The long-awaited day is finally here! I’m going to do a wedding series and I’m so excited! I have been talking about sharing our engagement story and wedding pictures for so, so long and I’m finally ready to take the plunge. I guess I haven’t done this before because I really wanted the posts not to be rushed through and to accurately display how awesome these days were and I never really felt ready to sit down and put the work in. I think I also wanted to keep putting it off because once I share them, then it’s really over and I’m just not ready for this newlywed season to be over!
So the way I’m going to do this is to share a post once a week from our wedding season, starting with today, Our Engagement Story! Then every Thursday after I’ll share wedding photos, and end off the series with a recap of our honeymoon in the Dominican Republic! I’m so excited to share all these details with you guys. I may even do a little series about how we planned the wedding as well, let me know what you guys think about that/if you’d be interested in hearing about it.
I’m going to take you guys back to December 5, 2015, one of the happiest days of my life. The picture above is from our engagement session, and you can just see the joy on my face. The way I’m going to recap this day is by letting you guys have a sneak peek right into my journal and share my entry from a few days after we got engaged. (I will not edit anything to make it sound less embarrassing or more “polished” so you can get an accurate depiction of exactly how I was feeling on that day.) Hope you enjoy!
Recap of Our Engagement (Because I Do Not Want To Forget Anything)
Tommy called out of work on Saturday to spend the day with me. He told me he was going to do this on Friday night and he was so lovey and it was awesome. A thought went through my head that maybe that was going to be the day but I didn’t dwell on it because I didn’t want to get my hopes up.
So Tommy came over on Saturday morning and we spent the day watching our favorite show on Netflix (Dexter) and we baked Christmas cookies and just laid around relaxing (one of my favorite things to do with him). Then at night we had it planned to go to a Christmas Lights Festival because I don’t think there is anything I love more than Christmas and I was really excited for this. Tommy asked if there was anywhere we could walk around afterwards because it’s a drive-through light show and he also mentioned that we would make it really memorable so at this point I’m still really trying not to get my hopes up, but also getting excited at the same time. So we got there and it was really fun and just what I hoped it would be. I definitely want to go back every year (especially now!).
Afterwards Tommy and I parked and walked around a bit. There was a cool archway near a restaurant that I didn’t know was near the Christmas light show. Tommy stopped us near that and started talking about how he can’t believe how far we’ve come and how even when we first met he felt like I might be the one.
Then he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him! And I said yes of course! We walked back to the car and on the way home we talked about how exciting this all was and I told my mom and she cried because she was so happy.
We eventually went back to my house and my mom was so happy. I told my close girl friends and they called me and were so excited. I was blown away by everyone’s love and support and that was only the beginning. The next day we told Tommy’s parents and were a little afraid what they were going to think. (Okay I was very afraid.) But it went well, everyone congratulated us and his mom had me try on her wedding dress.
Later on that night, I posted about the engagement on Facebook and Instagram and I was blown away with everyone’s love and support. It was beyond exciting. And the same continued at work the next day. My friends and co-workers were so excited for me.
Starting out, before we made the choice to get engaged, Tommy and I were afraid of everyone’s reactions because we weren’t sure if everyone would understand. But we took that big step of faith and God showed up in a huge way.
Oh I almost forgot – Sunday at church was an exciting time too – I have never felt God more than on that day. I felt Jesus pouring down his love on me and showing me that he really does care about me and the things I care about. We ended up playing two of my favorite songs at church and I was so overwhelmed, I tried to keep from bawling my eyes out. It was all just so wonderful and I am incredibly grateful that God allowed such goodness in my life. Now onto wedding planning!
Typing that all out made me so happy and excited all over again! I prayed for so long for an answer to this prayer and as you can see, waiting on God for something this big brings about so much joy when he finally answers your prayer. If you are still waiting for a husband (or wife), please let this be an encouragement for you that God does see and hear your prayers! They are not lost on him! Waiting for his blessing when it came to dating was one of the greatest things I’ve ever done.
Also, I mentioned in the recap about how we we’re nervous to tell others, (especially Tommy’s family), about our engagement. It wasn’t because they disapproved of our relationship, it was because we we’re both pretty young and we knew that they thought it was better if we waited longer to get married. (Tommy was 21 and I was 23 when we got engaged.) We felt God was calling us into a deeper relationship, and we learned that it is not wise to date for too long because of temptation. We also both believed that dating was for the purpose of marriage and we both were at the place where we knew we wanted to marry each other so we knew waiting to get married would not be wise. As you can see from the story though, everything worked out because I feel like when we take a step of faith, God really works out the rest for us.
If you’re interested in seeing the rest of our engagement pictures, I shared them here. I also did an Engagement Confessions post here. Check back next Thursday for our Ceremony Pictures!
