Our Fairytale...Chapter 4- The Engagement

*If you'd like to catch up on Chapters 1-3, visit HERE.*

If not, let us begin ;)

          Will and I began telling people that we were "engaged" at about six months into the relationship.  Boyfriend/girlfriend titles (not too mention the mentality of those titles) just didn't cut it for us.  As a matter of fact we started wearing rings at that point too.  That saying: "When you know, you know..." is the perfect example of how we felt.  I even told one of my best friends that I felt like I should put a billboard on I-95 saying: "Love is Real!"  Not that I didn't believe in "love" and relationships, but I had only "loved" other guys in that- "we're compatible, comfortable and very happy with each other" kind of way.  My previous relationships had had their ups and downs (my friends will vouch), but I never ended up with a "crazy" person or someone that disrespected me.  I had simply begun to believe that the "fairytale" love was just that- a fairytale.  That is until I met Will.  I am so so sooooo glad that I did not settle for what I thought was "it" (no offense to my previous boyfriends), and that I was fortunate enough to find a man that surpasses my dreams.  Might I point out ladies and gents- this does not mean that either of us are "perfect".  It means that we are perfect for each other...that our imperfections don't matter because they are impertinant to our love.  I hear people say that they can't be with "so and so" because of this reason or that, and they're absolutely right.  If you can't look past those "things", then you obviously don't love that person.  It's as simple and as complex as that, my dears.

Ok, so off my soapbox, this is a long enough story as it is...

          They say that donning rings pre-engagement is bad luck, but I don't believe in luck, especially in love.  We were going to be apart and since- A) we already told people we were engaged [Will actually told people we were married] and- B) we wanted to have symbols of our dedication, we decided to wear them.  Some say that this could also put taking the step to actually wed on the back burner, but we were already planning on getting married.  In fact we would have already been married if it were up to Will.  Not that I didn't already plan and pine over marrying him, but I wanted to make sure we did things "right".  I know, I know...who's to say what is right? YOU ARE, that's who.  For me, right meant covering all the bases, so that five, ten years down the road we couldn't look back and blame problems on getting married too quick, being too young, not being financially stable or just simply not being as mentally prepared as we could be.  I told him that when he could buy me a ring (as in pay off debt, save up $$, pay for it with cash), get permission from my father, and get down on one knee, then I would say yes.  That does seem like a lot to ask, but considering everything was on the right track before we hit 2010, I think it was the right motivation for both of us.

          As of 2010, the money for the ring was beginning to add up and Will knew better than I did what kind of ring I liked.  I didn't want to pick the ring, so we just perused them, to give him an idea of what I liked.  *Guys- this is super important-  Don't just pick some ring for your bride to be...even if you don't want to ask her what she likes, pay attention to her style and her personality.*  We discussed having a ring especially made, which obviously appealed to me, but also made me realize that if that we went that route, then it would take even longer to get engaged.  I resigned myself to waiting and reminded myself that patience is a virtue.

          Soon thereafter, we both became wrapped up in our move back to Florida and a cruise that we were taking for our two-year-Will joining the Army-celebration.  It might have crossed my mind that this would be a good time for him to propose, but I KNEW that the ring was not finished by the time we left Virginia and even more importantly- I KNEW that it was NOT on that ship with us.  I had packed everything MYSELF, and then unpacked it on the ship as well.  If there had been a ring I would have found it.  I decided that there was no reason to be sad about it or let it get in the way of our vacation and that again, PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE. 

It didn't take long to soak up the atmospheric happiness and peace:

Megan's Bay, St. Thomas

Notice that I have a ring on that finger. Not "the" ring, but "a" ring.

San Juan, Puerto Rico

I always hate leaving Puerto Rico...

Dressing up for the dinners are always fun:

He calls those his "pimp" pants

On this particular night, I had prearranged to have a basket of goodies sent to our room as an early anniversary present.  It came while we were at dinner, so I told Will we had to stop into the room to get something.  Our steward almost gave the stinkin' surprise away as he giggled the whole time we walked down the hall to our room.  Fortunately, Will just thought he was crazy and was totally surprised when we entered. SCORE!

They gave us mismatched champagne glasses, one anniversary and one honeymoon, and we decided to keep them, which is even more fitting now, since we never took a real honeymoon.

My first time to the Turks and Caicos:

So FUN!

