The Engagement

The one thing I haven't been able to tell everyone is how it all went down.

Short Story:
It was sunset. He asked. I cried. I said yes.

Long Story:
We were enjoying day one of our cruise. Our first full day of the cruise was a Sea Day (no stops). The sun was out and our sun-deprived selves spend the entire early afternoon out on the pool deck (along with every other occupant of the ship). We drank fruity drinks. Made new friends. Got a little tan. By the time the sun started going down, we were both ready for a nap.

Within minutes of putting my head on the pillow, I was out. But my sneaky boyfriend avoided falling asleep somehow and crept out of our stateroom. When I woke up, there was a beautiful bouquet of daisies (my favorite), yellow and white roses on the bedside table. (Clue #1) While this would have been a clue to most women, my lovely boyfriend has spoiled me with flowers for no occasion before, so I didn't have a reason to suspect anything.

Dinner that evening required formal attire, so we dressed to the nines. As we finished dressing, Z mentioned that he wanted to see the sun set while we were at sea. (Clue #2) But of course, the spoiled New Englander in me thought "Of course my wonderful midwesterner boyfriend would want to see the sunset over the sea... It doesn't look that pretty setting on Lake Michigan".

When we got to the elevator bank to get to the sundeck, Z rushed back to the stateroom saying that he forgot something. For the first time, my heart skipped a beat. When he returned with a single red rose (which he NEVER does, clue #3), my heart skipped another few. For the first time, I had a feeling that something might be up. But how could I assume that an engagement was what he had up his sleeve!

When we got up the deck it was a bit windy, so not very many people were around. We went up to the top deck and headed towards the setting sun. It was so beautiful. We watched the sun set slowly standing by the railing, and as it approached the horizon, Z turned me towards him, and dropped to one knee.

From that point on is a bit of a haze. I know there was a diamond ring. And I know he said something about making me happy for the rest of my life. But I was too emotional (of course) to remember all of the details.

After he proposed, we made our way down to the dining room. I couldn't help but blurt out to everyone we saw "We just got engaged!" I didn't want people to think my tearstained cheeks were about anything but the happiest of news.

So that's that... That's the story.

We didn't know it yet, but the cruise was all about photo opps (which they would later try to sell you for a small fortune), so we were able to get a few great shots from moments after the engagement.