Weddingbee Blog

I still can’t believe that Mr. Eggs Benedict pulled off such an amazing surprise. Well, I can believe it, because I had NO idea that he was going to propose when he did. I thought it was going to be months before he asked, and I had reached the point where I was actually completely OK with it. (I’d had hopes earlier on in the summer during our second trip to Hawaii together that that might be the time, but he didn’t want to do it then. Remember how I said we don’t like being hot and sweaty? That factored in to when he wanted to propose—hence waiting until December.)

Mr. Eggs and I moved in together after he graduated from law school. I had graduated the year earlier and had been living in Portland for a year at that point. About a month prior to his graduation, I moved into the apartment and then he moved in in May. Anyway! The point of all that is that sometime at the beginning of November I started telling Mr. Eggs that I wanted to get a Christmas tree. I’ve never had my own Christmas tree before, and it turns out Mr. Eggs had never had one of his own, either. I’ve been in school for what feels like forever, so now that Mr. Eggs and I were living together and starting our family together, I really wanted to start our traditions together! And one of those traditions I was determined to start would be cutting down our own Christmas tree together.

Of course, that turned into a slightly bigger ordeal than I was first anticipating. See, since neither of us had ever gotten a tree before, we didn’t have a stand, or lights, or decorations. And do you have any idea how hard it is to find a tree stand the first week of December? Yeah, neither did I. So we had to go to three stores to get a stand, some lights, and a few ornaments. By this time, I was getting a bit, um, cranky. So—refuel with a latte and head out to the Christmas tree farm!

Because when I say I wanted a Christmas tree, I mean going and cutting one down ourselves. My family’s been going to the same Christmas tree farm for years, and there’s just something way more satisfying about cutting down your own than just picking one up in a parking lot.

At the tree farm we wandered around for a bit before finding the perfect tree, and then loaded it up in our little car to head back home. (Oh yeah, it totally fit in the back seat—I didn’t say we were getting a big tree for our first one! Though it did fill up our living room quite nicely.) Once we got home we set it up, strung lights, and then took a quick break before putting the ornaments on. Mr. Eggs Bene said he’d take the dog for a walk, and suggested that I relax and take a bath if I felt like it. Now, this is when I first should have noticed something might be a little off. I mean, he often says I should relax or whatever, but I also usually go on the weekend dog walks. But, whatever, I love a good bath, so I’ll take it.

So after he and Cody got back, we started adding ornaments to the tree. (We didn’t get very many as we knew the tree wasn’t going to be very big!)

Our first Christmas tree!

After we finished and spent some time admiring it, Mr. Eggs Bene gave me a big hug and didn’t let go for a long time. This is when I finally started cluing in that something big might be happening. I still wasn’t entirely certain because I kept thinking that there was no way he was going to propose—until he said some incredibly wonderful things, knelt down, and handed me a beautiful ring.

My response: “Are you kidding me?”

Then: “When did you do this??”

Then: *burst into tears*

Then: “Yes, yes, have I said yes yet??”

Yup, I’m that girl who took forever to get the actual yes out. At least we both do remember that I said it! I think the most touching part about the whole thing (other than that he’d been planning this EVER SINCE I first said I wanted to get a Christmas tree with him) was how nervous he told me he was right before he asked. Not that he was that worried about my response—he had the champagne chilling in the fridge!

I love that he took the time to make this moment special for both of us and something that we’d both remember forever. And while this apartment isn’t the place we’ll be living forever, it was our first home together, and now, the place we got engaged.

(I love the way the lights glow in this picture.)