One year ago....

One year ago I was just about to graduate nursing school.
One year ago I was worried about passing my NCLEX-RN exam
One year ago I wasn't even engaged......

I can't even believe that a year has gone by since Kyle proposed. Now we are MARRIED (for three months already!) I figure that it's fitting to celebrate a year of partial engagement/marriage by re-telling the story of Kyle's proposal, first my take....then my husband's!

**taken from our old wedding website**
-Her Story-
Our Senior year of college Kyle came to spend the weekend with me for our anniversary (April 26th). That night when we went to sleep he snuck out of bed to "wrap my anniversary gift." What he really did was put pictures of us all over my house and wrote out a card for me to find in the morning with a rose. He came back to bed and set his cell phone alarm on vibrate for 5:15 AM and went to sleep.

Now around 4:30 I woke up WHICH I NEVER EVER DO! and came out of bed to go to the bathroom. I woke him up when I tried to get out of bed and totally freaked him out. He was like "hold on" and ran out and took down EVERYTHING he just put up to not ruin my surprise. I was totally oblivious and went to the bathroom, came back and went back to sleep.

Around 5:30 my cell phone went off with his ring tone and It woke me up. When I answered it he said happy anniversary and that there was a gift for me in the living room then hung up. I went outside and found the rose and card and pictures. The card told me to meet him at the beach. The beach is like a 5 min walk from where I live in Narragansett Rhode Island so thinking we were just going to go for a walk (which we often do) I walked out the door, WITH SWEATPANTS AND A HOODIE ON, WITHOUT BRUSHING MY HAIR OR EVEN LOOKING IN THE MIRROR!

When I got to the beach I saw him standing there with his shirt and tie on. When I got up to him he kissed me with tears in his eyes. It was at that moment that my lightbulb went off and I realized what was happening!! He got on one knee and asked me to be his wife just as the sun was coming up on the beach, while I looked like hell..

-His Story-
The weekend I proposed to Sara was really exciting and went off almost perfectly. Friday afternoon I flew home and Sara met me at the airport and she had no idea what was about to happen that weekend. That evening we went downtown to one of the best steak and sushi restaurants around and we had a really great time. The food, atmosphere and Sara's company made it a perfect night out. After dinner we came back home to her house and settled into bed because we had to get up early the next morning for a volleyball tourney. Sara's roommate Lisa had left for the night so we had the house to ourselves. After Sara had gone to bed I went out to the living room and put up pictures of the two of us from over the years all over the living room and then left a card and rose at her bedroom door. My plan was to wake up a little before sunrise and head down to the beach near her house and then call to wake her up and have her meet me on the beach to propose there. So after setting up everything in the living room I headed off to bed too. It was hard to sleep because I was nervous about how the next morning was going to go. Everything seemed fine until about 15 minutes before I was going to wake up and Sara happened to wake up. I was really nervous at that point because I needed to wait for her to fall back asleep again before I could get up. She eventually goes back to sleep and I very carefully and quietly snuck out of bed and changed into my khakis, shirt, and tie and then left a single rose and a card right outside her bedroom door, telling her to meet me down at the beach. Then with my cellphone and the engagement ring in my pocket I snuck out the back door and started walking down to the beach. When I was almost there I called Sara, woke her up and told her there was a surprise in the living room. At that point she still didn't really realize what it all meant and threw on a sweatshirt and sweatpants and headed down to the beach where I said I'd meet her. I waited for her on the beach where the sun was just breaking over the horizon and seagulls were flying a short ways off the beach. It was a perfect looking morning. A few minutes later Sara came walking down the beach, still not really knowing what to expect. I walked up to her told her how much I love her and want us to spend the rest of our lives together and then got down on one knee, pulled out the ring and asked her to marry me. She immediately said yes and started to cry, even before she saw the ring, which I guess is a good sign. She loved the ring and was so excited and happy because she had no idea it was coming. As we walked back to the house she called her parents and woke them up and they were really excited and happy for both of us too. I was pretty nervous about planning and then pulling off the whole event and sneaking out of the house without her noticing, but all in all it worked out perfectly and we both couldn't be happier.