Weddingbee Blog

Big sigh.

Sadly—no—devastatingly, I have zero pictures of the night of our engagement. I’m going to make a blanket assumption that everyone was caught up in the excitement of the evening and couldn’t be bothered with silly gadgets like cameras and camera phones. Try to bear with me and imagine an incredibly beautiful and emotional night.

After Daddio Seal’s Las Vegas slip-up, I was on my best behavior to not spoil the actual engagement. So I played dumb when Mr. Seal needed to unexpectedly hurry off to “see a friend” or step outside to make a phone call. Eventually, I managed to tune out of my ability to ruin surprises because and I successfully stopped focusing on “getting engaged.”

Anyhoo. Hive, I am absolutely crazy when it comes to the holidays. I love Christmas trees and I love giving gifts—I write and revise dozens of gift-giving lists and tirelessly research for the absolute best deals. (I also try to work peppermint mochas into my daily December diet.)

Our 2009 Christmas tree:

On December 12, 2009, I woke up with a very particular holiday agenda. I would go to the mall to finish up some Christmas shopping, wrap some presents at Mama Seal’s, and then head to my cousin’s Christmas party. No surprises.

So, in the hours leading up to the party while I was hastily wrapping presents, I paid little attention to my appearance. I, regrettably, thought nothing of it when Mr. Seal called from home to ask me, “Are you going to come back to get ready?” I responded,”Naaah, I’m just going to go like this.” “Like this” was definitely not my best, but what did it matter? If my established surprise-spoiling superpower was right, Mr. Seal wasn’t going to propose to me until Christmas Eve. (I wanted to look fancy on engagement night.)

When we arrived at my cousin’s home, I got absolutely no vibes that would lead me to believe this was anything more than a typical holiday party. (Kudos to you, family.) I don’t know why it never occurred to me, given it was Daddy Seal’s last evening in town before heading back to his second home in Copenhagen, that an engagement was plausible.

Anyway…eventually, someone called for a toast, and this was not at all out of the ordinary. Mr. Seal worked with one of my aunties to distribute glasses of champagne. The Sealman is very proactive when it comes to helping out, so this still raised no red flags for me. Actually, I even started to feel forgotten! I really love champagne, so I secretly got upset when I saw the bottles disappearing and still had no glass of my own. It wasn’t until a circle began to form around me that I realized what was happening.

Mr. S, equipped with a particularly sparkly glass of champagne, stepped into the middle and faced me. He got down on one knee (typical guy move, heh), and my heart stopped. The tears began to streak down my face, and I have no idea what he said (though everyone says it was very sweet). I do, however, remember repeating, “Of course! Of course!”

I then sipped guzzled my glass of champagne to find the most amazing ring settled at the bottom. What a sweet deal—not only do I get amazing bling to wear forever, but I get this awesome guy for eternity too!? Heck yeah. Count me in.

These are pictures taken the day after our engagement:

I later asked Mr. Seal why he chose my cousin’s holiday party to propose. He said it was because he knew I was expecting Christmas Eve and, in addition to wanting to finally surprise me, he also wanted Daddio Seal to be around for the engagement of his only daughter. Oh, how I love that man.

Did your fiancé/SO surprise you? Was it an intimate proposal or was your whole family involved?