Showing posts with label Engagement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Engagement. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Bridal Magazines

A very sweet coworker surprised me yesterday with an engagement gift - copies of the current Martha Stewart Weddings and Boston Weddings magazines and a silver "I Do" picture frame.



Looking at the covers of the magazine, there was an obvious trend in subject matter - engagement rings. Which made me wonder, why would brides be interested in reading content about something they've already gotten? Then I realized that it must be geared towards some sort of target demographic of girls designing their engagement rings, which is odd to me. If you were hoping to be engaged and your boyfriend caught you reading magazines with these type of covers, I would think that would cause an awkward situation and the pressure would definitely be on the poor guy! But maybe that's the point? :)

I've only flipped through the Boston Weddings magazine so far, but I'm hoping to start gathering and saving ideas, especially since my wedding planner just arrived.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Welcome to the Family...

Andrew's family has always made me feel a part of the family which I've always appreciated.

However, it was still a surprise to find a beautiful bouquet of flowers waiting for me (and Andrew) when I got home tonight with a message from Andrew's sister Amanda and brother Adam welcoming me to the family:


I sense a bridal theme going on:


It's definitely a perk that Andrew comes equipped with such a wonderful family and I'm excited to gain another sister and brother - in fact, I always wanted an older brother when I was growing up as I pictured him as someone that would always protect me. Somehow, from listening to Andrew's childhood stories, I'm sure an older brother was just as much as a pain in the butt as the younger sister I had (love you Amy!) but I'll take my chances! :)

Monday, June 1, 2009

Sunday Night Celebration

We didn't officially celebrate the engagement with some of our nearest and dearest - Amy, Phu, Pete and Jen - until Sunday since I had to bake on Friday night and we had the wedding on Saturday night.

Sunday was beautiful but by the time Andrew and I started walking to the Newton Center T stop around 6 pm to meet up with Jen, it was pouring rain - as we waited out a few minutes of the downpour under a tree, we heard the longest peal of thunder that I'd ever heard - yikes! However, by time we got off the T in Boston, there was a rainbow and gradually clearing skies awaiting us outside Parish Cafe:


After the Parish Cafe, only Amy and Jen were brave enough to join us at our favorite place for martinis, Bar Lola. Here's Amy and Jen showing off their Fresa martinis:


Andrew and I ordered Frambuesas for our first drink:


Many martinis and three hours later, we hit the streets feeling a little loopy:


...And we paid for it this morning when we woke up for work feeling like crap. Confirming that I am indeed too old to stay up late on Sundays but it was well worth it!

Friday, May 29, 2009

I'm Engaged!

So as you guessed from the previous picture, Andrew asked me to marry him on Thursday night!

It was a complete surprise and I'm still in shock that I'm engaged! (Be warned, I'm sure this post is going to be filled with exclamation points!)

It was a normal Thursday night for the most part, Andrew and I had our typical order from Jamjuli for dinner. What I had forgotten was that Andrew had mentioned in the morning that he was bringing home a special dessert for dinner.

So we had dinner and the only thing that was out of the ordinary was that Andrew wasn't hungry enough to help me finish off my spring rolls, which NEVER happens. He told me he was saving room for dessert, which made sense.

So finally, it was time for dessert. I had my camera ready, asking him if I could take a picture of the dessert for the blog since I figured that it would serve as my simple post for the night. Andrew agreed readily but in hindsight, it must have prolonged the agony of waiting for him.

After admiring the green ribbon, I slowly opened the box:


And found this message on the cake:
I was in complete shock. When I turned to look at Andrew to confirm what I was reading on the cake, he had already dropped down to one knee and had the ring in his hand!
I have to admit, I didn't say yes right away. The first words out of my mouth were along the lines of "I wasn't expecting this, I had a mental plan that we wouldn't be married for another year or two!" Once the situation sunk in, I told him that of course my answer was "Yes!" and then the whole celebrating/crying/calling family and friends began.
Some additional info on the cake, Andrew had it custom designed at Truly Jorg's Patisserie to match the pattern on my blog, something I didn't notice right away due to the fact that I was fixated on "Will you marry me?" He picked Jorg's (which is way out in Saugus, MA), due to the fact that we had both enjoyed watching him compete in Food Network cake challenges - this man has done some impressive work! Andrew got to meet Jorg when he was picking up the cake, as well as his head pastry chef who also appears with Jorg on the challenges and was the one who actually worked on my cake.
The cake wasn't the only surprise, Andrew also had champagne:
(Poor guy looks incredibly relieved now that he was released from the stress of planning the proposal)

He had even gone through the trouble of buying a cooler and ice so he could hide the champagne in the garage during dinner:
He also had the foresight of buying champagne glasses for the champagne and had picked up a bouquet of my favorite flowers, white roses:
And now for the money shots - my ring!!
Andrew had been researching diamonds since last summer (how adorable is that?) and had bought my ring from online retailer James Allen once a diamond with the right characteristics was available:
It's pretty funny, he knows a lot more about engagement rings than I do from doing all the research. Apparently, my ring style is a round brilliant in a Tiffany-style setting. He also picked a simple platinum setting, which is totally my style:


I love my ring!! The reason I'm showing it on my pinkie in this picture (with Andrew's BC shorts as backdrop, something he wore deliberately that night) is that he made a slight error figuring out my ring size using an online sizing guide and my BC class ring. As a sidenote, we were able to find a jeweler on Saturday (Freedman Jewelers in the Jewelers building in Downtown Crossing, I highly recommend them) to resize the ring for me to wear to a family wedding that night.

After hours of calls sharing the good news and sitting on the sofa, sipping champagne and calling each other fiance and fiancee, we finally cut into the cake. I was really reluctant to cut into it, but the lure of cake finally swayed me:
It was the perfect end to a perfect night!

Thursday, May 28, 2009