Every girl dreams about the night her “prince charming” will sweep her off her feet and ask for her hand in marriage. Before the days of “Say Yes to the Dress,” I would watch “A Wedding Story” on TLC. Naturally, I always wondered how my future husband would propose. While these types of shows always have a happy story from beginning to end, they don’t always tell the whole story.
Well, here’s my whole story: I almost ruined my own engagement. Twice.
My fiancé, Jordan, picked out and ordered my ring at Cecil’s in February 2012. He planned on proposing that October when we went to one of our favorite spots. My parents have a place in Missouri and we go with friends and family as often as we can. While we are there, one of our favorite things to do is hike the trails. There’s one trail in particular that Jordan and I love and he was planning on taking me to a certain spot that overlooks the mountains and asking me to be his wife.
Sweet, right? There’s just one problem. I had surgery on my hip three weeks before we went on our trip and I was on crutches for nearly two months. By having surgery I messed up his entire plan and he didn’t end up proposing in October.
Two months later, when I was planning a small graduation gathering with some of my family for Jordan, I got a text from his mom asking me to take pictures of their family on the same date as the party. I agreed, thinking I would be able to take the pictures before it was time to set up.
When the day of the pictures/party arrived, an unfortunate chain of events led Jordan to run late. Realizing we were running out of time, I decided to reschedule the gathering I had planned for him. And honestly, I was really irritated. Let’s just say, the whole way to the Capitol (where we were taking pictures) I may have mentioned how “not happy” I was with him. And I may have mentioned it more than once.
Little did I know, once I got there he would propose at one of my favorite places to look at Christmas lights. He put so much thought into the proposal; he picked a place that was meaningful to us, during one of my favorite holiday seasons, he planned out everything on a timed schedule, and invited my family, as well as our friends.
Of course, I said “yes!” which was probably a relief for him after the way I had been acting (even though not even the worst of moods would have stopped me from saying yes). Needless to say, I wasn’t mad anymore and the family I invited to celebrate his graduation party had already made plans to attend our engagement. I still feel a little guilty for being mad at him that night, but I had no way of knowing he was going to propose — and it makes a great and unexpected engagement story! ๐
What makes your engagement story unique? Please tell me I’m not the only one to mess up their groom’s plans!
See you next week!
– Jordan
Bride-to-be and Benton native Jordan Westbrook graduated from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2011 with a liberal arts degree with an emphasis in mass media. The former Arkansas Bride intern will be blogging about her adventures in wedding planning right here each week.
