Keeping up with Katy: The One Where We Got Engaged

Now who's excited for this post?!?

(stands on tippy toes and eagerly raises hand)
Me me me me me!

Y'all. 9.10.16 takes the lead for being the best day of my life.

Yes, I have a pretty (okay, flippin gorgeous) ring. Yes, we get to plan a wedding. But people - I get to wake up to THIS MAN for the rest of my life. He's seriously a better man than I could have ever picked for myself, and I'm so beyond thankful that the good Lord put us together.

Something tells me you want me to cut the sap and get to the story. :) Well fine. But y'all best grab a large cup of coffee and settle on in because it'll probably be lengthy. And while I'm writing this partially because I've been asked where this post is about 472 times, I'm mainly writing it so we can go re-read our story as many times as we want for the next umpteen jillion years. Therefore I can't leave any little detail out :)

First off - you get pictures with this post because THIS GIRL spent three hours of her Saturday becoming one with all things shrub-like and bug-like. Thanks to Jeff's planning and her picture-taking, we forever have this beautiful day captured. We love her so much.

So it all started early last week when I was still in Australia. Actually - that's a lie. It all started back in June when Jeff bought the ring and started planning (seriously - so many secrets kept from Katy!), but I'll get to those points as they come.

So early last week, I asked Jeff if he was going to pick me up when I landed on Wednesday. He said he had a meeting at work (this was actually true) but that he was planning a date night for us on Saturday. I reminded him that 1) we've just been traveling all over the world and our date night budget now consists of the dollar menu at Mickey D's, and 2) that my mom's birthday was the following Sunday and we were doing a family dinner on Saturday night.

Then I woke up the next day (we'll say it was probably Tuesday-ish) and my mom texted me saying that dad wanted to take her on a date at their favorite restaurant Saturday night, so she wanted a girls date Saturday morning with mani/pedis and brunch (not unusual for the females in my family so I didn't think anything of it). So I texted Jeff and said we could still do a (cheap) date night.

Please note: The whole time in Australia, Kristie knew everything about everything and wedding talk came up approximately every 5 hours and I legitimately thought she knew nothing. As in, was kind of sad that I had been out of the country for so long and she still knew nothing. She is sneaky.

The night I land home (so Wednesday), Jeff came over after work to help me unpack, and I asked what our plan was on Saturday. He told me he thought we could knock an item off my 30 Before Thirty list and have a picnic in the Dallas Arboretum. Pretty smart, right?

Well it was pretty smart. But you want to know the reaction in my head? "It's approximately one thousand degrees outside and you want to have a PICNIC?!" Y'all I tried so hard to get out of this picnic. I first look at the weather and told him the forecast said rain. He said it was only supposed to rain in the morning. My thought, "oh good, so extreme humidity and we'll be sitting in mud." Then I pull out the big guns and tell him I'm a-okay with just having date night watching college football (yes, like I actually suggested this), and he told me he didn't really care about the game that week.

....so I accepted that I was going on a picnic.
....and I'm so glad I did.

Cut to Saturday morning and I spend the day with mom/Amy and we get our nails did and have some lunch. Which looking back, I chipped my nails (on my left hand) at a store right around the nail salon, and while I wasn't going to get them fixed (the chips weren't that bad), mom and Amy were quite persistent and made me get them fixed since we were "right there." #thanksgirls

After lunch they drop me off around 2 o'clock because "mom had to go get ready for her date night." Jeff tells me we're going to picnic around 3p (the picnic was going to be appetizers and then we were going to get dinner at a Mexican restaurant so I could get my post-Australian fix). Well I thought he meant we were LEAVING at 3, but he meant he wanted to be ARRIVING at 3, so needless to say when he showed up at my apartment at 2:40, I was still in sweatpants. #oops

So then we finally get to the arboretum (sorry Lisa!) and Jeff pays the entrance fee while I run to the restroom. When I come out he's all like "ready to go?" and I'm all like "don't we need a map?" So he goes to get a map, opens it up for about 0.56 seconds, and then folds it up and puts it in the picnic basket. I'm like "uhh do you want me to hold it so we know where to go?," and he just responds with "nope let's wing it." Which didn't phase me because he wings everything in life. Well, except this well-thought-out proposal :)

Little did I know he already 1) explored and drew out a plan, and 2) met with Lisa on Friday to discuss and walk through said plan. Impressed yet? :)

His map - the red line was our "trail."

