First things first... WE'RE ENGAGED!!!
I know that this isn’t much of a surprise to anyone by now, but we’re still extremely excited about it. I was completely shocked. Here's the grand proposal story, for those of you who haven't gotten the story.
Ryan and I decided to ring in the New Year with a trip out to Phoenix to see friends and family. Our plan for the big night was to head over to a housewarming party at our friends Megan and Jake’s, who had just scored an *amazing* apartment at the Optima Biltmore. We were going to celebrate there, and then walk over to Merc Bar to ring in 2008.
We decided to splurge on a room at the Ritz Carlton, since it was smack dab in the middle of both locations and within walking distance. Ryan surprised me with dinner reservations at Morton’s before the night’s events. We had an incredibly romantic dinner there, and then headed back to the room to freshen up before the night’s festivities. As I put the key card in the door, I heard faint music coming from our room. Not possible, I thought, since I know I turned off the lights and the TV before leaving (a gal’s got to be energy conscious these days, right??). After he convinced me that we weren’t trying to break into someone else’s room, I opened the door to find my second surprise of the night:
(apologies for the blurry photo, it was taken in my iPhone)
The staff at the Ritz snuck into our room while we were gone, and transformed the place. There were rose petals everywhere, along with a dozen roses, a bottle of champagne, chocolate-covered strawberries, and a romantic CD playing in the background. I figured Ryan just wanted to make the evening extra-special. We popped the champagne, and reveled at how awesome the room looked.
Ryan started talking about just how happy he was and how much he loved me (mind you I still didn't figure out what was going on at this point). I was sitting on the edge of the bed, and next thing I know, he’s down in front of me on one knee. Needless to say, I can’t remember much of what he said because I was in complete shock. I just remember looking at him, and cupping my hands over my mouth in complete surprise. He asked me to marry him, and I of course said yes!
Ryan started talking about just how happy he was and how much he loved me (mind you I still didn't figure out what was going on at this point). I was sitting on the edge of the bed, and next thing I know, he’s down in front of me on one knee. Needless to say, I can’t remember much of what he said because I was in complete shock. I just remember looking at him, and cupping my hands over my mouth in complete surprise. He asked me to marry him, and I of course said yes!
I looked down, and there I saw the most beautiful ring. It was an old antique diamond that had belonged to his great-great grandmother Flora. I just couldn’t take my eyes off of it, and wanted to wear it immediately! Unfortunately, the ring was so old that the band had split where it wraps underneath the finger, so he said I wouldn’t be able to wear it that night.
Bummer!
So what happens next? Well, he pulls *another* ring box out and offers that to me! It was a diamond cocktail ring, another beautiful family heirloom. He told me that I could wear that ring for the evening, and then use the stones from both rings to create the engagement ring of my dreams. I already felt like the luckiest girl in the ENTIRE world, but being proposed to with 2 rings was just beyond! I was so in love with the first ring that, in the words of Tim Gunn, I was going to "make it work". Broken or no, that thing was not coming off my finger.
Here's our first official photo as an engaged photo, in all it's teary-eyed, silly-grinned glory.
It was easily the best night of my life. I loved that we were in Phoenix (where we met), our room overlooked Camelback Mountain (where we had our first kiss), and we were going to spend the rest of the night celebrating with some of my best girlfriends at Merc Bar (where we had part of our first date). Well played, Mr. Scalise!
Here are a few photos of the rest of the night's celebration. What I don't have photos of (and desperately wish I did) would be of Ryan screaming "WE'RE GETTING MARRIED!" to anyone that walked by us outside of the bar, and of (jerky) Steve Nash, who was sitting at the table next to us all evening. Epic night, to be sure.
The First Semi-Decent Photo of The Scalise-To-Be's
(minus me squishing Ryan's face with my big cheeks)
Get Excited!
Cheers to 2008
Kim and I at Merc Bar
Only 8 more months' worth of life to catch you up on now! Big props to my boss for giving us a 4-day weekend this Labor Day, so I can get this baby up to speed.
Hope y'all are having a great holiday weekend!
~b
