Most of the people reading this probably already know the story of our engagement. But, as I’ve said before – the motivation behind this blog is to write for myself. This is probably the thing I want to write down for posterity the most. The day we got engaged was one of the best days of my life (to sound cliché), and I want to remember that day and those feelings forever ^_^ Warning: this post is going to be very lovey and cheesy and warm fuzzy. If you do not like those feelings, exit now! I’m going to include lots of my favorite photos in this post too. Spoiler alert: I said yes!
I won’t rehash our whole relationship here…maybe another day haha. But Chris and I had been talking about getting married for most of our relationship. It was always very serious for us and we knew it was what we both wanted eventually. At the beginning of 2016, Chris promised me it was coming this year. We’d looked at rings together and talked hypotheticals, but I didn’t have any idea when/if it was actually going to happen.
In April we took a trip to Disneyland for my birthday. Lots of our friends thought it would happen there, but I knew better – Chris wouldn’t give me many hints, but he did tell me he wouldn’t do it on my birthday or do anything predictable. I wanted to get married SO bad, I didn’t care when or how it happened…I was just impatient.
In June, our best friend Brandon came to visit us in Orlando. Leading up to it we spent hours on the phone making our spreadsheet (my obsession…) and planning out our days. I had no idea at the time that he was in on a very special secret. That’s going to be a recurring theme here, btw – I had no idea this was happening and it’s actually hilarious to look back and see how clueless I was haha
Brandon’s trip started off without a hitch – we had a great time going to the parks and hanging out together, just like old times. On Thursday night we ate at Ohana and prepared for a fun day at Epcot the next day (my favorite park….hmmm…)
On Friday, June 17 (our 2 and half year anniversary…hmmm..), we spent our day at Epcot. It was actually the first day of Soarin’ Around the World too – the second coolest thing that happened on that day, I guess 😉 Epcot is Chris and my favorite park, and it’s always been a special place for us. Halfway through the day we went home to chill out and change, and our friends conveniently suggested that we all dress nice so we can take some cute photos later…again, clueless me didn’t ask any questions and was excited for an excuse to get dressed up haha
When we got to the park, another friend texted to let us know she was in the park hanging out if we wanted to meet up. Of course we said yes, and headed back to meet her in the UK Pavilion…one of the prettiest and most picturesque parts of the park…..hmmmm…
Once we got there, our friend (who also happened to be dressed nice, how convenient!) told us she had found a really cute spot to take some photos and wanted us to check us out. She led us out to this beautiful archway out in front of one of the UK shops. We took some photos, first of the whole group, being silly, etc. Then she suggested getting some of just me and Chris. She loves taking tons of photos of everything, and I love having my photo taken…so this was not out of the ordinary at all.
So we start posing and being cute, and Chris bends down to “tie his shoe” (we actually got a really funny photo of me looking annoyed at him doing this, at the top of the post haha)….only he wasn’t tying his shoe 🙂 He was doing this:
And just like that, Chris asked me to marry him….!!! I think my first words were “this is not real…” and Chris responded, “I hope it’s real, I spent a lot of money on it!” I should have known what was happening once everyone started taking out their phones to record us! Of COURSE I said yes, and before I even knew what was happening I was crying and Chris was putting the ring on my finger. People walking by saw us and started clapping and I just hugged Chris and cried a lot. It was just….so perfect. I’ve never been one of those people who has every aspect of her wedding and proposal planned out from birth, but if you know me you know I’m pretty…particular, to say the least. But this proposal literally could not have gone any better if I planned it myself.
Afterwards, time flew by so quickly I barely even knew what was going on. Everyone was hugging me and taking tons of photos and posing with me and Chris. I kept crying. I have a hilarious memory in my head of Brandon and Alec hugging each other and crying too. Right across the spot from where it happened was a special fireworks viewing area. One of the cast members over there had seen it all and came over to ask if we wanted to come and watch the fireworks there to celebrate! I was so excited and emotional, of course we said yes.
We walked to a bench where we could sit and call our families. Of course everyone knew about it and was so excited for us. I actually couldn’t believe how many people knew about it and managed to keep the secret. The best part for me was that Chris had planned every aspect of the whole thing – from telling everyone to suggest that we dress nice so I looked good in the photos to telling our friend what to say to make us come back to the UK. He had even told Brandon when we were planning months ago to sub
tly convince me to make that our Epcot day because that’s when he wanted to propose. That’s right, I literally planned the itinerary for my own proposal and I didn’t even know it haha! I was so overwhelmed and happy, I couldn’t stop shaking and crying on and off. I also kept saying “Chris is my ex-boyfriend now” hahaha
Afterwards we walked over to one of Chris’s shops in France, where they were all so excited for us and gave us champagne! By this point it was time for fireworks, so we headed back to the viewing area and all watched together. At the risk of sounding stupid and cliche again, it was seriously such a magical time. That’s really the only word for it – we were all just so happy and excited and it was all so perfect.
So that’s the story of how it went down. At the end of it all, it was seriously one of the best days of my life. I was so happy and excited that I get to marry my best friend in the whole world. From there, the Chraela wedding planning began. I’m still so excited and I sometimes can’t believe it actually happened and I have a fiancé instead of a boyfriend. I’m sure I’ll have many more posts about all our wedding plans, but this seemed like the most important place to start 🙂
<3, Kaela
