Our Engagement - November 8, 2007

The night of our engagement was perfect, and I wouldn't change anything <3. We have a unique story that I feel is very much 'Alan' and everything I love about him.

Alan and I had been talking about getting married since June, 2007 where we only half-jokingly were taking about eloping while on our trip to Galveston. (Galveston was still intact then). We pretty much knew we would end up married, we just clicked.

Later that year I sent Alan the design of the engagement ring I wanted from bluenile.com (I was pretty specific) ;). The weekend before he proposed, he asked both of my parents permission to marry me. My parents both appreciated that.. and I thought it was so sweet for Alan to do that; I know how hard that must have been.

Alan bought the engagement ring in secret, but didn't keep it secret for long. I got it out of him that the ring was arriving on November 8, and that that was the date he planned on proposing.

I (very) impatiently waited for November 8th to arrive. Since I already knew he would be proposing that night, Alan made the engagement night special in a different way:

Alan picked me up and gave me flowers & a list of possible locations the engagement could take place. Alan instructed that I had to pick a locations, which we would go to. And I would continue picking locations until I picked the one where he planned on proposing. The locations were: Cliff Nelson, Lake Arlington, Target, UTA & Martin - all places that we went on our first few dates/had significance)

Cliff Nelson was closest, so we went there first. We had often gone to Cliff Nelson just to walk or jog. The first time we jogged together was at Cliff Nelson (where it also started raining on us :p). We were walking around the pathway, and Alan suddenly got on one knee. I thought, "he's already proposing? What about the other locations??" He pulled out a box from his pocket, opened it, and inside was a Ring Pop. He thought he was pretty clever :)

The next location I picked was Target:

We went to Target on our second date. He said he was going shopping for shirts and I really wanted to see him, so I invited myself along.

On our second date after we shopped, we went to UTA to study (we were both still in school). I had left my car in the Target parking lot, so he dropped me back off at Target. He kissed me on the forehead (our first kiss). So we reinacted that kiss on our engagement night before going inside.

Alan told me to look at some shirts inside. He had hidden a note. It said "Krystal, are you having fun?" This was also the wrong location though.

Next we went to Chili's. It wasn't on the list, but we were both hungry, and Chili's was where Alan took me on our first date.

At Chili's Alan gave me a bracelet. I wore this on my wedding day :)

We ordered the same food we had both gotten on our first date. No engagement ring at this location either. At this point, I suspected Lake Arlington was the location Alan had in mind, but I didn't want the evening to end too quickly. So I chose to go to UTA next.

At UTA we went bowling, which is where we bowled on our first date after we went to Chili's.

This was also the wrong location, and I got another Ring Pop.

But I got to see my sexy (then) boyfriend bowl <3.

This is where we "studied" on our second date.

Now I was ready for the ring, so I decided to skip going to Martin, and go straight to Lake Arlington. I couldn't imagine how he would have proposed at Martin.

Us at Lake Arlington. When we got out of the car, he asked me to wait, and I could hear him putting a ring pop in his pocket. I thought, "I guess he won't propose here; how could I have been wrong about the location?"

I could hear the Ring Pop in his pocket as we walked around Lake Arlington.

It turned out that he was just tricking me with the Ring Pop, which is completely Alan's personality. He got to one knee, took out the Ring Pop, threw it away, and then got out the real ring and proposed :) It was so sweet. Here is me with the ring.

The Lake is behind us.

It was a great night :) More to come on the wedding later.