Yes.

I have officially been engaged for 12 days. And let me tell you, it's SO exciting! I love wedding and future planning and getting to do all of this with Levi.

I want to start documenting our engagement over these next 4 months to share our story, our plans, the excitement and adventure of it all and to show the ways that God has and is going to bless us in this new season. 

To start, I should probably go back to the beginning of April. Levi and I had been pretty busy in the weeks following up to our engagement for various reasons. One of the main things was that he was one of the people in charge of the Restore Conference we had at church the last weekend in March. During the week before the conference, Levi had mentioned that the Saturday after the conference he wanted to go on a date. Just the two of us. I thought that sounded like a great idea, so we started trying to figure out what we wanted to do. He dropped the name of the restaurant we had our first date at, Brio, and I thought surely this meant it would be the weekend he would ask me to marry him. Since it was the location of our first date, it's a fairly significant place in terms of our relationship, so why not? I think he caught on to the fact that my mind started racing and that I was getting excited, but not outwardly because I couldn't let him know that's what I was thinking. Fast forward to the Tuesday after the conference. We are sitting at the dining room table at his house and he mentions our date to me again and follows up by saying, "I'm not going to ask you to marry me this weekend. I just wanted you to know so you didn't expect it and then get disappointed when I didn't ask you." Oh? Okay..

For the rest of the week, I had to decide that I wasn't going to let what he told me let thoughts begin to race in my head because that would be a downward spiral for sure. I had to trust that Levi did in fact have a plan for our future. Instead of going to Brio, I suggested that we go to the Zoo instead because Levi had never been and I had never been with him, so it would be new for both of us. 

On April 9th, Levi brought me fresh made coffee around 10:45am and we took off for the zoo. Upon arrival there, we took a selfie, bought our tickets, and planned our route while looking at the map. We were able to see all the animals, eat lunch, watch the sea lions perform, and get some dippin' dots. Not once during our time at the zoo did engagement even cross my mind. I was perfectly content being there with Levi and exploring a new place with him. Towards the end of our day there, he asked if I would like to go to Loose Park and just spend some time there relaxing and I thought that sounded like a great idea. But before we could do that, we had to venture over to see the elephants and stop by the gift shop on our way out. After I bought the coolest penguin souvenir I've ever seen in my life, we left the park and headed towards the car. Once we got in the car Levi asked if I was still fine with going to the park and I reluctantly said yes. Honestly, I was tired from walking all day and I wanted to take a nap, but since he wanted to go, I wanted to do that for him. 

As we got to the park, we started walking towards one of the fountains, which is a pretty typical direction for us when we go there. As we get around the fountain, Levi turns to me and says, "It's a wonderful day for something wonderful to happen." The next thing I know, his parents, my parents, our siblings, my grandpa, and one of his friends all come out from behind a couple of trees and pillars, each holding a rose. I immediately gathered what was happening, but wasn't able to form words other than "What is happening?" There he was, on his knee, asking me to marry him. I, of course, said yes then promptly called him a liar for saying he wouldn't be proposing to me this particular weekend. Little did I know, Levi had been planning this since January. He pulled Saturday off so perfectly and never once did he seem nervous or impatient with me when I took so long at the zoo and actually made us late for our own engagement. 

Thanks to my sister-in-law, Sabrina, I had nicer clothes (I was wearing a hoodie and leggings) to change into to take a few pictures. We all went to eat dinner together after that and ended the day with dessert at an ice cream & cookie shop. I could not have planned a better engagement myself. Now here I am, planning my wedding and enjoying every minute of it, even if it is stressful at times. 

You can view our engagement video here