The Engagement Story: Friday

I'm a Cancer, and to be quite honest, my July birthday has always been a bit of an inconvenience to me.

As a kid, my friends were always gone on family vacations or busy with summer camps, leaving birthday parties difficult to organize. As an adult, who wants to do anything in July in Texas? Too hot to eat, too humid to dress up (or wear much of anything for that matter, let alone look cute).

But after so many years of lackluster celebrations, I finally had a breakthrough last summer: why not postpone the festivities?

For my actual birthday, Clay got me some old music records and a two-night stay at an adorable little bed & breakfast in Fredericksburg. Um, he must know me really well (understatement), because I was ecstatic at the thought of a cozy little weekend trip! Plus, my family's got some serious German roots, the appreciation of which was passed down to me, and so a birthday weekend of sausage and beer? Check! Double check!

[Kusenberger Cabin, Fredericksburg, TX, December 2009]
My birthday present from Clay

But because July 2009 turned out to be one of the hottest months on record for Austin, we decided to postpone my birthday getaway by 5 months, setting the stage for what turned out to be much more than a "birthday" weekend.

Friday the 18th of December in the year 2009, I took a vacation day from work. After all, it was my birthday! Clay and I slept in (past 9am - go nuts!), got an oil change, went for a 5-mile jog, got a quick pedicure (just me, not Clay), and had brunch at Austin Java, all before heading out on a peaceful hour and a half drive through the beautiful Texas Hill Country. All day we were giddy with excitement. Hello, vacation!

On the way to Fredericksburg, we stopped at Becker and then Torre di Pietra vineyards for some wine tastings, catching a beautiful sunset on the outside private patio of that last one. Romantic, right? We were only getting started.

15 minutes later we arrived at our B&B, which turned out to be an old German cabin halfway between Fredericksburg and Luckenbach. The front porch looked out onto a beautiful pasture with grazing animals, perfectly secluded and tucked away, miles away from city lights and sounds.

[Front porch view, December 2009]
Early morning frost

We got settled, and around 8pm Friday night drove into town and dined at the Navajo Grill, a quaint little restaurant off the main street. There we ordered a bottle of Becker wine that we'd tasted earlier (Cab Sauv-Cab Franc mix) and feasted on cheese and fruit, fresh green salads, green chile corn grits, and cedar plank salmon, topping it all off with homemade creme brulee and raspberries, my favorite. Normally we'd both have been happy at the local brew pub (sausage and beer, remember?), but this was a special occasion. It was my birthday!

After dinner was a 30-minute drive out to Johnson City to see the breathtaking Christmas lights while sipping on hot cocoa. Christmas was only a week away, and since we're both kind of big Christmas people (Clay especially), we were totally stoked to get into the Christmas spirit. It was freezing that night (all the better - that rarely happens in Texas!), and so we didn't stay long, but just long enough to snap cheesy photos of ourselves in front of the "Hill Country Style" courthouse.

[Johnson City Courthouse, December 18, 2009]
Clay posing with some hot cocoa

[Johnson City Electric Company, December 18, 2009]

Ok, I know I'm long winded and all, and you're probably wondering, what does all this have to do with the engagement? Get to the good part already! But hopefully you'll soon be empathetic to my complete surprise at what was to happen next. I mean, come on: Hill Country sunset, cozy German cabin, romantic dinner, snuggling against each other on a crisp December night with the beautiful backdrop of sparkling Christmas lights? How could you possibly get any more romantic?

Answer: With a marriage proposal, on one knee, in front a roaring fire back at our cabin, sometime around the stroke of midnight. All that after spending the absolute perfect day together. I was floored. In fact, it's been over 5 weeks since that night and I still can't get over it.

[The scene of the proposal. Clay sat on the left, Meredith sat on the right. Photo taken December 19,2009]

And so there you have it. A recap of my best (birth)day ever. Postponement went pretty well for me, don't you think? Maybe now I'm eligible to become an honorary Sagittarius.

The Ring Story

What every girl wants to know... The ring! Tell me about the ring!

Well ladies (and gentlemen, too, I don't discriminate), it's beautiful. And perfect. And I love just exactly the way it happened, the way it all played out. It's a story I like to tell myself over and over again. And so now I will tell it to you.

