Our Proposal Story

Surprise! We’re engaged!

If you follow along on Instagram, you’ve likely already seen the big news, however, there is so much to that day/weekend that I have not yet shared and felt more fitting to be written out here on the blog. Plus, now that I have entered my *fiancée era*, I can’t wait to share all things bridal and wedding planning here on the blog. So stay tuned for all things wedding content over the next coming months!

But before I get ahead of myself, if you’ve been waiting to hear the full story of how Josh proposed, here it is!

Saturday, April 15th, 2023

Josh and I got engaged on Saturday, April 15th at Discovery Park in Seattle and it has felt pretty surreal since then to say the least. I didn’t realize how much of a high getting engaged can feel because ever since then I feel like we’ve both been on cloud nine and back in the “honeymoon phase” of our relationship which I just love. For just about the first week of our engagement especially, it was so hard to concentrate and get anything done! I just could not stop staring at my ring and we were both receiving so much excitement and congratulatory remarks from our friends and family and were ready to celebrate with everyone.

But let me back up a little.

Since we first started dating, we both knew we were each other’s forever person. We were just so young when we met and wanted to wait a few years before getting engaged. When I was about 23-24, Josh and I talked about it a little, but I had let him know that I still felt like a kid and wasn’t ready to get married just yet. It’s also a running joke for us now that since I turned 26 last year and started paying for my own insurance, the adult in me really kicked in and I’ve been waiting for him to propose and really making it known to him that I was ready.

November 2022

Back in November 2022, we started taking a look at some engagement rings for Josh to get an idea of what style of ring I liked. I was going through Pinterest like crazy to see what was out there and what I liked and started taking a look at a few nearby jewelers to see what kind of selection each had that matched my vision.

February 2023

Then again in February of this year, we started to get a bit more serious about our ring shopping and talked about getting engaged sometime this year, I just had no idea when it would happen. I picked out the style of ring the day we went and knew that was the ring I wanted, and it turns out Josh went back to the jeweler the next day and bought it!

For the first couple months at the start of this year, Josh would ask me things like where I wanted to get engaged/what I wanted as the scenery. All I let him know was that I wanted it to be somewhere by the water because it makes for a pretty backdrop in photos, I wanted to be dressed up a little rather than just leggings and a sweatshirt, and that I wanted it to be a surprise (because I am very hard to surprise!) To be honest, I was not expecting a proposal until about June or July this year so it definitely caught me by surprise having happened in April.

April 12th, 2023

Josh was working from home that morning and headed out to the office mid-afternoon (he has a flexible work schedule and meets in person with clients a lot for business lunches and outings) so I honestly did not think anything of it. But it turns out he was location scouting and was driving around places in Seattle taking pictures of places by the water that he thought would look nice for Saturday’s proposal.

He checked out a few places that day, and when he came home that night, he asked me if we wanted to get together with our friends on Saturday somewhere in Seattle. He had picked the location he wanted to do this at but he wanted this outing with our friends to be “my idea” to throw me off and maintain the surprise.

For context, Josh and I had visited Discovery Park in Seattle probably a year or two into our relationship but hadn’t been back since.

He was “asking” what the name of that park with the lighthouse by the water in Seattle was called that we went to a few years ago, when I reminded him that was Discovery Park. He asked if we wanted to go there with our friends and I agreed, even though I knew it was going to rain that day based on the weather forecast but thought it’d be fun to hang out with our friends either way.

Saturday, April 15th, 2023

The day started off like any ordinary Saturday for us. We ate a small breakfast before getting outside to go play tennis while the weather was still fairly decent, and I did not suspect anything out of the norm for how the day was going. While at tennis in the morning, one of our friends texted me asking if we wanted to go to a nice restaurant for dinner in the evening after we were done at the park. I let Josh know and we both thought that’d be fun. Little did I know, our friends were in on this whole thing and the reason for the text was because Josh wanted to ensure I dressed up a little rather than showing up to the park in my comfy clothes.

When we got back home from the tennis courts, we started to get ready and made our way to Seattle. Knowing our luck, it started to sprinkle on our drive and the wind started to pick up a little. As we were driving through Ballard, I was getting a little hangry after our morning workout and was honestly starting to dread choosing the park as our outing for the day as the wind was making it feel a lot cooler outside (especially by the water). In other words, it was starting to put me in a bad mood lol.

We met up with our friends in the parking lot at the park and made the mile-long trek down the hill to the beach. When we got to the lighthouse at the tip point of the beach park, Josh turned to our friends and asked if they wanted their photo in front of the lighthouse (which he had planned to have them be the test to see if that spot, in particular, was okay for the proposal).