 

WIPEOUT!!!!

Hey...we all ate it. Not just me!

I made him compete in all the Lido deck activities, so he got lots of awards, along with all that fun in the sun!

We finally arrived at the last day of the cruise that coincided with our 2-year anniversary.  Very fitting, huh?  We turned on the ship "news" channel and the cruise director read a shout out that I had dedicated to Will (my fiance-I had called him).  We were very excited, not because of the shout out- but because if you got a shout out, then you got a FREE bottle of CHAMPAGNE!  Heck Yeah! It was a great way to start the day, and the rest continued just as wonderfully.
That evening, feeling relaxed, sunkissed and blissful- we headed to the Lido deck for a champagne sunset...Perfect setting for a proposal right?  One would think....but no. Didn't happen.  As lovely as this celebration was, I was dissappointed.  If it didn't happen now, I knew it wasn't happening on the cruise.  That was it, time was up.  Oh well.  C'est la vie.

After the sunset, we enjoyed the rest of our evening at dinner and then the show.  It was the big finale of the week and everyone was abuzz about it.  I was pretty excited too, because I had been selected to perform in the show.  Although, I was singing as Britney spears, so I had to dress in the notorious school girl outfit (wig, tartan skirt and all). Bleh. Nonetheless, the show went off without a hitch and we adjourned to the main lobby to have our "photo op" for the two-thousand people there to see us. There was a lot of hullabaloo, so the next thing I knew, somebody had handed Will a mic, and I was extemely confused.

This was taken by a photographer we made friends with.  It is Will awaiting his turn on the mic, unbeknownst to me...

The cruise director then announced that there was a guest with something important to say.  I wasn't even paying attention, obviously not expecting Will to be who they were speaking of, and then when I finally did realize it was him, I was baffled about what the heck was going on....

I'm pretty sure this is evident in my facial expression here:

(arms crossed and all)

What made it even worse was that he began by saying that he was there to tell them all how I had "misinformed" them that he was my fiance...Hold up-WHAT?  For all I knew, he was breaking up with me in public.  In front of all two-thousand people.  My mind was going a million miles a minute and to be honest I had NO CLUE what to think.  That is until he said, "Janna, I talked to your father..." and I saw that telltale box pulled out of his pocket....

Instant, uncontrollable waterworks, I tell ya...

And down on one knee, the man asked me to marry him! 

(excuse the picture of a picture)

You wanna know what we have, that nobody else I know has?  A VIDEO of their PROPOSAL!  Here it is folks, ENJOY!

Wanna know what I said?  You'd think it would have been yes, but instead, I said:

"I love you, but I HATE you for proposing to me while I am dressed like friggin' Britney Spears!"

(He knew that meant YES)

THAT called for a celebration!

Drinking our free champagne in our mismatched glasses.  Hey, that's just how we roll ;)

The ONLY night we went to any of the bars on the whole cruise.  We felt that this night was worthy of a true celebration ;)

What about THE RING, right?

Let's just say that he couldn't have done any better ;) 
He and VARUJAN created the most PERFECT ring. EVER.

The story behind the ring:

Varujan had FEDEX'D the ring to Ft. Lauderdale, the DAY BEFORE the cruise.  It came while Will was dropping me off at work, so they did not leave it.  That left Will driving all over Ft. Lauderdale trying to find it and then when he did find it, they wouldn't let him have it because his license didn't have the address on it that the package was mailed to.  He had to have Varujan fax and call them to give permission to have the Fedex people release the prized package.  I obviously had no idea any of this was going on, so I gave him hell for days about sitting around "playing video games" all day, like he had said he had been doing. 

How did he sneak the ring on the ship, you ask?  He had smuggled it in on his person and had switched it from bag to bag, shoe to shoe, drawer to drawer, etc. constantly moving it out of my sights and denying any possibility of me discovering it.  He even carried it with us at times and I had NO IDEA!  He's not good at hiding things from me (especially when I'm avidly looking for them), so this was truly a feat. 

After we had disembarked and were waiting for my mother to pick us up, he leaned in, sweetly kissed me on the cheek, and said:

"I hope you realize that my job is done after all this planning and stressing, and the rest is AAALLL up to you." Hehe, or so he thought ;)

Up Next:

Engagement Photos!!

They are A-MAZING!