After Clay proposed, he later asked me if I even saw the ring. Was I holding it high enough? was his main concern. Well yes, of course I saw it. But when he asked me to marry him, I went straight for, well, him. Not the piece of hardware between his thumb and forefinger. I went straight for his face, found his eyes, and a few moments of silent communication passed between the two of us. This was a moment, a big moment, one of those that you know is life-changing even as it is happening. I wanted to savor it as long as possible.

When the moment had passed, we both realized he was still holding this ring, probably feeling a little silly that it still wasn't on my finger. He slid it on, we kissed, and then the question portion of the evening began.

Oh yes. Questions. Believe me, I was all business that night. I wanted to know exactly where he bought the ring, who helped him, what made him decide this ring/ this weekend, when he picked it up... pretty much every detail he had been up to over the past few weeks. I needed answers!

Turns out he had taken my best friend Lauren ring shopping that entire week prior, to Russell Korman here in Austin. He called her Monday with a "question", which of course made her quickly privy to his intentions. They looked and looked, and didn't find the right diamond on Tuesday. Wednesday they went back, when the jeweler had gotten in more diamonds, and in that bunch they found the right one. A real sparkler. Seriously. It's so sparkly! But Lauren informed Clay that, quote, Sparkle is good. And Lauren, I agree.

Over the next 24 hours the ring was made. Clay picked it up Thursday, proposed on Friday. The man knew what he wanted, what can I say?

And so the perfect ring for me is as follows: 6-prong solitaire on a delicate platinum band, with an extra side of sparkle please. It's a simple, beautiful, timeless engagement ring that I catch myself staring at every now and then.

To set the record straight, I'm pretty far from materialistic. I don't wear jewelry, I've always been a bit tomboy-ish, and I've never been one of those girls to ooh and aah over any piece of jewelry, let alone an engagement ring. But it reminds me of the thought that was put into its selection. Of who gave it to me. Of the commitment we're making. And that to me is something pretty wonderful. Worth staring at, in complete and utter amazement, every now and again.

Hello, World!

Well, it's officially been two weeks. Two weeks since I managed to breathlessly utter a couple of unrehearsed words to the question my boyfriend so proudly proposed. Will you marry me? he grinned. Of course, I so simply replied, after several seconds of stunned silence.

Days later I would think, Ugh, what an idiot. :: Yes! I mean, yes, of course! :: Gah, I mean really, who says, Of course? How dopey. Maybe I should have planned out my response a little more, just in case my boyfriend got around to getting down on one knee, because while I've seen all the romantic movies and read all the romance novels, it still manages to feel brand new and different when it's happening right in front of your eyes.

So even though the flawless evening trembled ever so slightly with my not-so-smooth babble, it slowly began to sink in that... I'M ENGAGED!! I'M GETTING MARRIED!! TO A REAL PERSON!! SOMEONE ACTUALLY WANTS TO SPEND THE REST OF THEIR LIFE WITH ME!! MEEEEE!!

Ok, Whoa there. Down girl. Breathe, deep breaths. Taaaake it easy, sheesh, you have no idea what's ahead of you.

And truthfully, when I say no idea, I mean no earthly clue. I have not dreamed of my special day since girlhood, I have no idea what the difference is between Strasbourg and Kensington silver patterns, and I'm clueless when it comes to choosing my bridesmaids or selecting the perfect dress or deciding which flowers to adorn every inch of my yet undetermined wedding venue. When it comes to weddings, I'm (gulp) a dead woman. Hold me.

But, I've found my man, that I'm sure of, the man I want to be with forever, and that's more than enough to keep me going in this head-first plunge through the sometimes scary-sounding land of weddings.

And so, in the spirit of the amazing, unknown, wonderful, and anxious events that are about to transpire following our incredible engagement weekend, I decided to create this blog to document my possible morphism from champion-for-single-girls to bridezilla-deluxe. Well, hopefully we won't go that far, but it'll be a fun and probably quite amusing journey any way you slice it.

I mean really: I'm getting mar-ried. This is something you won't want to miss.