Our engagement story is pretty epic, if you ask me. After the tears, hugs, kisses, and smiles from the moment were over, Matt realized that he set the bar pretty high. But if there's anyone to set the bar high for all guys everywhere, it's Matt.
I could not have imagined, in my wildest dreams, a more perfect engagement for me. Here's the story, from the beginning:
After Matt passed his prelims in mid-November 2013 (a HUGE presentation that determines whether or not you can continue on in the PhD program at Duke), he decided that he wanted to propose while on a family vacation to Disney World, planned the first week of December. The trip had been planned for months, but since he didn't decide on proposing on the trip until a few weeks before we were leaving, he had a short amount of time to find a ring, etc.
Matt thought that only my parents knew about what he was planning on doing, but when we were actually in Disney World he found out that my aunt, uncle, and cousin all knew as well. No pressure! He got in contact with Steph, a friend of his brother's who works at Disney, to help. Matt had an idea to propose in front of Belle's castle, since Beauty and the Beast is my favorite Disney movie, but Steph suggested that he propose in a new attraction in Magic Kingdom called "Storytime with Belle,"* since the attraction ends in the library (my favorite part of the movie, for obvious reasons). Steph orchestrated, along with her supervisor and everyone else in that section of Magic Kingdom, for ride to be held up while Matt and I stayed behind in the library so Matt could propose.** After I said yes, Matt had arranged for Belle to come out for a special meet and greet.
The pictures are so dark because the lighting in the library was pretty bad. We had a Disney photographer who took some pictures but when we went to view them later, we found out that she didn't have her flash on, and so the pictures were terrible. And so it goes, right?
We found out later that it is very rare to meet Belle individually, as she is kept on a really tight schedule, which is funny, when you think about it. My proposal was so famous that Disney employees in other parks even heard about it! Everyone at Disney went above and beyond to help make Matt's proposal the best.
Afterward, we were given special "Just Engaged" buttons that we wore around for the rest of our trip. It was very cool to have numerous Disney employees and even other vacationers congratulate us and get so excited that we actually did engaged in Disney World. We were also given bride and groom Mickey Mouse ears, with "Mr. Howe" and "Mrs. Howe" embroidered on the back, which we wore on our last day there. Matt needed a little coaxing to wear his!
Needless to say, that vacation will go down as the best in one of my life.
photo by Samantha Floyd Photography
*Interesting Note: throughout the day Matt kept suggesting we go on that ride, but I was not interested in the slightest, saying it was "for little kids." He spent most of the day trying to convince me to even go on the ride.
**Interesting Note Number Two: I was pretty sick the day that Matt proposed. Like, sore throat, runny nose, headache, fever. He jokes that I wasn't in my right mind when I said yes, and that I suddenly became better once he pulled out the ring!
No comments:
Post a Comment