Our Proposal Story

Big News! 

Ryan and I are ENGAGED!!!

On December 23rd, 2016, Ryan got down on one knee and asked me to marry him! Of course I said YES!

In order to tell this story I have to rewind a little to December 22nd. That Thursday was the day we flew up to Massachusetts for our 10 day vacation to visit family and friends… and I was sick as a dog. There is nothing worse than spending a day at the airport with the stomach bug. I barely ate anything and that carried over into Friday the 23rd. I am telling you this because as magical and amazing as our proposal story is… this is real life people and my body was just not having it!

Thankfully – from the combination of adrenaline from being on vacation and not having eaten the day prior – I was feeling much better that Friday than I did on Thursday. My day started off with a lot of errands. I went to the dentist in the morning (my mom works at a dentist in Massachusetts so when I am up north I usually do my dental work there) and had a haircut appointment so that my hair would look nice for Christmas. Following those errands I had lunch plans with my mom and sister near Boston so, luckily for Ryan, I was busy most of the day.

Ryan and I had scheduled Friday night to go on a dinner date and to visit our alma-mater, Worcester Polytechnic Institute. We usually make an effort to walk around campus every time we visit our hometowns because…

1) We grew up in the same town as our college so it is convenient to visit
2) It is constantly going through changes and we like to see the upgrades
3) We each have engraved bricks on campus and we like to go take pictures with them and
4) WPI has always been special for us because that is where we met and fell in love

Since my stomach was still a mess – we skipped dinner and decided to go straight to WPI. Once we parked Ryan said he had set up a “Christmas Present” scavenger hunt for me around campus. If you know me – you know I LOVE scavenger hunts. I set them up freshman year out of boredom, used to do them with my youth groups and even organized one as a going away party before I moved to Louisiana.

This is the point in the story where everyone has been asking me – did you know it was going to happen?!

My answer is that I was cautiously optimistic. It seemed pretty perfect but I wasn’t about to get my hopes up.

So we started the scavenger hunt! He had written 6 clues (because we have been dating 6 years) and they took us all over campus to special places. One clue even took us to my old apartment where he had me looking in bushes outside my old bedroom window… so glad the cops didn’t drive by… I would have looked so sketchy!! LOL!





The last clue (and did I mention he came up with Rhythms for all of the clues) led us to Higgins House. Higgins House is our campus’ mini castle and is used for formal functions – it has a ballroom, grand library and gorgeous gardens surrounding it.





The last clue told me that we had to go inside. This got my brain going because the campus was closed for the holiday – so how were we going to get in? Ryan confidently goes to open the front door and to his horror – the door was locked. #TheLookOnHisFace! Clearly that was not part of his grand plan. LOL

So I tell Ryan that I am going to go for a walk and he can figure out/call whoever he needs to. So I walk to the side of the building and sit on one of the garden swings thinking “I’m pretty sure I am about to get engaged!”

In hindsight – I am really glad I had these few minutes to mentally prepare. It allowed for me to be so in the moment and not completely blacked-out from surprise.



After a couple of quick minutes Ryan came and got me. This time the door was open. As you enter Higgins House you are led into a miniature ballroom. Ryan had set it up with rose petals spread all down the middle isle!





We get to the end where there is a bouquet of roses on the floor. At this point Ryan says his speech then is about to get down on one knee and goes… “Nikki…” and I stop him and say, “Wait – you have to say my full name!!” LOL Not sure what came over me (I blame the Bachelor)! Hahah! So he says my full name and gets down on one knee and asks me to marry him!





After saying YES and having a couple moments to ourselves I realized that I could hear a clicking noise. I immediately got embarrassed (since it was an intimate moment and I didn’t realize anyone was watching) so I instinctively hid behind Ryan and asked for them to stop taking pictures! Then to my surprise – the photographer was Ryan’s sister! She was hiding the entire time and got a ton of photos of the entire thing!!! Which I LOVE – but in the moment I was totally embarrassed by!



Ryan likes to say I experienced every emotion – crying, giddiness, embarrassment, shock, excitement… you name it!!

Then my next surprise was that Ryan’s brother in law was hiding up on a balcony videotaping the entire thing!! How awesome is it that we have a video of our engagement!? Too cool!

After Ryan’s sister and brother-in-law revealed themselves, took some more pictures, and then left we got to the business of letting everyone know! Ryan’s parents helped coordinate a big dinner following the proposal – but since my entire family didn’t know I was getting engaged I had to call them and extend some invites!

 





My dad was the only one on my side that knew since Ryan had asked for his permission to marry me during my dad’s visit to Louisiana over Thanksgiving break! We stopped by his apartment to tell him the happy news since he couldn’t come to dinner and he seemed really happy.



My mother, sister and grandmother dropped everything they were doing to come to the dinner because they were so excited! My sister had an immediate transformation to her Maid of Honor role!!







And as happy as everyone was – I don’t think there was anyone happier then my grandmother! She has wanted Ryan and me to get engaged for so long now – she was all smiles!



I am so lucky that we got randomly paired up as orientation leaders together 6 years ago and now we get to spend the rest of our lives together!