with multiple “congratulations” from kind strangers who’d witnessed our special moment.

Even as I type this out, it still feel like a dream. As cliché as it sounds, we are truly blessed.

The Duck Costume

The most frequent question we get when we tell people the story or show them the photos is about the duck costume. If I’m being honest, I didn’t understand the significance either until Michael explained it.

The first year and a half of our relationship was spent long distance and somewhere along the way, for a reason neither of us remember, we started sending pictures of ducks we saw in the wild to each other. It was an odd but cute way to let the other know that we were thinking them even when we couldn’t be together. It just became a thing.

Once M moved to Connecticut, the need to send pictures of ducks didn’t exist anymore, so we hadn’t sent any in months – hens why I completely forgot about it.

Apparently when he was talking about the proposal with my sister, his original plan was for him to dress up as a duck, to which she politely suggested to have the baby wear the costume instead…

And for that, Bethany, I will forever be grateful.

--

We are so overjoyed to begin this next chapter of our lives and are so grateful for all of your kind words and prayers. They mean the world <3 

Peace,
Sarah