Weddingbee Blog

I know I said in my last post that I’d start sharing my projects with you, but I thought it might be a good idea to tell you the story of how Mr. Cola and I got engaged, first.

(At our friend’s wedding summer 2008, photo by Mr. Cola’s dad)

We’d been friends for about 2.5 years and roommates for 1.5 years before we even started dating back in college. Fast forward 5.5 years from when we got together, and imagine us on a Halloween/Mr. Cola’s birthday weekend in Vegas. After surprising him with a limo ride to Casa di Amore for dinner and then tickets to Fantasy at the Luxor (a, cough, “adult” show), he was one happy Mr. (I know, I’m such a good girlfriend, right?).

We were sitting in our seats, waiting for the show to start, when we somehow got on the subject of hair. My hair, specifically, and how it’s getting so long, but I’m not going to cut it until we get married, if we ever get married. And it was then, sitting in the audience of the boobie show, that he told me I should go pick out a ring. Or, actually, he offered to go ring shopping with me, but since he can’t even stand to shop for himself (I do all his clothes shopping for him), I offered to just go with my mom to pick it out, and let him know what I selected.

(After eating at Casa di Amore, before heading to the show, photo by the limo driver)

Now for those of you who like a surprise, this might not have been a great moment for you, but Mr. Cola and I know each other so well, and I was on cloud 9 to be asked to pick my own ring. I wasn’t 100% sure when I’d get it, but I was super stoked to get to pick, since Mr. Cola’s taste in jewelry is probably jewelry that tastes good… like a Ring Pop or a candy necklace!

I’d known for, well, years that I wanted a three stone princess cut ring, with some bling on the band. After an afternoon browsing several stores with my ex-BFF, I discovered Verragio. Pretty much every one of his rings is sooo hot, and I wanted them all! After scouring the website and narrowing it down to about 9 of his rings I wanted to see in person, I went with my mom and aunt to the store in San Francisco with the biggest selection of Verragio rings. The saleslady at Steve Padis was super helpful, and led me to my wonderful ENG-0283 (ohhh, such a romantic name, LOL). I promptly went home and made a flier with pictures and all the details for Mr. Cola and snuck it onto his computer desktop one night, for him to discover at his leisure.

Now, mind you, this was back at the end of November 2008 that I found my dream ring. I really had no idea when I’d actually get it, but had hinted heavily that I didn’t want it for Christmas (our families don’t live close enough for us to spend it together), and he knows that I think Valentine’s Day is a joke of a holiday. But, we were going to Mexico for a friend’s wedding at the end of February… wouldn’t that be romantic, hint, hint, HINT!

So, off we went to Puerto Vallarta. We attended our friend’s lovely wedding, went on a boat and snorkel trip to Las Caletas, lounged on the beach, went zip-lining through the jungle, went to the most awesome zoo where we fed bears, monkeys, giraffes and zebras, and I got to play with a 2 month old baby lion and 4 month old jaguar. It was day 7 of our 11 day trip, and I was starting to wonder—-was I going to get my ring? Of course I didn’t ask, but I was starting to have doubts, since it seemed I would have seen it in the safe or something?

(Me playing with the baby jaguar and lion, photo taken by Mr. Cola)

So on day 7 of our trip, we were off on another snorkel trip, which turned out to be a bit of a disappointment, since we didn’t get much time for snorkeling and never went in search of whales, as was advertised. We also got back about 1.5 hours late, so we decided to just have dinner at the hotel and take it easy for the night. We ate and then went back to our room to try out our jacuzzi. For that night and the next we were staying in the honeymoon suite at one of the 4 hotels we stayed in, and had an awesome wrap around terrace with our own private jacuzzi.

(Our Jacuzzi and private terrace, photo taken by me)

To set the mood, just imagine bubbles, champagne, a warm Jacuzzi on a warm night, stars in the sky, twinkling city lights in the distance… a very nice night on vacation! After we were done using the Jacuzzi, we decided to put on bathrobes and sip some more champagne on the loungers at the other end of our terrace. We were sitting there for a while, just looking at the stars, when at one point Mr. Cola reached in the pocket of his robe, and suddenly I realized what was about to happen! He came around to my lounger, and got on his knee and asked me if I was happy, and said he wanted to make me happy for the rest of my life… or something along those lines! Once I knew it was coming, I was too excited to pay very close attention. Of course I said yes… or maybe si, since we’d been speaking so much Spanish all week! It was exactly 1 month before our 6 year dating anniversary, and it was perfect!

Some sunset ring pictures taken the next night (apparently he’d hidden the ring in the bottom of his tennis shoe that we’d used all week to store our passports and cell phones in, inside the safe!):

Mr. Cola and I celebrating the next night (can you tell I’m showing off my ring behind his beer?!):

Were you surprised when your fiance proposed, even if you picked out the ring yourself?