Today, I thought it might be fun to share the story of Jake and my engagement. It was so cute, and I’ve gotten a lot of “how did he do it?!”, so I figured it’d be better to write about it for everyone that wants to read it.
This Christmas was my first one ever not being with my own family. Since Jake’s family has a tradition of everyone spending the night together Christmas Eve and waking up together Christmas Day, we decided not to break that and to spend Thanksgiving with my family this year instead. I learned later that while we were home with my family, Jake asked my dad for his blessing for us to get engaged, and he also told my mom and sister his plan.
On Christmas Eve, we packed up all of the presents, grabbed Oliver, and headed over. His mom only lives about 15 minutes from us, and I pass her house going to and from work every day. They decided to open presents that night instead of Christmas morning, so we had dinner and everyone settled around the living room.
I had a funny feeling, as Jake wanted to get pictures of everyone opening their presents and offered to be the one to hand them all out. He had previously told me that my gifts had a theme, so when I started opening them, I was a bit confused. The theme was warmth, since I’m always cold. Which was perfectly fitting if you know me well.
I was the last person to have a present left in the circle (hence all of the boxes and wrapping paper in all the pictures), and it was a smaller box. There were 2 things inside. First was a Harry Potter inspired silver bracelet with the quote “After all this time? Always” on it. I am a huge Harry Potter lover, so that was a big win for me. The other one was wrapped in a bunch of bubble wrap, so I started to unwrap it and saw it was an ornament. My family is very big on personalized, meaningful ornaments and it’s the one staple gift we give each other every year.
On this particular ornament, it had a red carnation, two wedding bands, and said “Will you Marry Me Danielle?” My face was pure shock when I read it, and there he was right beside me on his knee, asking me to marry him. I said “Of course!!” The great part was that carnations have a significant meaning to me, because they were my grandpas favorite flower. Jake didn’t have any idea that it would be all the more meaningful because of that.
My ring is a lavender sapphire, which is exactly what I wanted. My favorite color is purple, and I didn’t want a diamond because I wanted my ring to be truly unique. The styles I’ve seen lately all look very similar, and I wanted mine to stand out. Jake did a fantastic job of that. He knew I liked the Halo style, and didn’t want a busy band. He also knew I love the look of vintage rings. So he found me a petal Halo, which looks like a flower.
My stone is one of a kind, which is one reason I love Shane Company, because the color and cut of my stone are completely one of a kind. They don’t cut all stones the same way, they cut them to highlight their best brilliance. And each one is hand picked by Tom Shane himself. There also isn’t a big markup on them for a brand name.
Jake actually told me very early on in our relationship that I was it for him. We met over 3 years ago at Apex Climbing Gym through a mutual friend. The day we met, he went home and told both of his best friends about meeting me. When we first started dating, both of his friends separately told me the story about him coming home that day and raving about me to each of them, and how crazy it was that we were actually together. He told them there was just something about me that he was drawn to, and even though I was dating someone else at the time, he waited.
When he found out that I was single, he came to find me at the gym. He specifically adjusted his climbing schedule to when he knew I’d be there. When we were there on the same day, he found me and said “I’ve been looking for you!”, and after we talked for a bit, we went to get Thai food, and have been inseparable ever since.
Now, I am truly blessed to be officially spending the rest of my life loving this man who patiently waited for me and has been the most supportive, loving, caring man I’ve ever met.
