Newly engaged!
On Thursday, November 1st, 2012, we woke up in a hotel in Midtown NYC. It was one day after hurricane Sandy had finally passed through the east coast area. Luckily, our area still had electricity. I didn’t want to get out of bed due to exhaustion and loss of nearly a week’s sleep (waiting out the scary hurricane in a safe area and watching too many scary shows to celebrate Halloween week). Sid got up early and mentioned he was going to run to Uniqlo to buy some gloves. At first, I didn’t want him to leave because the city was still recuperating from the storm damages and I wanted us to stay together, safely (as advised by newstations). I was too exhausted to stop him. An hour later, he came back. I didn’t know it at the time, but this was when he called and asked my dad for permission… I didn’t expect he was going to rush me off to go ice skating at Rockefeller Ice Rink. I didn’t expect it would be such a nice day!
I got dressed and was a bit hesitant about ice-skating first thing in the morning but I also didn’t know he had been waiting days to propose. We got to the rink and skated a couple of rounds and took photos. I love ice-skating during the holiday season and try to go in every city I can. I’ve always wanted to ice skate in NYC so it was a neat opportunity. Aside from the obvious rushing, he packed his camera and GoPro so I knew something odd was going on…
The next thing I knew, he pulled me to the center of the rink and got down on one knee. A crowd of people started cheering and clapping for us! Being the private person that I am, I admit that I was super embarrassed…so much that I forgot most of what happened during the proposal (so did he!) other than someone yelling from the crowd “Show us the ring!”. We were both nervous but it was really sweet. I think I remember saying yes…right before he put the ring on my finger and we skated a couple more rounds. The we realized there were too many admirers and I felt more comfortable getting off the ice and just sitting with him haha. We’re low-key people. But couples get engaged there every day and I definitely didn’t mind joining that special club! Several congrats from very kind witnesses later, we made our way to St. Patrick’s Cathedral where we sat and talked about how everything happened before and during the proposal. It was a great place to just to take the special moment in. The ornate and gorgeous setting was where we discussed details of our future life together and how we wanted it to be. We took a million pictures there and I told my parents. I didn’t want to leave that cathedral… after a crazy, stormy week, I just felt so safe and I just wanted to soak everything in about that moment with my love. After the hurricane, we ended up having a really nice time in the city and everything worked out. Life is usually like that, don’t you agree?
We kept the engagement a secret for a short period so that we could have the chance to tell each of our closest friends and family members in person. In doing so, we received so many amazing reactions from the ones we love. We’ll never forget the ecstatic look on their faces, the screams, gasps, giant hugs, dances or the happy tears in their eyes. We even recorded some of their priceless reactions that we will save for another day.
After that, we put together a short video to announce the news to the rest of our dear friends and family on Facebook. It took over a month to finish the video because the ring had to be resized. It was definitely worth the wait. I chose the song titled “Makin Plans” by Miranda Lambert. When I first heard the song in 2009, I think I knew exactly what it was meant for. We are both midwest kids, inseparable and living in a town we couldn’t bear to part. After 5 years of dating and overcoming all sorts of obstacles together, we both felt it was right to start making those plans.The video incorporated our life in San Diego together and the NYC proposal.
Many women immediately flock to Facebook right after they get engaged to share a photo of their ring. In my heart, I knew that was something I did not want to do because it was such an important milestone. We felt it was really important to make sure it was very personal and meaningful to us. The support of our friends and family truly means the world to us. We are so thankful for this wonderful time and want to embrace every bit of engaged life up before the crazy wedding planning begins!
Stay tuned for photos of our trip!
lovenahna 