Our engage-iversary

"True love stories never have endings"
Richard Bach

What's an engage-iversary you might ask? Well, it's a word to describe our one year anniversary of getting engaged. Cute, huh?

Last year Adam surprised me with a trip to Captiva Island for the weekend after my birthday. He rented a quaint cottage in the middle of the island that was within walking distance to the beach and several other restaurants. Little did I know that he had another very special surprise planned that would completely shock me. Adam and I have spent the past couple of years doing little weekend getaways for my birthday. The first year we lived in southwest Florida we spent the weekend at a local hotel pretending like we were tourists and it was wonderful. The year after we took a trip to Key West to enjoy some sights and sunshine. So, I didn't really anticipate anything different happening during this trip. Upon arriving in Captiva he asked me if I wanted to go to the beach. I packed up our tote bag and we were on our way. We walked to the beach and set up our chairs on the edge of shoreline. As the sun started to set he took my left hand. I noticed his hands were shaking and asked if everything was OK. He quickly replied yes. Then, he started to say a bunch of romantic stuff about how much he loved me... among other things that I can't even remember because of all the excitement. He got down on one knee and asked "will you marry me?" I accepted after saying "are you serious?" several times. The other beach goers cheered. He opened our cooler and pulled out two glasses and a bottle of champagne so we could toast our engagement. It was so sweet. I couldn't have imagined anything more perfect. I've known for a long time that he was something really special that I wanted to keep in my life. I feel so blessed to have him and I'm so excited that we're planning to share the rest of our days and nights together. Planning the wedding has been so much fun because I've gotten to bring out our unique personalities into all the details and make the day totally about us and our relationship. It's also helped me think back on all the good times and memories we've had. It's hard to believe that we've been dating for six years. It feels like yesterday when we met for the first time in the newsroom of Ball State University's newspaper.

-Penny