We’re engaged!

You guys!!! Shaun and I are engaged!! I am still in shock a little bit but I’ve gotten so many emails requesting the full story so here it is. Over the past couple of months Shaun had been telling me about this woman he hired at work and how amazing she is. He told me her and her husband bought a house built in the 30’s to renovate it and they have all this land with horses. He knew this would appeal to me because I, too would like to have an old farmhouse one day with a plethora of animals (horses, cows, pigs, goats, and any animals that need to be saved). About a month ago he told me they invited us to come out and visit because they were having a BBQ. I thought nothing of it. (A BBQ…in January, people…) I was honestly excited to meet Michele because of how highly Shaun had spoken about her. We also discussed doing some photos for the blog with the horses.

Fast forward to last weekend. Shaun had a four day weekend and we pretty much laid low the whole weekend and just hung out because I had a lot of work to do. Sunday morning I woke up and Shaun had already made coffee and had been up for awhile. If you know Shaun – this is weird. I literally have to drag him out of bed and sometimes even threaten him to get out (sorry babe, it’s true). However I just thought it was sweet that he already had coffee for me. I’m not even a human until about three sips of coffee so at the time I thought nothing of it. The morning was very casual and we just watched TV and hung out talking until we had to get ready. Shaun told me that Michele pushed the BBQ back because they had a late start and they weren’t set up yet. At this point I was pretty hungry so we decided to get ready and grab something to eat. I got all ready and put on my outfit that I was going to wear so we could do a blog post about it. The zipper on my boots completely busted at the seams and they’re brand new. It’s a very good brand of boots and they’re extremely well-known so I won’t be mentioning any names. I believe this was a one off for them because they typically have a high quality product. So now I was in panic mode. I was running hopping around the house with one heel on asking Shaun if it would be okay just for the photos and I would bring a pair of shoes to change into. But if I changed my shoes I had to change my entire outfit. Come on ladies, you know how this works. So I changed everything and Shaun told me I looked great and how it was so like me to wear heels to a horse farm.

We got to lunch in Charlotte and Shaun ordered chicken and waffles and I was like what in the world?! We are headed to a BBQ but again, this wasn’t weird to me. Shaun seems to be an endless pit when it comes to food. I, on the other hand, was thinking about how rude it would be if I ate an entire meal and showed up to the BBQ with a full belly so I ordered soup. We had a wonderful meal and Shaun told me they were all set up for the BBQ so we left Charlotte and headed towards Lincolnton, NC. It was about an hour away and when we got off the highway we seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. People who know Lincolnton may laugh at this because it’s really not that remote but Shaun and I are from a city right outside of Detroit so to us this was extremely small. There are only a few houses per 1/4 mile and tons of trees. We were driving on this road that to us looked like a road up in the mountains in Asheville. It was beautiful. So beautiful, in fact, that Shaun missed the street we were supposed to turn down. Also – something not super unusual. Shaun is the worst when we drive because he likes to look at everything. 😉

As we were driving to Michele’s house he told me her house was off the map so she gave us this address and we were supposed to call her once we got to that address and she would direct us down the road to her house. We pulled up to this beautiful old cotton mill and we decided to park while we called Michele. Shaun had this brilliant idea to take some blog photos at this location because it was so remote and there was only one other couple there. We saw signs posted all over that said private property so I mentioned that we probably weren’t allowed to do that. Shaun told me he would walk over to the other couple and find out if they were going to walk around. He came back to the car and confirmed that they were going to and that we should too but only for a few and then we would head to Michele’s. (Still don’t have a clue what’s going on.)

So we start walking over to this area that Shaun thought would be good for pictures and you guys, when I tell you that this was an adult sandbox I am not exaggerating. So my heels are sinking into the sand every step I take and the sand is filling my shoes. Shaun was holding onto me and telling me we would get to solid ground in a few. However when we got to the other side of the sandbox the same man Shaun had just spoken to approached us and asked if we minded if he took some photos of us because he had just gotten a new lens for his camera. He said he wanted to do some test shots and we’d be good for what he had in mind. He showed us some ideas on his phone of poses we could do and we did them. This whole time I’m chatting away with him asking him to email these to me so I can use them for the blog and telling him I didn’t mind at all because his camera was way better than ours! (No idea.)

Finally we walk up this jagged rock ledge that was less than a foot wide. One side of us about twelve feet down was the sandbox and on the other side of us was this beautiful waterfall surrounded by woods. We continued posing for about ten minutes. Next thing I know Shaun is holding my hands, looking into my eyes, and asking if I’m really this oblivious. I was like ummmmm….huh?!? He then tells me that he hired this photographer to be here because he wanted the day to be all about me. This photographer was here for us to do photographs. I was so surprised and I had tears in my eyes as I told Shaun how sweet he was. (Still have no clue.) And he’s like, seriously? You don’t get it? That’s not all! He then proceeded to give me this beautiful speech about how much he loves me and how he’s known forever that he’s wanted to do this. He wanted to make me his wife *cue ugly tears* and then he got down on one knee. I’ll keep all of the details of the speech to myself as this was such a sacred moment for me.

The overwhelming joy I felt in this moment was indescribable. I wish I could relive this moment every day. It was a beautiful day filled with love and surprises and sand-filled shoes. We celebrated with champagne afterwards at Michele’s house and fed the horses apples, carrots, and candy canes. 🙂 We took more pictures there and called family and friends to share the news. The love and support we’ve felt from everyone has been such a blessing. We feel so lucky to be surrounded by such great people and even luckier to have one another. We finished the night off with dinner and champagne by candlelight at the best steakhouse in Charlotte. The whole staff knew we had just gotten engaged so they all came over to congratulate us. It was truly a magical day.

If I’m being honest I never thought I would find someone. I thought maybe eventually I would be forced to settle for someone who wasn’t up to my standards because I didn’t know people like Shaun existed in this world. The kinda guy that rushes to hold doors open and when I turn around to see where he is he’s still holding it for the 10 people that walked in after us. The kinda guy that makes sure to not only tell me but to show me how deeply he cares for me. The kinda guy that plans a surprise engagement for me and made it the most memorable day of my life. I can’t wait to see where this life takes us. If it’s anything like the last three years of our relationship life will just keep getting better and better. Thank you all for caring enough to reach out and ask how he did it, to congratulate us, and to send your love and support even from such a far distance. It means more than you know. I linked my outfit details below because I’ve been getting so many questions about this cape!

Cape | Long sleeve tee | Denim | Heels