The Proposal

My 2020 is off to a pretty fantastic start; I turned 30, am about to start a super exciting new job, and I got ENGAGED to the man of my dreams!!! The last one, you probably already know by now, but here’s the story and how he did it:

A few months back, we started talking about our plans for Christmas. My family is in New Hampshire and we’re pretty big on being together for Christmas. So in making our plans, we decided to go to Europe for a few days since we’d already be on the east coast (flying to Europe from California is no joke). We decided on Paris and London, two places we’d both already been, but not together. Then on our way back to the west coast, we’d stop in New Hampshire for Christmas.

Three days into our first stop, Paris, Dan suggested we go to the Eiffel Tower during the day. Weird, since we already went at night, but ok, Dan, we’ll go during the day “I want to see the Eiffel Tower with the sky in the background” he said, lol. So we got up at about 6am (jet lag is also no joke), and made our way to the tower, to see it during the day. We stopped to grab coffee and croissants on our walk there, and by that time I’m pretty sure Dan was about to have a nervous breakdown judging by the very fake smile.

So we got our breakfast, took a few pictures eating it, etc. Dan said, “ok lets go down there and set up the tripod so we can get a good picture of us in front of the tower.” He had me stand facing the camera while he set up, “take a half step to the right, now a step back, actually half step forward.” He even took a few and had me check the pictures to make sure I liked the placement. I figured he’d just grown such an appreciation for being an Instagram boyfriend that he wanted me to have the perfect Paris pictures.

Wrong. He was making sure I liked where we were standing for when he PROPOSED! What. A. Guy.

Side note, Dan also thinks it’s hilarious to fake propose to me. What I mean is, we’d be in the kitchen any given night and he’d grab me and say, “babe, there’s something I want to ask you” then bend down on one knee and say something like “will you help me tie my shoe?” This happened at least three times a week for the last six months, and four times the day before it actually happened in Paris. Such a troll!

So when it actually came time for him to do it for real, so many people ask if I thought he was joking. Somehow I knew this was it. It must have been how nervous he got or how he suddenly became speechless and just kept saying I love you over and over.

He had the tripod clicker in his hand and continuously snapped live pictures (thankfully because now we have a video!). He finally looked at me and said “babe.” and kissed me. Holy shit. This was it. He did that again another seven times because he drew a blank haha. He took a step back and got down on his knee, pulled out the ring from his pocket and said the words I’d been dreaming of since the day I fell in love with him.

Did I cry? Yes, I sobbed like a baby for about 45 minutes. Before I could even answer him, he said “well are you going to say yes or what?” I was trying to hold him in suspense the way he had me for the last six months. Just kidding, I couldn’t even get words out. Finally I got it together, he put the ring on my finger and I cried some more.

We sat for a bit to take it all in, then headed back to start making the calls. First on my list was my mom. Of course she already knew, and was waiting for the call. Since it was only 10am in Paris, it was 4am in New Hampshire. So we waited. And waited. And waited. Finally at 6:30 est, I said ok it’s time. I started calling, nothing. Apparently it was a snow day and everyone had the day off. But my news was more important than sleep, and luckily she agreed.

The calls continued for the next few hours, I washed the mascara that had dripped down my face and onto my neck, reapplied then we went out for a celebratory glass of champagne and a crepe.

The rest of the trip was amazing, and more on that in another post. I haven’t stopped looking at my left hand and am waiting for wake up from this dream. And to answer your next questions, we don’t have a date, venue or colors picked. Working on it though, and will keep you all updated. If anyone has suggestions or tips for planning a wedding, please let me know! It’s stressful already (but so so exciting)!

Hope you enjoyed reading our story as much as I loved writing it, and will catch back up soon! Ps. here’s the video too, there was a baby in the background that was also crying tears of joy for us 🙂

xx -Steph