This is going to be kind of a different blog post. I originally was going to write about all the things we ate and did (while still observing social distancing guidelines) in Daytona and Cocoa Beach but instead…well…something a little more big happened.

James and I have discussed marriage before. I mean…we did just move almost 1200 miles together, clearly our future had been discussed. I just didn’t know when or where this would ever happen, and then last Friday it did! My instagram fam (follow me @thegirlwiththevadertattoo ) have been requesting that I tell the story of the proposal, so I thought this would be the best way to just tell it once.

Some parts of the story I am going to keep private. I feel like I share most of my life on social media and just wanted a couple of moments to be just between us, so I guess this technically is the edited version of the proposal.

Like I said, I did know that marriage was in our future. We had looked at rings before, we had talked about it before, so technically I guess you could say that I knew it was going to happen eventually. Honestly though I didn’t think it was going to be any time soon. We just moved from Missouri to Florida. We are still staying in an air b&b. Knowing that he is a perfectionist, I honestly believed he was waiting until everything was “perfect” so I wasn’t thinking much about it.

Before I tell you how it happened, the small backstory is that the moment we pulled into the community where we are staying at I noticed this gorgeous and giant old oak tree covered in Spanish moss and even though this isn’t an unusual site in Florida, I just thought it was the most beautiful tree and has a small shallow pond also going around part of it.

July 24 2020, I was wearing this shirt that always makes me laugh. It’s purple and says “I Love My Boyfriend” and I think it’s cute even though I’ve been called a teenager for wearing it. James had just got back from the gym and asked me if I wanted to take Leia, our poodle, for a walk to the dog park here in our community. I had a little bit of a headache which happens like twice a year, but thought a walk outside might help.

So we are walking to the dog park, and we have to pass my favorite tree to get there, and James asks me if I want to walk over there in the shade for a minute and see if they had cleaned up the chairs that were there the last time we went. So we walk over to the tree and I am looking at the water and the ducks and the herons in it and I remember taking a big breath and just thinking how lucky I was to be alive in that moment and then I turned around to see the love of my life on one knee with an open box in his hand.

It’s a surreal moment ladies and gentlemen. It really is.

He told me he loved me and wanted to spend the rest of his life and beyond with me and then asked me if I would marry him. It was so emotional and beautiful and perfect all at once. Even though I was wearing my Star Wars “Sith Head” baseball cap with my “I love my boyfriend” tee on instead of a dress or otherwise on point outfit that I would have worn if I had known about it. It was perfect. I was glad he did it this way, in a way that I wasn’t anticipating.

Did I mention I said yes? Of course I said yes. How could I not? I’ve wanted to marry him for years. We don’t have a love at first site story, but it is a love story none the less.

I love that he wanted Leia to be there too. We have really turned into that annoying couple that brings their dog everywhere and thinks she is the most special thing ever. But if you ever meet her, we are sure you will agree. It just wouldn’t have been a family moment without Leia there.

I’ve made the joke several times that he chose that day and that moment because he couldn’t stand to see me wear that tee shirt anymore. I don’t know if it is true but either way I’m happpy! I just feel so lucky and so incredibly blessed. I made my lifelong dream of moving to Florida come true, I am going to marry the love of my life, my business is picking up ( I sell stuff on ebay) , I am healthy, I am happy, I am loved.

Now just to decide what we want to do for a wedding. We don’t really have anyone other than our mothers to invite and mine would have to travel from Missouri and we originally thought about having it in the local courthouse but a dear friend of mine told me yesterday that our story deserved more than that and she would be willing to officiate it for us somewhere so that has really given me something to think about.

Have a place you think would be perfect? Let me know in the comments!

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