Our Engagement Story

If you follow me on social media or have seen some of my recent blog posts, then you would have already known that I’m engaged!! December 13, 2016 was the day the love of my life got down on one knee and asked me to be his forever! Since the holidays and my birthday are over and it’s now been one month exactly, I figured it’d be a good time to post our engagement story. Not only to share our beautiful memories with you, but also to have something we can look back on in the future and remember this amazing time in our lives. I hope you enjoy!
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We started dating in June 2012, but only have 3 pictures together from that year. So starting in 2013, here are some of our most memorable moments. My fiancé, Jacob, moved from Florida to California in November 2012, only 5 months after we started dating. That’s a whole different story and experience in itself! Thankfully, he was able to make a trip back in January 2013 so we could celebrate my first birthday together. That was also the first time he met my parents!

I was still in college at the time and for Spring Break 2013, I had finally built up the courage to fly by myself to California and spend it with him. I had never been to California before and I could barely even remember what the inside of an airport looked like, so I was extremely nervous. But I did it, we had so much fun during my time there and I was super proud of myself. Jacob came to visit me in Florida for a few days in July, but we didn’t get to see each other for five more months after that.
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In 2014, he came to visit in January again for my birthday and this is when he gave me a promise ring. It has three natural emeralds with 4 diamond accents (2 on each side) and is set in 10K yellow gold. We had been together 1 ½ years at that point and more than a full year of that had been long distance. Long distance relationships are a lot of work and although we Skyped every single night, it was getting very difficult. Our relationship was never in danger, but I’m a touchy person and wanted him by my side.

When he had to go back from visiting that January, we were both exhausted from everything that a long distance relationship requires and the goodbyes were getting more difficult each time. During our 1 ½ years living across the country from each other, we only got to visit 5 times with the days not even totalling an entire month. We decided we needed to move me to California sooner than we had expected. And that’s exactly what we did. I went to visit him one last time during my Spring Break in March and by May 2014, we were on the road.

Exactly one week after I moved in is when we got our baby. She is a full bred German Shepherd and was only 9 weeks old. I used to be able to pick her up with only one hand and now she’s almost 3 years old, 90 pounds and I can’t pick her up at all! Since it was our first Christmas living together, I forced Jacob to take pictures so I could send out Christmas cards. We’ve done it every year since!
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I am not a California girl, I’m a Florida girl. Since the day I moved out there, I couldn’t wait to come back home! So in February 2014, we were looking at houses and trying to figure out where we wanted to move. In April, Jacob took a two day trip to look at houses in person and by June, we were closing on our first home! We still had a few things to tie up in California and finally moved in August.

We did a lot of exploring when we were in California. Some of my favorites were riding bikes on the beach, spending the day at Knott’s Berry Farm, and watching Jacob surf. I enjoyed what I could while we were there, but I have been so happy being back home. I love everything about where we live and don’t think we could’ve have done a better job if we tried. Of course we spent a ton of time enjoying the area after moving back, visiting pumpkin patches during Fall and soaking up the sun on our white sandy beaches.
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Although we were settled in and didn’t have as many milestones as we did in previous years, I think 2016 was our busiest year yet. Jacob started a computer business after moving back and has been pursuing his career in the IT field. I started my blog two months after moving and I’ve been extremely busy learning as much as possible to create the best content I can. Behind the scenes work is no joke! But we still found time for play and attended local festivities, went back to the pumpkin patch, spent time on the river, and celebrated our 4th anniversary.

Then he proposed!
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The day he proposed started out just like any other day. Ha! Just kidding! He had specific plans and times for events throughout the day for us that I had no idea of, but those plans got turned around when I woke up sick. Thank you, sinuses >:/

After I spent time relaxing in the morning and started to feel better, we went out to get our $5 medium smoothies at Smoothie King. Smoothies have always been a big thing throughout our entire relationship and $5 Tuesdays have become a weekly treat for us. Once we got our smoothies, he drove me to do pottery painting. I love painting pottery, but it’s something we had never done together before. By the time we finished painting, it was pretty dark outside and on the way home we could tell it was about to storm.

He pulled down a side road and had me officially confused as to what was going on until I saw Christmas lights. It was a nice neighborhood and I had been wanting to look at Christmas lights there for a while. I thought that’s what we were about to do until he pulled into a park by the water and got me out of the truck. I was super scared because there was so much lightning, but he walked me down the hill and we looked out over the water. As he was hugging me, I could feel him digging in his pocket and that’s when I knew.
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He walked in front of me and proposed right on the shoreline. I was so shocked and couldn’t believe what was happening, I didn’t even hear him ask “will you marry me?” in the middle of his speech. He’s the man of my dreams and of course I said yes!

All the while, lightning was lighting up the night sky like crazy and as I was drying my tears, he picked me up and carried me back to the truck. Because it was so dark and my eyes were so watery, I couldn’t even see my ring until we turned the lights on in the truck. Needless to say, I started crying even more at the beautiful gem he picked out for me.

Marriage was something we had always talked about, but kept waiting until we had other things in order first. I wanted to be done with college, we both wanted to have our careers started, be settled in a home, etc. so that when we did get married, planning a wedding would be our only focus. We met each other pretty young (I was 19, he was 20) and although 4 ½ years seems like a long time to be dating, it’s right where I wanted to be at this point in my life.
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We knew we were ready for this next step in our lives and had looked at rings a few times. We talked about what we liked (gemstones, yellow/rose gold, cushion), what we didn’t like (diamonds, white gold, round/emerald cut) and I just left it at that. The ring he got me is from SamNSue, who are a husband and wife team based out of California. It’s a cushion cut natural aquamarine with a diamond halo that is set in 14K yellow gold. If you have been on their website before and have seen their stone sizing, this is the 10x8 cut. For an aquamarine stone, that equals around three carats. It was a customized ring and took about two months in production. It is everything I could’ve ever dreamed of and I am beyond happy!
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Since we got engaged right before the holidays, we’ve mainly been focusing on that, celebrating with family, and enjoying this precious time. Now that things are winding down a little bit, we can start planning more wedding details. We’ll be married this year in the Fall and have already chosen a date and booked a venue. Things are getting exciting and I am so blessed that I get to marry the man of my dreams! ♥
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~Christina~

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