After we took their photos, Josh asked if I wanted our photo in front of the lighthouse as well. Normally I am all for that, but at this point, I was freezing and had my hood up to block the rain and also keep me warm from the wind, so I said no! He turned to me again and asked if I was sure I didn’t want our photo here, to which I said yes I was sure. He wasn’t going to leave this park, especially after walking a mile from the parking lot and having to hike back up the hill, without this proposal happening. So he asked again, and I caved and agreed. But I still had my hood up. He asked if I could take my hood down, and I said no. He asked again so I agreed but just stood behind him a little during the photo to block the wind.

As our friends were taking our photos, he kept whispering in my ear saying how much he loved me. Silly me was telling him he couldn’t talk during the photo or the photo wouldn’t turn out well! Nearly a second or two later, he was backing up from me, pulling out the ring from his coat pocket, and getting down on one knee. I immediately understood what was happening and it was an instant rush of emotions and tears, I was so surprised and it immediately became a blackout moment for the both of us! Not to mention a few ugly cries, more so on my part lol.

To this day neither of us can remember the full speech that he gave me, but what matters is he asked me to marry him and I said yes!

And one of my favorite parts about this moment, especially with how planned and thought out this whole production was by Josh, coincidentally, there was a photographer already at the park (not planned) taking photos of another couple, saw our engagement, and captured some photos for us free of charge! The photographer came up to us after the proposal and asked for our email address to share the photos with us. Something I will cherish forever!

After we got engaged, I realized what went into this whole production, and the fact that our friends were involved in everything, it made me tear up even more! They came prepared with a bottle of champagne and glasses and everything to help us celebrate by the water. I thought it was just the nicest thing ever that someone had done for us.

After making the mile-long trek back up the hill to the parking lot, we all went out to lunch together to celebrate some more and then headed to the top of the Space Needle, another outing we had talked about earlier in the week to do with our friends. I had been looking forward to that part in particular all week so of course we still had to make that happen!

When we got done at the Space Needle, Josh let me know there was another surprise for the day and that we wouldn’t be going back home that night. I asked him if we were staying overnight somewhere, and it turns out he surprised me with an overnight stay at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel in downtown Seattle, one of my favorite hotels that we’ve gone to multiple times over the last year for happy hours at the Olympic Bar in the hotel’s lobby. Every time we had gone there I mentioned to him how cool it’d be to have a staycation there. Right when you think our significant others aren’t listening to a word we say, he knew this was something I had been wanting to do and chose this place as our little “engagement moon” stay for the night.

He booked us a nice suite and I walked into a room filled with rose petals, chocolate-covered strawberries, and other little treats. Safe to say this was easily one of the best days of my life! To top it off, he even packed me an overnight bag, and might I say did pretty good at packing me makeup and clothes, considering he has no idea what any of my makeup does.

Friday, April 14th

While I was at my pilates class after work on Friday, Josh left work early to ensure he had time to go to Target on his way home and buy me items for my secret overnight bag. He had taken pictures of the makeup in my makeup drawer at home, then went to Target to shop for similar makeup items so he wouldn’t have to take anything out of my drawer, because I’d know it was missing. You can just picture a man with beers and champagne in his hands buying these celebratory drink items going down the makeup aisle looking confused AF. But he ended up buying me most of the things I needed!

Saturday, April 15th

While he may have forgotten a few items, we walked over to the Target store downtown to buy swimsuits so we could go in the hotel’s pool and hot tub, and a few other small items that I’d need for an overnight stay.

With how much walking, exercise, and adrenaline I had from that day, I was exhausted by about 9pm. But of course, with all the excitement from just getting engaged, it took me forever to fall asleep that night, like 3-4 hours!

Sunday, April 16th

It was already planned that we’d be heading over to my parents’ house that day as we were getting together with my parents, sister, and grandparents to celebrate my grandma’s birthday. So during those 3-4 hours I couldn’t fall asleep the night before, I was up on my phone researching creative ways to tell my family we were engaged. The only person in my family who knew was my dad because Josh had met with him a week or two beforehand to get his blessing, but we kept it a surprise from the rest of my family.

After a lot of researching, I stumbled upon a fun and creative way of letting them know.

So that morning, we enjoyed a nice breakfast at The George (the restaurant inside the hotel, which gave major Great Gatsby and Breakfast at Tiffany’s vibes), then packed up our things and headed to Francesca’s (they have such a cute bridal collection!) where I picked out a cute stemless silicone wine cup that had the words “Bride to Be” written on it and went home real quick to fill the inside of the cup with little polaroid photos of our proposal from the day before to wrap back up and gift my family as a “belated Easter gift”. There were a lot of happy tears and the day really filled my cup having the news shared with my family, and eventually the rest of the world on our social media.

To this day, I still can’t stop staring at my ring, our photos from that day, and appreciate all of you who have been reaching out with your well wishes 😊 let the wedding planning begin!

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Thanks for reading!

XX

Kelsie