Our Engagement Story

In case you couldn't tell from the title of this post, I've been keeping a little secret from you guys!  On December 21st, Dude and I got engaged!

This is a big shocker to some of you guys since I've been saying for the past 7 years or so that I didn't ever want to get married.

I guess I lied, because all of a sudden I have a Wedding Pinterest Board, have plans to go dress shopping next month, and have suddenly started thinking about guest lists, favors, wedding songs and showers, and all sorts of girlie things that I never cared to think about before...

In any case, for posterity's sake, since I know I'll forget all the sweet details, I wanted to share our engagement story.  I figure it's only fair since you'll be suffering through some a crap ton of DIY wedding projects in the next year and a half.

The full story is after the jump. 




Before I get into everything, I'll give you what you've been waiting for.  THE RING:

December 21st started out pretty normal, especially considering the world was supposed to end.  My office holiday party was that afternoon and our friends Mike and Brandi were in town from Arizona and we had plans to hang out with them after the party. 

I got a couple of texts throughout the day; and told Dude to meet me at my office party at 5:30 and we'd meet up with Mike and Brandi from there.

He was on time, came in to the party, I introduced him to everyone as my boyfriend, did a shot with one of the managers and then we left.

Dude tells me as we're leaving that Mike and Brandi wanted to check out the Incline.

I found this kind of strange because it was snowy, and Brandi is a born and raised West Coast girl.  Anything below 40 degrees and she is bundled up like an Eskimo; and if you're familiar with Pittsburgh's Incline, it's frickin' freezing in the wintertime!  It's on top of Mount Washington, the cars are not heated and the best view is outside.  But hey, it's a Pittsburgh landmark so I figured what the heck?

I should mention for those of you not familiar with the Pittsburgh incline that there are actually two, roughly two miles from each other.  We went to the Duquesne Incline.  Mike and Brandi were nowhere to be found.

Dude calls Mike; and from hearing the one side of the conversation, I can tell they're at the top of the incline, not meeting us at the bottom to ride up together.

So we get to the incline, I pay for him since for the first time in my life, I actually have cash, and we get in the car to ride up.  We share the car with one chick, who was texting.

We get to the top and there is literally NO ONE there.  Mike and Brandi are nowhere to be seen.  Dude checks around the entire building, twice, and then checks outside.  I stayed inside because it was snowing and really frickin' cold!

He kind of dilly dallies around and I say "Are you sure they're not at the other incline??"  Dude looks at me and goes "Oh yeah...yeah.... that's probably exactly where they are!!"

Dude's Note:  I was unaware there were two inclines until that exact moment.
    
So we decide to head back down and meet them at the other one and just go to dinner.  We get into the car and back down we go.  I make idle chit chat for a bit about how pretty Pittsburgh is.  And finally we reach the bottom and Dude goes.

"Do you want to get old with me?"

He asks me this all the time, and I say, of course, still looking out the window away from him.

He goes,

"No, seriously.  Will you marry me?"

I look over and he's on one knee, with the ring box on my knee.  And I say

"WHAT?!!!  WHAT!!!"

He waits patiently and finally I say yes and hug and kiss him.

Then he goes to slide the ring on my finger.  It doesn't fit.  Not even close, it won't go past my second knuckle.

I put it on my pinkie and off we go to meet Mike and Brandi.  Who were in on the whole thing and were never even remotely close to Mount Washington.

Dude tells me in the car on the way to dinner that he's been planning on asking me to marry him since May; but in typical Dude fashion, everything went wrong.

First, he was never able to get my parents alone to ask for their permission.

Then, when he finally got their permission in September, he asked my Mom to help him find out my ring size.  In October when they came to help me with the cabinets, she attempted to figure it out and she clearly failed!

He looked at hundreds of rings and eventually ended up designing his own at a jeweler a few blocks away from my office.  He drives a truck with his work plastered all over it, so every time he went there, he was terrified I'd see him.

Lastly, he wanted to propose at a time when I could see our friends, my family and his family all within a few days.  His original plan was when we went to the beach in July, then sometime in the fall, and finally his last resort was around the holidays.  

Back to the story - we drive around for a bit and then head to his cousin's restaurant in the West End to meet up with Mike and Brandi for dinner.

I walk in and ALL of our close friends are there, with three notable exceptions of Dawn, Nate, and Gine-A.  He gathered them all together for me, for sort of an impromptu engagement dinner.  We ate, we drank, and we laughed.

The next morning, we headed back to Red Lion to celebrate Christmas with my family (and see my two BFFs from high school).

Then drove back to Pittsburgh on Christmas Eve to spend the actual holidays with Dude's family.

It was perfect.