A Wedding Story Begins...

with a memorable engagement story. That once in a lifetime moment when time stands still- the moment where all of your dreams of a man proposing finally comes true.

It all began at Christine Cueto's house. He was sitting in her kitchen looking salty and unhappy. And when my roommate slyly nudged me and whispered "That's him...he's single" followed by two eye brow gestures, I couldn't help but roll my eyes. Really? The cranky guy?

Almost exactly three months later, I sat on my bed and read out loud an email that I'll never forget. It read:

WILL YOU BE WILLING TO BE SEEN IN PUBLIC WITH ME, WILL YOU HELP ME MAKE IT OUT OF PHARM SCHOOL, WILL YOU JOIN ME ON WALKS IN THE PARK, WILL YOU GO WITH ME TO THE MALL TO PICK OUT CLOTHES, WILL YOU EAT PHO WITH ME, I guess what I'm trying to say is : WILL YOU GO OUT WITH ME ????

Without hesitation, I look up at the man sitting by my side and said Yes.

Two years later, we're unloading a uhaul full of boxes into our first apartment together in Virginia.

A year past that, and he is graduating from pharmacy school. Our families meet for the first time during his graduation lunch and as he begins his "thank you for coming" speech, my sisters jaws drop because they think he's about to propose to me in front of everyone.

Yet another half a year passes and I get a pink eye staying up all night writing my final paper for my master's program. He gets up periodically to make me coffee...to keep me company....and in no time, I finally received my diploma as well.

And through more happiness, celebrations, tragedies, and life-hurdles, I sat in our apartment and waited...just like any other day...for him to come home from work.

I was a mess. My hair unkempt. My mascara and eyeliner smudged behind my eyeglasses. If you can imagine the least bit lady-like bum, that was me that night. When he finally arrived home, I was greeted with "Hey beautiful!". I smiled thinking to myself that Mr. Cranky was not cranky tonight.

Giving him a play-by-play of what I had done earlier in the evening, I gushed at our friend's recent engagement story. I joked that our friend had hidden the ring in the garment bag of his suit and that I was getting ready to sift through his garment bags too just in case. I suppose my story panicked him just a little. As it turns out, he had been hiding my ring in his suit garment bag as well.

The moments following were nothing but the two of us being silly with our guessing games. And as I opened my eyes from correctly guessing that I had nothing but a coin in my hand, I see him on his knees with a ring placed in his palms.

This was the moment when time stood still. I remember a big silly smile on his face. I remember a big silly smile on mine. I remember thinking if this was really happening right now. I remember thinking that I looked like a horrible mess. But the important part is that I remember saying....

Yes!














I'm not gonna lie...the ring makes it much more enjoyable to type ; )