We’ve been engaged for almost 4 months 😱  and it still feels surreal when I see that diamond on my finger out of the corner of my eye! 😍💍 On March 5, 2020, Geoff asked me to be his wife. Is it weird that it’s been four months and I’m still pinching myself? I’ve been wanting to share our engagement story and finally got around to it. Plus, I don’t want to ever forget this either!

For those that need a refresher on how we met, you can read this post. From the second we met, I just KNEW that Geoff would be my husband one day. I know many couples say this and I can’t even explain how I knew, it was aways just a gut feeling; but stronger than a gut feeling – something I just knew to be true. It feels like finding your heart’s match… like that missing piece or the thing (person in this case lol!) that completes you in every way. I actually tweeted it at one point… (“I think I just met my future husband”) but I was so scared that he would find it and think I’m creepy/crazy that I deleted it lol 😂.

For much of my life, I wondered what that “proposal moment” would be like. What that moment would be like when you realize you’re going to spend forever with “your person.” I wondered, how do you know that it’s right… how can you be sure? And if you’ve had similar thoughts, all I can say is that you will know from the minute you meet “your person” that they’re meant to be yours. It will be the one thing you never question. Sure there are challenges along the way, but what remains the same is that you will never ever question the love you have for each other. I never once questioned that he was my person. I always felt like I could be completely myself with him – good, bad, ugly, you name it. We are similar in ways, different in many ways… when people ask me about dating/relationships, I always say 1. Look for someone you can be completely yourself around no matter what and 2. Look for someone who balances you. It should never be about being similar in every way, but balancing each other.

Our Engagement Story [3.05.20]

Our proposal was perfect for who we are as a couple. On March 5, 2020 we went on our trip to St. John, USVI, flying into St. Thomas from Boston. For those that know us or read here regularly, you know that we typically go on this trip annually with my family. Work had been particularly stressful for both of us this year so we decided to fly a couple days earlier than my parents. Plus the flights were better deals going early on a Thursday rather than waiting till Saturday.

My family usually rents a villa, so we booked a hotel for the couple days that we would be there by ourselves before they arrived on Saturday (most of the villas are available Saturday through Sunday). Turned out to be the BEST decision ever. We felt so relaxed getting there early and booked Estate Lindholm for a couple nights. Super cute place! It has the best overlook of Cruz Bay on St. John, USVI and has a bed and breakfast type feel. There’s an honor bar (you grab what you want from the breakfast area by the pool, then just fill out a form and they charge it to your room later), a small pool and did I mention the views?! Incredible.

Anyways, we flew out on 3/5/20 and arrived to St. Thomas. For those who aren’t familiar with the process of getting to St. John (you can read more here, here, and here), there’s no airport on the island of St. John. You have to fly to St. Thomas and then take a taxi to the ferry area, then take a ferry to St. John. Typically, ferries go out every hour on the hour, so if the timing doesn’t work out right, sometimes, you can end up waiting around.

We arrived to the ferry terminal just after 4pm and realized that we had just missed the ferry. No big deal though because we were on vacation and there’s also a little bar in the Red Hook ferry terminal where you can grab drinks. We decided to walk to The Easterly (the sister restaurant of our fav, The Longboard) and grab drinks since they opened at 4.

We got to The Easterly and pulled up to the bar for some delicious cocktails and appetizers. We had the best roasted oysters too. One thing I’ve forgotten to mention up to this point is that Geoff’s backpack zipper broke mid-way into our trip to St. John LOL. Looking back it’s funny (and I feel bad) because he had the ring in the backpack (I had no idea!). A nice waitress offered to grab our things and put them out of the way (we had suitcases, carry ons, etc.) and he was like oh no, it’s okay. Kind of weird for him haha. He was also trying to put his backpack zipper back together with a shoe string. LOL. I thought the dedication he was going through to put the backpack back together was slightly odd, but if you know him then you know this isn’t too out of the normal haha.

We finished drinks/apps and walked back to the ferry for our short boat ride to St. John. Once we arrived on St. John we were picked up at the ferry landing from someone who worked at Estate Lindholm. We brought out things up to our room and explored the property a bit, then sat out on our balcony. Geoff went downstairs to grab drinks from the honor bar and asked if I wanted anything. I said I was good for now…. Looking back I’m like did I really refuse a drink on vacation?! That’s so not me 😂..

Geoff came back with drinks and I was still sitting out on the balcony looking through a tourism magazine. He talked about how he felt so relaxed and I agreed that I did as well. I was still flipping through the magazine at this point, not looking up. He went inside the hotel room then came back out and said “You know how I was saying I felt so relaxed…” I said, “yeah like 5 seconds ago?” (lol lol lol this is such a me, sarcastic response if you know me 😂). I said this without skipping a beat and was still looking at the magazine. Then he said, “Well, I kinda wanna feel like this forever.” It took me a second to realize what he said and then I looked up and he was down on one knee. 😱 Everything else is a complete blur and I have no idea what he said. It was definitely one of those out of body experiences.

I think I was still in shock because it took me a while to get up (see video here). Of course my answer was yes, a million times, yes! Then we had drinks, got ready to go out on the town and had dinner at our favorite on St. John, The Longboard, followed by drinks and music at The Beach Bar. We kept everything to ourselves for that night which looking back, I’m still so happy we did. It felt like our little secret and something that was special to us for that entire night. We didn’t even tell our waitresses that night. Maybe regret that… we probably could’ve gotten drinks 😂. That day as well as the days following were by far the best days of my life thus far.

The next day, we woke up, went to grab breakfast sandwiches, then came back to our hotel and told both of our parents. My parents knew it was happening before they got there but didn’t know which day it was happening. Obviously both sets of parents were thrilled. My parents love Geoff and include him in everything just like he’s their own.

Later that afternoon/night and the following day, we told all of our friends. We waited 3 days to announce on social media and I still stand behind that decision. Best decision we could have made. It was important to both of us that we soaked in those days and told family/friends so that no one found out by seeing it on social media. It also made that “just engaged” feeling last longer because each time we told someone new it was like living it all over again. I highly recommend waiting to announce if that aligns with what’s important to you as a couple!

We celebrated for the rest of our trip on St. John – lots of drinks were consumed 😂🍹. It felt slightly anti-climactic to get engaged on our vacation, enjoy that trip to the fullest and have the most amazing time, then come back to Boston with the entire world shut down. We haven’t seen many of our friends (other than a couple) since February so not being able to celebrate this next step in our lives with friends has been such a bummer. But we know we’ll get to celebrate with them soon and are excited for everything else that’s to come. Thank you all so much for your love and support! ❤️ I hope you all enjoyed our engagement story. We’re so happy.