Our Engagement

Matt and I talked about getting married after only a few months of dating.  We were at his cousins wedding and he leaned over and said, "I like these readings for our wedding."  I knew that our discussions about marriage had been serious and this made me realize he wasn't just talking - it was the real deal. 

 This is a picture from that wedding.

We knew last June that we wanted to get married, but wanted to keep having fun dating as well.  So we waited a whole two months before going ring shopping.  Finding a ring was like finding Matt for me.  It was a very quick process.  I had it picked out within an hour and a half.  I think Matt enjoys my quick decisions.

Since I knew about the ring and I knew that Matt had it, he wanted to make sure I was very surprised about the proposal.  I was getting frustrated that he wasn't doing it.  I knew that he had talked to my dad and so when we went out to my parents land (the ranch) for a  weekend with my mom and dad I really thought he was going to ask then.  I was so excited.  We both love being out there - it is relaxing and beautiful.  We headed out on Saturday morning and met my parents for a quick lunch in a small town.  We were sitting at Lila's waiting for my parents when Matt grabbed my hand.  He leaned in close and looking into my eyes said, "I don't want you to get your hopes up about this weekend.  I have a plan about proposing to you, but it won't be this weekend.  I didn't want you to be on edge the whole time."

I think I just stared for about a minute. 

I didn't tell my parents he told me this, so Matt and I both had fun over the weekend watching them glance at my left hand everytime Matt and I came back from a ride or a walk.  I think my mom was about to ask him when he would do it by the time we left. (I know I was!)

About a week later I had a night off of volleyball and Matt offered to be in charge of dinner.  I'm glad he was because I was exhausted when I got home from school and just laid down on the couch and started to fall asleep.  When Matt walked into the house I was being pretty lazy and just laid around while he got everything going in the kitchen for dinner.

I could smell the pizza cooking and got up to help.  I offered to make the dip we usually had with pizza while he went to the bathroom.  As I was getting the hotsauce out of the fridge, we walked around the corner with red pepper flakes in his hand.  He ran over to me, got down on his knee, and said his romantic words - all while opening the bottle of pepper flakes.  There was the beautiful ring we had picked out together.

It was perfect.

We ate dinner together and had some time to celebrate alone before heading out to tell all of our family.  My parents were first and couldn't have been happier.  We then made our way to my brother and sister-in-laws house so we could get there before my neices went to bed.  Next was Matt's mom and sister and finally my younger brother.  It was the most perfect night I could imagine.

The night we got engaged.

We were so excited to start the planning and get all of the places reserved!!!