On my mark . . . ENGAGE!
Sorry. We just had to do that. Since we don't plan to reference Star Trek during the actual wedding or in the invitations, we thought we'd do it now. (;
So yeah, Brian proposed on Sunday May 31st! We were in Glen Ellen (near Sonoma) visiting our friends Chris and Jenny who had just moved to a lovely piece of property there (from another lovely property in Petaluma). When we got to Chris and Jenny's, we took a walk in the fields with Jenny and met their neighbor Bob and his dog Sam (?). We ate wild strawberries, smelled wild figs, saw the mysterious tunnels, the solar panel, the wind generator, and (of course!) the marvelous views of the fields and mountains. We came back and toured their ridiculously cute/cool one-bedroom cottage. Chris came home briefly (on a "stolen" bike) before going to a wedding in Sacramento (sorry you had to miss most of our visit, Chris!).
We then decided to drive down and get lunch at the Jack London Lodge/Wolf House. Delicious food and good beer! When I was in the restroom, Brian told Jenny that he was going to propose to me. He didn't want to freak her out too much when she found out, and he also needed her help to get me on another walk with him on the property. Jenny was so cool when I came back to the table. We even went over to the little market in town and drove back to the cottage. I would have been so awkward if I had a secret like that to keep!
Luckily (for us and for Chris and Jenny), right when we got back from lunch, Jenny and Chris's boss came over with a car for them to borrow. They were tinkering with the car, and Jenny had to ask her boss a question, so Brian asked where we should go on another walk. I had already said I was interested in seeing more of the property. We walked the way we did before, past the eucalyptuses, the wild strawberries, but this time we walked passed the solar panel and wind generator (which we just viewed from afar before) up through the manzanita trees and into a field with a view of the mountains. We were standing there, enjoying the view, and Brian said, "well, I guess this is as good a place as any." I turned around to see a little blue box with an INCREDIBLE ring in it. Wow! I guess he then asked me to marry him and I said "yes!" I don't really remember much. We hugged and kissed. He didn't get down on one knee, which was totally fine by me.
We found a place to sit in the field, looked at the view, and just held each other. It was a beautiful, sunny day for the ring to sparkle, and Brian kept looking at it on my finger. I told him I loved him, not because of the ring, but it sure was a nice touch.
After sitting in the field for who knows how long, we started to worry about ticks, so we got up and floated back to the cottage. Jenny welcomed us back with some ice cream, and we just sat sort of dreamily at the table. Jenny then asked if we wanted to caravan out the the farm in Petaluma to get some produce, meet the baby goats, and make sure she could get there safely in her new car. After the farm, we drove back to San Jose, bought some champagne and chicken (and a cheesy wedding magazine!). We had a lovely dinner (at the table! with candles!), and a wonderful evening (we watched Hedwig. How romantic!).
Of course the engagement wasn't a complete surprise. We started dating April of 2000, and have been living as a "married couple" for about three years. We've talked about the future, about marriage and beyond. A couple of weeks ago, we had a discussion about a possible wedding date and realized that we wanted to get married in a little less than a year--after I finished undergrad but before grad school. At that point, I nudged him a little to find a ring. He had decided a while ago that he wanted to get me a ring and surprise me, he just didn't know how and when. I knew that he had gone ring shopping with Grace on Saturday, the day before the engagement, but I had no idea that he had found one. Apparently he wanted to wait a week or more to ask me, but he couldn't wait. I don't blame him!
Saturday we started looking at venues (after a lovely picnic with Rachel and kiddos). We went to parks all over San Luis Obispo County, county parks and SLO city parks. We like the last one best: Templeton Park.
The County Parks Office opened today at 9:00, and I called to reserve the park for May 29th 2010! I know this seems like fast planning, but county parks are available to reserve one year in advance, and the wedding will be Memorial Day Weekend, so it was important to grab it as soon as we could. Now we can calm down on the planning a bit.
This wonderful picture of Brian and pathetic picture of me was taken after a long day of venue hunting. (;
Here are some pictures of Templeton Park:
