Engagement

Josh and I knew that we were “the one” for each other fairly soon into our relationship. This was new to me because I had gotten to the point in my life where I truly did not think I would ever get married. It was one failed relationship to another and me constantly attempting to sift through the vapid and vain men of Los Angeles. Then came Josh…kind-hearted, considerate, faithful, dapper, the list goes on and on. Fast forward about a year and a half of dating and I had a feeling he was planning something I just didn’t know when it was going to happen.

August 19, 2017

I will never forget that day which started out pretty similar to most days. It was a Saturday and I had to work but the night before Josh had suggested that we go to Fishbar in Manhattan Beach after I got off since we had not been there in a while. This is a restaurant that we frequently visited when we first started dating and we absolutely love everything there, especially the crab cakes. This was not a strange suggestion for him so I thought nothing of it. Looking back I wish I would have done a little something to my hair that morning but that’s neither here nor there.

As I went through the day he kept texting me about how excited he was for the crab cakes. I was like yeah the crab cakes are great but not worthy of mentioning about 10 times…now I know he was really excited, and very nervous, for something else. Little did I know he and my parents were back at my house planning and setting up a surprise engagement party in our backyard all day long.

He picked me up at 5pm and looked so handsome, I even remember commenting about how dressed up he was and I felt underdressed with my undone hair, jeans and booties. We parked and got out of the car and he immediately grabbed my hand. Mind you, we rarely hold hands in public because he is not one for public displays of affection, so I was thinking to myself “well this is a nice surprise.” It was not done out of love it was simply a strategy to make sure that my hand would not accidentally brush across his pocket and feel the ring box.

We walked inside the restaurant and Josh told the hostess that we had arrived to which she replied “oh, I’ve heard about you.” I thought that’s kind of a strange response to someone coming in with a dinner reservation but oh well and I didn’t think about it again. I guess they all thought he was going to propose to me at the restaurant because they don’t normally take reservations. We ordered dinner and I guess looking back on it he seemed a little quiet but I didn’t really notice, I thought maybe he was just tired.

After dinner he suggested that we go walk down on the pier and I’m all for walking around and site seeing or window shopping after dinner so I didn’t think that was strange either. The AVP Volleyball tournament  just wrapping up for the day so there was a ton set up down there and still quite a few people around. Halfway down the pier I asked him to stop so we could look at all the surfers out in the water to which Josh replied “no, let’s keep walking to the end of the pier.” That’s when I had my first suspicious thought that something might be up. There is nothing down at the end of the pier except a closed down building and fishermen so you can understand why I was a little suspicious at this point.

We get to the end and look out at the ocean, Josh puts his arm around my and I notice that he is breathing very fast and heavy. I thought to myself, “oh wow, either he is in very bad shape or he is nervous about something.” About 10 seconds later he turns to me, says my name and gets down on one knee. I was shocked! So shocked that I honestly blacked out and don’t remember anything he said to me. The poor guy probably rehearsed what he was going to say a million times and I was too shocked to even remember. Of course I said yes and put on the absolutely GORGEOUS ring he designed for me. A beautiful pear shape diamond in a halo setting with a pave band.

It was such a magical night and I was thoroughly surprised. I always thought I would cry when I got proposed to but I was in so much shock that it was actually happened that my emotions didn’t get to me…that is until that night when I laid down to go to sleep and realized that I had found my soulmate, my soon to be husband and the man that loves me so much he wants to spend the rest of his life with me. That’s when it all hit me and all the emotions came flooding in and the tears came flooding out.