Weddingbee Blog

I apologize for the spoiler alert in the title…

Last summer, Mr. Honey purchased a sailboat to round out his collection of skateboards, kayaks, and snowboards. I frequently tell him we need a garage so that he can sit in all his manly glory and admire his toys. Side note: don’t Google images of man and his toys—weird things come up.

I had never been sailing before, and envisioned calm, relaxing afternoons in the high mountain lakes. Mr. Honey, of course, saw the new hobby as an addition to his extreme sports. You know, the kind of sailing that involves harnesses, high winds, and sailboats sailing sideways:

Photo by John Harvey Photo

While I understand his desire to be extreme, I made it very clear that if I’m on the sailboat, both pontoons need to be in the water. A little bit of this is out of my control as you are at the mercy of the wind on the lake, which is why I don’t have pictures of Honey sailing, as the wind can take him far, far away.

Finally, one weekend in August I accompanied him to the lake for a sailing trip. He swore to me he would be mellow and promised a calm, relaxing afternoon. I believed him and we made our way to Vallecito Lake, a beautiful mountain lake at 8,000 feet elevation surrounded by mountain peaks. We set up the sailboat, carefully looped all the ropes, and put the pins in the proper places. (I’m such an expert, heh?) Then we finally got our lil sailboat on the lake:

{Our boat at Vallecito, with the doggy}

And, hive, it was amazing…so peaceful and calm, but exciting at the same time. I was honestly loving every minute of it, and I could tell Mr. H was pretty happy to have me on his newest toy with him.

The clouds were rolling in over the mountain peaks, and we decided to drop the sails and have lunch. A very sophisticated lunch of PB&J sandwiches. We were lying on the trampoline deck soaking in the sunshine, and all of a sudden he just blurted out, “I love you. Will you marry me?” I laughed and said, “Yes, I will marry you.” He must have known I wasn’t taking him seriously because the next thing I know a pretty, sparkly ring was being dangled in front of me. I can’t remember exactly what was said in the seconds following the presentation of the ring, but I guarantee it was sweet. I do remember asking him if he was “for real” and even “Is the diamond ring real?” Of course, I managed to get my response out, which was “Hell yes!!!” Or maybe it was “Absolutely!!” I can’t remember. But we were engaged!

And then we lay there in our newly engaged bliss while I stared at the sparkler on my left ring finger. In. Love.

{The Honeys on our sailboat}

It just so happened that my BFF, who is now my MOH, and her entire family were at the lake wake boarding. Not five minutes after Mr. H popped the question, they pulled up to us to get us to go wake boarding. We declined the offer since we were still in such a state of bliss. I decided I wanted to tell my parents first, before telling anyone else, and so I tucked my purty lil ring inside her safe case in the dry bag and we made our way back to shore. We began the tedious task of taking down the sailboat, and if you’ve ever put together/taken apart a sailboat, you will know it is no easy task. It involves heavy pieces of very large metal, excessive amounts of rope, and p.a.t.i.e.n.c.e.

This trait ceases to exist just moments after you have gotten engaged and are trying to keep it hidden from your best friend. So I kept my left hand hidden the entire time. I got so distracted at one point I failed to do something with the sailboat, which resulted in the mast being dropped and a good chunk of skin being removed from Mr. Honey’s shin. Oops. That’s when MOH Honey casually said, “Well, you know what they say…if you can put a sailboat together without fighting, you can have a successful marriage.” While I don’t know if that’s what they actually say, we Honeys found it amusing and gave each other a wink.

How we celebrated our engagement is next!

How about you engaged bees—did you have to keep your newly engaged status a little secret before you made the big reveal to friends or family? Did anyone else have to manage patience with the excitement of being engaged?

*All personal pictures unless otherwise noted