So we get to a pretty area with all the trees (see top picture above) and there's a photographer taking pictures of a girl in a quinceanera dress. We wait for a few minutes, and then this group of tourists just walks on down the tree line. So I'm like "why don't we just hit this spot on the way back?" -- being the Practical Polly that I am, and he just says we should wait in case we don't come back that route. #sigh

So THEN we walk down a ways and the tourist group asks me to take a photo of them. So I do, but apparently my photography skills weren't good enough because they make me take it AGAIN. Which at this point I'm just frustrated and over this "point of interest" and Jeff is just laughing. So after we take a selfie (which I learn later was a signal to Lisa that things were about to go down #likehim #ononeknee), I tell Jeff I'm ready to move on. Then he (who at this point is standing on my blind side) grabs my hand and says "hey, look at me."

And then my heart drops to my stomach.

That's false. Then my heart like drops to my big toe.

Jeff then tells me that that day made 965 days since we've been together......and then I don't remember anything else. Partially because I'm shocked, and partially because my stinking accounting brain starts recalculating the 965. He's telling me all the wonderful things he loves about me, and I'm all like "so we've been together almost three years....there are 365 days in a year....times three...carry the one....back out four months...." - I mean ridiculous.

He retold me all the things he said later though. And I reconfirmed that he did actually ask me to marry him. Apparently I said "yes, you doe-doe." Sounds like me. :)

Me taking pictures of the tourists plus the quinceanera situation in the background


The selfie "signal"

THE QUESTION. I love his smile in this picture :)

So then we (the engaged couple!) proceed to walk around the garden, take pictures, and find a picnic spot. Little to my knowledge, Lisa is hopping from rose bush to rose bush capturing it all. #ioweher

And because it makes me laugh - please note Jeff's back sweat. Poor guy. Heat and nerves just about did that little outfit of his in.

We then "find" a perfect little tree (Jeff really planned it) and have the cutest little picnic. He brought champagne flutes and a nice bottle of bubbly, cheese, crackers, fruit, chocolate - I mean he thought of everything. And a thank you to his mama who helped him :)

At this point he confiscated my phone and said that while he knows I'm dying to call my family, he just wants a couple of hours with just the two of us. Little did I know he really just didn't want to spoil what was to come later. :) SO, we do our picnic and take selfies and I make him tell me every little detail about everything!

I will always cherish this picnic. Just me and my future husband. :) :) :)

Trying to capture champagne toasts and the ring - it was quite difficult.

I love that Lisa caught us taking this picture. Jeff actually took forever to actually take our "selfie" because he wanted to make sure Lisa got one too, and I'm like "dude, what are you doing? Take the picture." Heehee - I had no idea.

The selfie itself turned out pretty cute too :)

I love this man. And I love that we matched. Not even sure how that happened.

Okay. How are you doing? You hanging in there?

So at this point sweet Jeff has completely sweat through his clothes. Like...he was drenched. But, being the smart guy that he is, he brought a change of clothes and so we both changed and freshened up a bit before dinner.

On the way home, I realized we only had staged smiley pictures of the day, and no candid ones (because I didn't know Lisa was in the shrubbery), so I start to get really sad. Jeff's all like "but you can always remember it!" ....little stinker.

We then went to Gloria's (the restaurant of our first date) and he told me we were going to Remedy afterwards to get one of my favorite desserts. I'm not gonna lie - at this point I was secretly hoping our families would be at Gloria's, so when he walked in and asked for a table for two - I was kinda bummed. ....little stinker.

Then we start talking about the pictures and he suggests that we stop by HG for a celebratory drink and to take a picture on the rooftop in front of Dallas skyline. So I say okay!

Then we get to HG, and we walk up to the rooftop, and I'm all looking at the skyline (hello, I thought we were taking a skyline picture) and then when I look the other way I see FORTY OF OUR CLOSEST FRIENDS AND FAMILY and I'm just completely overwhelmed. I couldn't believe it. Like Kelsey flew back from Charleston. Melissa drove up from Houston. Cheryl drove up from Waco. DFW people drove from all over the metroplex. I couldn't even believe it.

THEN I see my mama in the back and scream and run and we do this grand ole hug thing, and then my sister gets in on the grand ole hug thing, and then my dad, and then my big brother appears from nowhere (nowhere being Houston) and I ugly cry. I was doing pretty well - but seeing him was just the last straw. I couldn't take it!

Jeff's best friends took videos at the party (so thankful they did!), so you can see my initial reaction to everyone here, and my family/ugly cry moment here.

Jeff apparently made a facebook invite over a month ago for my "surprise coming home party." And 95% of our people called bull. :)

Then I continue to mingle and hug everyone and I start telling the engagement story to my girls, and I hear Lisa say "oh, did it look something like this?" and then shows me her camera with the top proposal picture showing. And then I ugly cried some more.

Y'all. I've never felt more loved. Like I am marrying the greatest man on the planet and we are so lucky to have THE GREATEST friends and family surrounding us. It makes me really excited for the whole wedding shindig that's to come.

And I am beaming with pride at the proposal Jeff planned. I'm just in awe. I couldn't have even imagined a more perfect day.

And just for kicks- here are some more pictures :)