Our Love Story: Perfect Proposal & Dream Wedding

You can read Part 1 of our love story here ~ Our Love Story: How We Met
You can read Part 2 of our love story here ~ Our Love Story: Falling in Love

Happy Valentines Day!!! How perfectly appropriate that I am sharing the climax of my love story on a day dedicated to love... LOVE IT! Get ready for a loooooonnnnnnngggggggggg post. Here we go...

My Perfect Proposal
After 6+ years together, Andy finally popped the question on March 3, 2007. I remember the day clearly. He was spending the weekend with me (we lived almost 2 hours away from each other at the time). On Saturday night we got dressed up and he took me out to a fancy smancy restaurant for dinner. I didn't think anything of it because we always tried to make the most of our weekends together and that usually involved going out at night. We had the BEST meal ever, complete with a couple glasses of wine. By the time we got back to my apartment (around 9:30 at night) I was totally ready to enter a food/wine coma and not wake up for days.  I got in my jammies and went to bed, much to Andy's dismay (little did I know he had bigger plans for the evening).

So I jump in bed and practically start falling asleep right when my head hits the pillow. But, Andy jumps in bed beside me and reaches over and turns on my bedside lamp. I'm whining to him that I just want to sleep and he's whining to me that I need to stay up and spend time with him... that he found something he wants to show me. I reluctantly sit up in bed and he pulls out a box that I made him for Valentine's Day years ago. He opens it up and it's full of all of the letters I had written him from high school on. You see, letter writing was always a HUGE part of our relationship... at first when Andy would write me love letters in high school (before I ever had feelings for him in "that way") and then when we were living 7 hours away from each other when I started college.

"I found all of your old letters and thought it would be fun for us to look through them and reminisce," Andy said.

I thought this was great! And no, this wasn't weird of Andy. He is a very sentimental person, so I didn't think anything of it. So we each started pulling out old letters and reading bits and pieces to each other, laughing over silly arguments we had in high school, and reminiscing about how much we had been through to get to where we are.

"Hey, check this one out. It looks like there's a letter in here that I wrote and must have forgotten to give to you." Andy handed me a letter.

I started to read it and my heart started to pound.



The first page consisted of sweet sentiments (see above) and mushy gushy lines of perfection. And then he started writing about how important letter writing has always been in our relationship and how he wanted to write me one last letter, and make it the most important one of all. Dot. Dot. Dot.

I turned the page and see, in BIG bold letters...

"ARIEL, WILL YOU MARRY ME??? (and now I will ask you in person)"

In that instant Andy was up and kneeling down on the floor by my side of the bed with the most beautiful ring EVER in his hand. And he asked me in person. And I swear I couldn't breathe for 5 minutes. All I could do was say, "No way. No way. No way." Which of course, meant YES. :-)



I went from being sickeningly tired from our amazing dinner to completely amped up and not able to sleep all night in the blink of an eye. I was completely blindsided by the proposal and it was AMAZING. I would not change anything about it. My hubby is good. I will cherish my proposal letter for ever and ever.

My Dream Wedding

Waimanalo Beach, Oahu, Hawaii... 06/07/08. The best day of my life (next to the births of my children). I would not change a detail about it. And I HIGHLY recommend a destination wedding to anyone considering that route. I experienced absolutely NO stress in the planning of my big day. In fact, it was all done in a matter of hours. Booked our flights and accommodations. Called up a wedding planner on Oahu and exchanged a few phone calls/emails. Got a dress. Piece of cake. :-)

Instead of dragging my wedding day description out, I'll just give ya the general gist. Our families rented HUGE million dollar beach houses right on the beach we got married on (this actually ended up being a TON cheaper than everyone renting hotel rooms or condos... check out VRBO.com). I stayed with my family and Andy stayed with his leading up to the Big Day. It turned out that the houses happened to be right next door to each other - how convenient! Andy's family hosted a big, yummy dinner the night before our wedding and my family hosted dinner the night after our wedding. Some of the best food EVER because it was all made by the people we love (who happen to be AMAZING cooks). Days leading up to the wedding were spent lounging on the beach and swimming in the ocean.

We got married at noon on the most beautiful white sandy beach surrounded by our family and closest friends. Plumeria petals were scattered around us and we had a beautiful bamboo & chiffon archway. I swear if I close my eyes I can still hear the ocean, smell my plumeria bouquet, and feel the warmth of the sun on my shoulders. It was magic.





Following our ceremony, Andy & I got a TON of photos taken and then we spent the evening eating and drinking with our fams. That night we stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village (where we also took Leila on her first trip to Hawaii last year) and flew off to Kauai for our week long honeymoon a couple days later. Perfection.

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There you have it. Our love story. Since our wedding we've just been living back in reality - working and popping out kids. :-) And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Hope your Valentine's Day is special and full of LOVE!