Our Engagement Story: Christmas Eve 2019

Welcome to my lifestyle post, where I wanted this to be more intimate than just sharing my photos on the internet for all to see, like, let me give you the deets, babes!

Flashback to Christmas Eve, 2019, we had a family Christmas party....

What's funny about that pictures is....it was one of the only pictures that I got because he kept pacing around the room!! I didn't know it at the time but he had planned to propose between that party and Christmas day, so he was basically avoiding me the entire party. I even made a joke at one point to his family and I said "Is he running for office?" Queue, the second picture I got from the party, two of all two.

So after the party, we had just gotten home when he said "it looks like a nice night for a walk".

Mind you, he never wants to go for a walk and it was about 10:00pm at night, cold, snowing and dark; so I was really surprised and replied, "No it's not! It's freezing!!!". But, as I ran up the stairs to change my outfit, I realized he was probably just trying to be romantic, so I stopped half way up and said, "Okay, let me just change my shoes and I'll be right down"

I changed into my favorite Cole Haan boots, put on the biggest scarf, and off we went across the street to a gazebo that had been decorated by the city for Christmas.

The gazebo was all lit up with beautiful white christmas lights and decorations, there were a few trees that had been decorated with lights and ornaments as well, and, as we sat down in the illuminated gazebo; I remember thinking that I had never realized how beautiful it was to be standing under the lights. We actually had never gone into the gazebo at night when it was lit up, so as I took a few pictures, Ryan started to play Christmas music on his phone.

That's when the song "There's no place like home for the holidays" started playing by Perry Como and now that I think back, there couldn't have been a more perfect song to start playing. He asked if I wanted to dance, which was something we always did at home, privately, just for fun, so again, I thought, "wow he's really trying to be romantic" Aka it was working! ;)

As we danced to the Christmas music....

I could see him reach for his pocket and before I could even ask what he was looking for, he was already on one knee looking up at me.....“Chelsea, Will You Marry Me?”

As my memory took a picture of his face, I remember he just looked so determined, confident, a little scared, but brave, and trying not to cry as tears streamed down his eyes, that's when I immediately bursted into tears! I wasn't even sure if I said yes before I reached down to kiss him.

After we hugged and kissed for awhile, I said "I said yes right?" he laughed and confirmed that I had yelled yes and as we laughed about how fast everything has just happened, that's when I finally saw my goregous ring for the first time!! (Excuse the blurry pics, this was from a video I took)

There she was! A beautiful oval cut rare yellow diamond (my dream) with 13 white diamonds surrounding it on a crowned anchor setting.

As a little girl I had always been obsessed with the Princess Diana enagement ring, the shape, the color, how unique, rare, and classy it was - it was perfect.

And, as I grew up and began working in my career, I always wanted to someday have a yellow diamond ring as a symbol of all my hardwork. Two dreams, in one ring. I absolutely adore my engagement ring for all the obvious reasons, but mostly, because he took time to add his own touch. Even more special, he had a "hidden key" carved on the inside of the ring for good luck. A story for another time, but a special meaning to both of us, and it's truly my favorite part of the ring.

After that, we went inside and unwrapped our presents like we do every Christmas Eve. As we wore our antlers and put together my new Nespresso machine, I remember thinking that THIS is what life is about. Not so much the ring or even the engagement, which will forever be one of the most magical nights of my life, but reading directions together as we tried to figure out how to set up our new coffee machine, that's what real life is all about, working together, having patience, and figuring it out as we go. The next day, instead of posting pictures online, we waited to tell our family and friends in person on Christmas day.

There were no photographers, gel manicures or fireworks - but, there was plenty of love and Christmas magic; and of course, our own beautiful moment and memory frozen in time with the song, "There's no place like home for the holidays".

I hope you enjoyed our engagment story - and of course, you can find me on Patreon and my podcast for all the morning positivity!

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