Lovely Little Proposal Story and Engagement Shoot: Stephanie & Mathew

Today’s post is coming to you in two parts - because once I heard Stephanie and Mathew’s engagement story, I just had to share it, before the engagement photos! Lucky for us, Stephanie has pictures to document her proposal, so we all get to relive the moment with her! Make sure to make your way all the way to the bottom for the second part, their engagement photos!

Stephanie is such a sweetheart, and the writer behind The Vintage Modern Bride {go take a look!}; I have so enjoyed “meeting” her in this blogging world, and can’t wait to see her wedding come together! Here is her story:

July 17th, 2010 would be the birthday that I would never forget. It was my 24th birthday and I’d been spending the past few days in Houston visiting my sisters and nieces, as well as going to a Michael Buble concert. Mathew had told me that I would need to leave Houston by 7 am if I was going to have all of my birthday surprises, so I decided to leave Houston at 6:45 with my sister Heather. Heather and I drove 3 hours to Waco, and finally arrived a few minutes before 10 am. Upon arrival, we unloaded all of our luggage, proceeded to show everyone all the nice stuff that I bought, and put on a fresh face because Mathew said we were going to be leaving the house soon.

As I was getting ready Mathew covered my eyes and took me to the living room where he surprised me with a card and a vase full of flowers. The arrangement had 2 dozen red roses, 1 dozen pink, stargazer lilies, and baby’s breath. It was the biggest arrangement I had ever gotten and I excitedly hugged Mathew.

After I read my card, Mathew came up behind me and blindfolded me, and whisked me away to Panera! Panera was amazingly good and after we ate and chatted, Mathew blindfolded me again and took me to James Avery.

He took my rings off of my fingers and told me that I would have to stay in the car while he went in and dropped them off to get polished. While inside (and without my knowledge), Mathew asked the sales clerk to polish the rings and then to call later on to tell us that the polishing machine was broken and that the rings would not be available to pick up until the following day. After getting back in the car, Mathew drove me to Dillards.

While at the Dillards, Mathew told me that I could pick any dress that I wanted to wear at a fancy dinner that night.The sales associate at Dillard’s was more than happy to help us find a dress for the birthday dinner, so she pulled about 10-15 dresses off the racks for me to try on. Fortunately for me, I only had to try on 2 of those dresses! While trying on dresses, Mathew’s phone kept ringing off the hook from all of our friends texting him and asking him how the day was going. Especially sweet, Mathew told one of our friends, Beth Anne, that I was “so beautiful” while I tried on dresses. After we decided on dress number 2, Mathew walked me over to the shoe department and told me to pick any pair of shoes that went with my brand new dress. I chose black heels with silver sparkles on them that just went perfectly with the new dress. After purchasing the shoes, we both walked to the MAC counter, and Mathew told me that I could pick any two makeup items of my choice. So I picked my makeup, Mathew bought the dress, and walked to the car.

At the car, Mathew blindfolded me again and took me to my favorite nail spot. He then told me that I could get a manicure and pedicure to look nice for the evening. Oddly enough, I just so happened to get the crazy lady nail person who claimed she was really hungover. It was a good thing that we were in such good moods, and so we just laughed about the crazy nail lady instead of letting her bring us down. Finally, after all the craziness of the morning, we decided to take a break at the house.

I came home and took a nap and woke up just in time to get dressed for dinner. Mathew surprised me another time and gave me a package wrapped in tissue paper. Inside the tissue paper were a set of earrings that I had admired months before when we visited my hometown and had gone to the mall with my sister, Heather. Apparently, Mathew had given Heather the earrings that I liked when I wasn’t looking and told her to get a little something for herself as well, and to tell me that she would stay behind to get a job application. The trick worked and I was clueless and loved my earrings and put them on right away. After putting on the earrings, the family asked us to take pictures in the living room before we went to dinner.

The photoshoot took a few minutes and Mathew declared that there was yet another surprise in store. They walked to the door, and outside was a limo! The limo belonged to a neighbor down the road (who happened to be a limo driver) that Mathew had hired. As we got into the limo, more pictures were taken and then we were whisked away. On the drive to the restaurant we drank wine and barely talked. I was so surprised at how much that had been done for me throughout the day that I was speechless, and Mathew was just too happy for words. Luckily, the drive did not seem very long, and we arrived at the restaurant. Full to the brim after an AMAZING dinner about 45 minutes later, we left the restaurant and went on our way back to the house.

On the way back to the house, Mathew kept telling his parents our “ETA” and kept gazing into my eyes and telling me how much he loved me and how everything was so perfect. Finally getting home, we walked out of the limo to find Hello Kitty streamers on the front door. This was not unusual for a family birthday, so I didn’t think anything of it and we walked inside the house. Inside the house was Mathew’s family (with his dad videotaping), my family (who’d driven in from Corpus that evening), and our friends. It was a complete surprise and I excitedly started opening gifts as we awaited for our friend Maggie to arrive (I didn’t want to miss anything!).

I received alot of nice gifts, and then suggested everyone sing Happy Birthday and eat some cupcakes. Everyone told me that we needed to wait just a few more minutes until Maggie arrived, so all the guests chatted among themselves and asked about the day until Maggie arrived. When Maggie finally got to the house, I opened her gift. As I said “Thank you” to Maggie, Mathew pulled the engagement ring box out from it’s hiding spot and placed it behind the big vase of flowers. Mathew then decided to tell everyone how we had met (through Facebook), to which I would awkwardly chime in every few seconds with something to add, and then he dropped to one knee with the ring. He asked me if I’d marry him and in disbelief I shook my head yes before I realized I would need to say it. After saying “yes” to Mathew’s proposal, everyone asked to see the ring and I made the perfect first ring picture face, took a picture, and then kissed Mathew (which he still gets onto me about…taking a picture before kissing him).

We then went around showing the ring and hugging all our friends and family for a few minutes and then escaped outside to the front porch where Mathew kissed me, picked her me, and swung me around in his arms. Afterward, we went inside, enjoyed cupcakes and sodas, and spent the rest of the evening with our friends and family. It definitely was the PERFECT birthday!

And if you didn’t get enough already, take a look at these adorable engagement photos!!

What a cool idea with the cupcakes!

And what a gorgeous couple they make!

Congrats you two!