Weddingbee Blog

After we got engaged, a lot of people excitedly asked, “Did you know that he was going to propose?!?” My answer to that question is always, unequivocally, yes. I absolutely did. This answer tends to really surprise some people, for whatever reason. Those people tend to follow up by asking about the specific hints that I saw beforehand. In my case, though, I’m not sure if they were hints as much as glaring signs.

Hint #1: We picked out the ring setting the month before. Until March or so, I was 100% sure that I wanted the etoile setting from Tiffany. I loved the clean, modern look of the ring and the low profile of the stone.

What a beauty! / Image via Pricescope / Posted by Upgradable

Jeff secretly—or, not so secretly, since his Chrome browser left the Tiffany website visible on the home page—went to the store after a snowboarding trip with a friend. If you are wondering, yes, he still was in full snowboarding gear. I can only imagine what the salesperson thought of his chances for a sale that day. Anyway, Mr. Mole instantly knew that the setting I liked from pictures online was not something that I would love in person. He didn’t come home empty-handed, though. He presented me with two things: a beautiful rose gold bangle and the suggestion that we go ring shopping together.

So, a week later, we found the setting: a Scott Kay solitaire setting. A few days after that, Mr. Mole ordered the loose diamond from Blue Nile.

Loose stone, ready to be set

In the setting

Hint #2: We put down a deposit on our ceremony location the week before. We had always tossed around the idea of a destination wedding. We initially started talking about going to Mexico—like Miss Petit Four!—because it is obviously a vacation spot that means a lot to us. But we eventually decided to get married in Las Vegas. (I’ll be talking more about this decision in my next blog post!)

We also decided that we wanted to get married on our third anniversary, a date that was a little under 10 months away. Our anniversary is on a Saturday, so we knew that we had to start thinking about booking spaces and vendors relatively soon. After realizing that our favorite chapel was already starting to book up for weekend weddings, we knew that we had to book it ASAP. We couldn’t risk losing our date! So we sent in the contract and deposit.

Hint #3: Mr. Mole told me that he was going to propose two days before. As demonstrated by Hint #1, he is not too great at keeping secrets. I am not very good at it either, which means that most of our birthday presents are revealed long before the actual gifts are exchanged. But Mr. Mole is particularly bad.

On this occasion, he started telling me about a bike ride that he went on with coworkers. He was explaining that some of his married coworkers were teasing him about still being (legally) single at 31. Mr. Mole then said, “So then I told them that I was going to propose to you in Mexico, and Frank said…Wait. Um. Damn.” I just had to laugh.

Surprise proposals are very lovely and sweet…but I am happy that I knew about mine in advance. It made me feel like I had an active part in it. It made me feel like we took this step forward as a couple. The decision to enter into a marriage is one that should not be taken lightly, and it is one that I am glad we did together. And, when it came down to it, I was still surprised by the most important aspects of the proposal: what he said, how joyful I felt.

Still riding the highs of engagement

Did you know that your proposal was coming? Or was it a complete surprise?