Following a fun-filled day of hardcore registering on Saturday . . .
We came home to celebrate our engagement with plenty of our family and closest friends.
The party took place at the home of two of my favorite people in the world, Mrs. Laura and Mr. Gary.
. . . and we had my favorite thing of all time: jambalaya and bread pudding!
The guest book turned out wonderfully, thank goodness.
So glad that so many of our friends were able to come!
The best little maid of honor in all the land
Two of my gorgeous bridesmaids and former roommates
. . . and more bridesmaids!
My family
Josh's dad and step-mom
Some of the wonderful hostesses!
Josh and mamaw, the celebrity of the party!
Josh's high school best friends
Josh's mom and dad
We absolutely loved our gift from the hostesses!
We were spoiled all night with sweet words and love from all of our family and friends.
It's so comforting knowing we have so much support from everyone close to us!
Let's hope this is our one and only marriage (which I am praying for daily), because my cousin Allison was right, my cheeks were very sore following the party from all the smiling, laughing, and chatting.
It was just good practice for the wedding, I suppose!
Last week our photographer texted me a sneak pic of the first edited picture from our save the date shoot.
. . . and I'm in love!
It's nothing official, but I had to share!
Following our pictures, we spent a celebratory night out on the town with our Dallas friends.
One of my favorite parts about getting ready for our photo session was making a hair appointment at dry bar.
Once you arrive you get a menu of hairstyle choices (as well as a nice little wash and an adult beverage!)
. . . anddddd right now you can get a wash blow out and conditioning treatment on living social for $25!
(Full price was like $40 I believe)
Go here to check it out!
I hiiiiiighly recommend it!
(Get the full story of our tweenager beach love story here)
Since then neither of us have never necessarily felt rushed to get married.
Now, we have always been super in love and blah blah blah, we just aren't the passionate, lovey, mushy over the top PDA type of people.
I had two years of stressful grad school after college, so we had always just discussed putting marriage off until a time period when we had real jobs making real money.
We always made jokes about living together one day, but we had never really seriously discussed marriage, rings, or an engagement until last summer.
I wasn't planning on bringing it up because I didn't want him to feel pressured, and I wanted it to be his decision to approach the topic.
Driving home from New Orleans one weekend after Josh's cousins wedding, he randomly got a burst of excitement and asked what I wanted our future to be like and if I wanted to start looking at rings and who I wanted my bridesmaids to be and who I thought his groomsmen should be.
Seriously, all of the above.
He even went as far as pulling out paper and actually writing a potential groomsmen list.
I was stunned.
Happy stunned.
I felt like it was the twilight zone.
Happy twilight zone.
Well anyways, three engagement ring appointments later, fast forward to May 2012.
At this point I was losing my marbles.
Now don't get me wrong, I would have died had we not ever had the ring convo and if he tried to pick out a ring on his own and do a 100% shock factor proposal, but that just wasn't in the cards for us.
Not that Josh has bad taste, but I am suuuuuuper picky, and I guess he realized that.
So in a way, him bringing up wanting to look at rings was somewhat of a proposal in itself because I had been waiting for that day for a while.
Anyways, months and months and months went by and I'm steadily growing more concerned, but I made a point not to whine or nag (to him at least) and I only had one break down over the course of those 9 long months of waiting.
He wanted to wait to ask my dad's permission until he had a steady job, which took a little bit longer than we envisioned.
Nevertheless, he finally got the job he wanted in March.
April rolled around and I began stressing a teeny bit more.
All my classmates were applying and interviewing for jobs, and I didn't even know if I should be applying for a Louisiana or Texas Physician Assistant license, much less searching for jobs.
Now I can understand Josh not feeling pressured to rush into marriage or anything, because of his 14 college roommates (he moved in a different house every year, a roommate slut if you will) only one of the 14 was engaged.
Zero married.
We are 24 and have no close friends who are engaged or married, so he didn't necessarily have anyone to discuss the matters with.
On one particular week in April I had decided it was time to finally discuss the lack of ring on my fing with Josh.
I wasn't just wanting the glamour of the ring, I wanted security.
Security knowing I would 100% be marrying my favorite person in the world.
Security knowing what we would be doing with our future, so I could go ahead and start planning my life after graduation.
So as I was on the phone with Josh literally seconds away from beginning a very awkward uncomfortable conversation his grandmother beeped in on my line.
I got off the phone with Josh and his grandmother and I made small talk.
She eventually got around the bringing up the purpose of her call and said that she just wanted to tell me that I have been extremely patient with Josh through all of this and that I deserved to know that he was making arrangements to get the ring.
I immediately lost it.
Tears galore.
It was the weirdest feeling I have ever had in my life.
God's timing is insane.
That was truly such a blessing that she would call at the exact moment necessary to tell me something regarding the exact thing I was about to discuss with Josh.
My mind is still blown.
Anyways, there's the backstory.
Here'e how it went down:
I came into Dallas for the weekend to hang with the dudes.
(Pre proposal family photo)
Josh wanted to go out to eat.
I asked where.
He said he didn't care.
I got smad (sad/mad) because he didn't care and he didn't have plans.
Bummer.
I picked Fireside Pies because we are addicted.
We went to eat and then came home.
Completely uneventful.
Thank the Lord.
I couldn't have handled a public proposal, much less one at a restaurant where everyone would look at you and clap.
Freaky.
Anyways, we came home and took Charlie outside to go to the bathroom.
Josh let him off his leash, which is weird because Charlie is bad.
Next thing I know the guy is reaching in his pocket and down on one knee.
Immediately I tell him to stand up because that's weird and he laughed and said no I want to be traditional and then we don't really know what words came next but there was a gorgeous ring involved and lots of laughing and a kiss or two here and there.
Magical.
. . . and yet so weird.
He also gave me an incredible letter that I get to keep forever (since I truly can't remember what words were said in the moment)
After the fact we were reliving the moment and trying to remember what words were said and what actually went down (still all a blur) and he told me that he didn't have anyone to talk to for advice (remember 1/14 roomies?)
I was completely expecting something off the wall and weird, after all, Josh is the one who showed me this video:
. . . but Josh, the king of pranksters, pulled the biggest prank of all by not pulling a prank.
His only proposal idea inspiration was Jim Halpert's proposal to Pam on The Office.
He said he randomly did it in a gas station parking lot, the absolute last place she ever could have imagined it happening.
I couldn't have been more caught off guard, which is exactly what Josh wanted.
We met up with the guys afterwards to celebrate.
. . . and Bart provided champagne.
Best man chats.
. . . .have I mentioned that it feels SO WEIRD?
More pics from the engagement weekend:
Celebratory strawberry shortcake!
Whiskey Cake Sunday brunch, of course.
Charlie didn't want me to leave!
Side note:
Today is the day I finally get to see Newsies on Broadway!
Dreams will be coming true y'all!
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