Engaged-aversary

Two years ago, on February 9, 2008, Mr made all my dreams come true by asking me to be his wife! Here's the story:

According to me: At the beginning of February, Mr casually suggested we take a weekend trip to Asheville, NC. "Sure!" I thought it would be a fun little get-away from school, and maybe even a pre-Valentine's day celebration. We toured the Biltmore Estate and had so much fun taking pictures on the grounds and exploring the HUGE mansion! It was amazing!! We stayed until close, and Mr drove us to the Grove Park Inn. When we got there, I was blown AWAY! I had no idea how beautiful it would be! I was getting ready for dinner...but little did I know Mr was running around the resort preparing for the proposal! I found a note and an envelope filled with rose petals! It told me to meet him out on the terrace where we watched the sunset earlier that day...ohmygoodness! SO sweet! I still thought it was maybe a huge Valentine's surprise! haha! I walked out & saw Mr sitting on the ledge of the terrace. We talked for a second, but it wasn't until he told me he was nervous that I suspected anything! He read me something he wrote himself, and pulled out a rose for me! But, it wasn't just a rose...there was a RING inside the petals!!! At that point, everything got a little blurry, and my heart was beating a million times a minute! All of a sudden, Mr was on his knee, asking me to be his wife! Of course I said YES! I couldn't stop shaking, but somehow he managed to slip the BEAUTIFUL ring on my finger!

{the picture on the bottom right is of our exact room when it was built in 1913-I thought it was so cute!}

{the spa at Grove Park Inn = bliss}

According to Mr: So, here's the REAL story. I remember wanting to propose to *Mrs*actually after the first day I saw her! Although that didn't happen, I was more than content with the way the proposal finally unfolded! I got the idea of doing the Asheville location after my brother and his wife had vacationed there a few months previously. So, the first step in the covert operation was to keep it covert....which is really tough for me to do! I had told *Mrs* back in January that we should start taking little "mini-vacations" once a month to unwind from the daily grind of school and such. She agreed and that completely set the stage for the Asheville trip. Friday, February 8th, we broke up the trip by staying in Knoxville, TN. On Saturday, we headed out pretty early in the morning in route to Asheville. The plan was to arrive fairly early in the day and tour the Biltmore Estate. I remember the drive through the smokey mountains being extra beautiful, maybe because I was so excited about what the night had in store for the two of us. Anywho, back to the story. So we got to the Biltmore and had a great time synchronizing our audio tours together :) After the tour, we headed into town to check-in to the famous Grove Park Inn Resort and Spa which was nestled away in the rolling hills overlooking downtown Asheville. Well, I think *Mrs* began to notice that this was no ordinary weekend trip. This place was RIDICULOUSLY nice...I mean so nice, it almost made you uncomfortable!!! We checked in, got our things to the room, and walked around aimlessly for awhile. We finally made it out to the sunset terrace to....you guessed it, watch the sunset. It was absolutely perfect! So here is where things got interesting. We head back to the room to get ready for dinner. We were both tired from the tourist activity earlier so we decided to take a short little nap (sans alarm). So, I believe dinner was scheduled for 9:00 and we woke up @ like 8:15-no showers, no make-up, no way we are gonna make it on time! I jump up, shower, throw on my clothes and have *Mrs* start to get ready as I attempt to do the unthinkable- get everything from the car to the room, set-up everything and make dinner by 9:00. So I am literally running through the hotel corridors, getting lost in the process. I finally make it to the car, grab the rose and poem and card, and jet back to the room. There I had made a note in an envelope telling *Mrs* to come out where we had watched the sunset earlier. So, I slipped the note under the door and bolted outside. I got the ring ready, had the poem ready, everything was ready....and I waited.....and waited.....and waited. It seemed like forever. When I arrived outside, I found a couple sitting in the chairs where I was wanting to do the proposal. I noticed that they were cutting their eyes over a few times probably wondering why there was this creep standing over in the corner, pacing back and forth. So I decided to break the ice and let them in on the plan. They were quite thrilled and politely gave me a few extra rocking chair room for our privacy. So, then the moment finally arrived. Out walked *Mrs*, who said she still had no idea what was going on. I grabbed her hand and had her take a seat next to me. This is where things get a little hazy for us both. I remember talking to her for awhile , reading her this poem I had written and presented her the rose that had her ring inside of it. I got down on one knee and proposed!!!! It was truly the greatest moment in my life up to that point! For me, it was more relieving all the tension and anxiety I had built up over the last thirty minutes! The couple I had talked to earlier had run in and got a bottle of champagne and two glasses for us. That was definitely icing on the cake for the night! We finally made it to dinner 45 minutes late, but had a great time with great food at Zambras. The next morning we woke up and I had scheduled a couples massage for us at their exclusive spa. We lounged around all day, enjoying each others company and even doing some preliminary wedding planning! It was truly a weekend I will never forget!!!!

We actually wrote those little stories about the engagement on our own right afterward, so they are fresh memories of the day! :) Oooh! I absolutely LOVE reading Mr's version...he's just the cutest, sweetest thing!

Now, hop on over to Mama M's Valentine's Extravaganza to read more sweet engagement stories!

(p.s. I didn't forget about y'all's answers from before! promise I'll answer every single one!)