Weddingbee Blog

I thought that at this point it might be fun to tell you all about our engagement story. Mr. Star did such a great job of making it everything I wanted in a proposal, and he definitely deserves some props!

We had been talking about getting engaged for months. I’m not the kind of lady who really wants to be surprised by that kind of thing, quite frankly. I think it’s terribly romantic when a girl is totally shocked by a proposal, but if Mr. Star had done that to me, I think I would have freaked out! So, needless to say, I knew it was coming at some point.

He can’t keep a secret from me to save his life, and I knew he had bought the ring way back in September of our senior year at college. I had a very busy semester, but still spent a lot of time thinking about where he had hidden that ring in his dorm room and when I was going to get to see it! He was a terrible tease, showing it off to all of our friends and taking his sweet time planning the perfect proposal. On top of that, Fairy bridesmaid and her (now) husband got engaged on Halloween, making it even harder for me to keep waiting! Mr. Star asked both sets of my parents for their blessing and approval of our engagement, and hinted (erroneously!) that the proposal would take place when my little sister was there.

Our one-year dating anniversary rolled around over Thanksgiving weekend and there was such a flurry of activity because of upcoming finals and my show opening a week later that I barely had time to think about it.

Mr. Star told me he would be pampering me for our anniversary and got us a hotel room at the Plaza in Boston, where his family is from and where we had celebrated Thanksgiving the day before. After checking in and getting dressed, we grabbed a cab to go see a very funny and silly murder mystery dinner show that was loosely based on Law & Order (one of my favorite TV shows!). On the way there, I patted down his pants pocket just to tease him about not having the ring with him. Before the show started, one of the actresses came up to Mr. Star and pulled him into another room and I was all suspicious of what was going on, worrying that he was going to embarrass me about our anniversary! We ate our really lovely pasta dinner and watched the first half of the show and I kept asking Mr. Star why he wasn’t eating the pasta. I assumed he didn’t like it! About midway through the show, in one of the “courtroom” scenes, the judge turned to Mr. Star and started “cross-examining” him like he was on the stand. The actress gave him the mic and I was still thinking that he was going to say something cheesy about our anniversary, until he got down on one knee in front of about 100 people and said, “I want to look into your eyes for the rest of my life – will you marry me?”

Look how shocked I look! (Photo courtesy of the kind people sitting with us at the table)

I stopped breathing and the whole room erupted into wild applause and cheering. I was so shocked, I don’t even think I moved until I heard a man yell, “She didn’t say yes yet!” and I fumbled through, “Of course, of course, yes!”

Please note the hilarious chef jumping for joy and Mr. Star’s untouched dinner

A woman there celebrating her bachelorette party came over and gave me the fake veil she was wearing saying, “Honey, you need this more than me,” and the show continued on some minutes later. We got a round of drinks and then snuck out a little later to head back to the hotel. I called my parents in the cab back and was all ready to snuggle into bed with Mr. Star when I walked into the hotel lobby and saw about a dozen of our friends and family gathered there waiting for us! I was so shocked again! We all headed out to a nearby bar to celebrate and, needless to say, Mr. Star and I didn’t get to sleep until the wee hours of the morning. I’m pretty sure in all the commotion, I didn’t even examine the ring until we were back in our room! I still have the mint box that Mr. Star had hidden the ring in to keep me from patting it down in his pocket, too.

At the bar, post-proposal. The two brunettes are Sassy Bridesmaid and Boston Bridesmaid!

The next day, we had to get in the car and drive back to New York, but Mr. Star had promised me a manicure first so that my hands would look nice showing off that ring! It was so strange having to come down off of cloud nine and go back to classes and rehearsals the day after, but we were both smiling 24/7 for days.

Was your proposal a complete surprise, or did you know it was coming?