YES! SHE STILL HASN'T RUN AWAY YET! This has been one of the most exciting and overwhelming experiences in my life. We are so blown away by everyone's amazing support, love and well wishes. It will take me days to try and sort through all of the love we have been receiving on social media. To think the plan I started working on almost two years ago to the day has finally come true. At 37 years old, this was my first time ever doing anything like this. I probably put too much pressure on myself to make everything as perfect as possible.
Two years ago, we took Awesome Girlfriend (Now Fiance,) Megan to Ogunquit Maine for her first time. We enjoyed a beautiful walk down Marginal Way, watching the Atlantic Ocean waves splashing on the gorgeous, rocky Maine coastline. My parents took us all on a ferry boat that gave us a beautiful lighthouse tour. We had such an amazing day. At one point, Meg and I walked on a very small beach. She looked at me and said "I just want a small wedding on this beach. I want to get married here." I always remembered her saying that to me. We have always joked that with my blessed life of having so many wonderful family and friends, that we need to have like a thousand person wedding, or several smaller ones. Maybe one in Jersey, one in Massachusetts, who knows. From that day on, I knew I wanted to tell her that while that small beach was going to be too small for us to get married, I hoped it was big enough for us to get engaged.
This year in January was when I started confiding in some friends blurting out my Maine mission. With Meg having Awesome Daughters every other weekend, we need to make concise plans far in advance. By early February we started to target a day trip getaway to that same spot in Ogunquit, Maine. By mid February I knew we would be targeting Saturday August 17th.
By later February, there was a sudden twist thrown into my game plan. How did Luke Bryan almost seriously complicate everything? Meg and I have always wanted to go see CountryFest in Boston with my Wicked Awesome Sister Suzanne. Countryfest has been like Christmas Day for her, probably dating back 15 years or so. We also always had seeing Luke Bryan in concert on our bucket list. Shortly after the Patriots won The Super Bowl, Luke Bryan put up a video on Facebook posing with a Patriots jersey. He started hinting that he was going to play at Gillette Stadium. The rumors started running rampant that Luke Bryan would be doing CountryFest, which always happens in August. It would've been tough for me to pull off both Maine and the Luke Bryan concert same weekend possibly same day! Fortunately, Luke Bryan ended up playing June 21st at Gillette instead of August. Bullet dodged.
As the summer went on, Meg became more vocally suspicious. She started asking me more questions. She started asking friends more questions. By the time we got into August, I'm pretty sure nobody wanted to be stuck alone with her, nobody wanted to be the one to slip up on the big plan. Turns out she already had suspicions once we started planning the Maine trip. Ah well, I tried!
1 of 3 2 of 3 3 of 3
While we always strive for perfection, seldom does it actually work out that way as we know. By mid week it was looking like rain was the most likely weather forecast. I bought new umbrellas from Home Depot that morning just in case. As we started driving to Maine, the fog started to get even heavier. We went to Jackie Too's in Ogunquit to have a couple of drinks and help build up my liquid courage. This also helped us stall and buy more time. My parents and sister were able to make the trek up to Maine and be there for our big moment. My parents and sister have always been there for me through thick and thin my whole life, I really wanted them there with us to celebrate.
By the time we were wrapping up our drinks, I asked our besties Jasen and Brendan to keep texting back and forth with my sister so Meg wouldn't see me on my phone texting Suzanne. Once we started walking down Marginal Way, it started to drizzle. That was okay. I wasn't going to let anything stop us. We started walking a little more, when Meg looked at me and said "Oh no, I have to pee!" She had two nice red sangria drinks at the bar. Those darn sangrias! That had me make our walk a little quicker than I preferred. Meg kept speed walking, but I kept trying to slow her down so that my parents and sister could catch up to us, without her knowing. I kept blaming the pinched nerve in my hip, which resulted in her making old man jokes. She kept saying "how did you now get older than me?" Great times, great times. LOL.
As we kept getting closer, we couldn't see our beach. Granted it was not too far from high tide, but we still couldn't find it for quite some time. I must admit as much as I over plan, Meg needing to pee again, and the possibility of our beach literally being washed away were two scenarios that I didn't even think of happening.
We finally made it to the beach, where everything was extremely slippery from rain. We didn't care. It wasn't going to stop us. Then once Jasen gave me the thumbs up behind Meg's back twice, then I was able to pop the question. I guided her from the slippery rocks to the partially muddy beach, and told her that while the beach was too small for us to get married, I hoped it was still big enough for us to get engaged. She said yes!
1 of 8 2 of 8 3 of 8 4 of 8 5 of 8 6 of 8 7 of 8 8 of 8
This weekend was tough on poor Meg. Meg absolutely hates when the spotlight is on her. She's usually rather shy. See how we bring perfect balance to each other's worlds? Brendan and Jasen our besties were amazing being our photographer directors. They took all of those amazing, gorgeous pictures on their iPhone X's. Brendan came up with the idea for Meg to write our names and date in the sand, and that came out really awesome. Meg of course did the writing because nobody wanted to see my chicken scratch first grader handwriting style.
We celebrated with victory dinner in Ogunquit. We then moved the party to York Beach in Maine. We went to a bar nearby where we ran into our Front Desk Coordinator Karen and her husband Steve. We always joke that she's so lucky to have a Steve at home and a Steve at work. I finally got to meet her hubby Steve in person, and it was well worth the wait! My parents, sister, Jasen, Brendan, me and Meg enjoyed our time celebrating. We even ended up having a nightcap on a nearby beach where the weather was beautiful.
1 of 8 2 of 8 3 of 8 4 of 8 5 of 8 6 of 8 7 of 8 8 of 8
Sunday Funday! My family and some close friends were able to join us for a celebration Sunday. My parents and family went over the top going through so much trouble throwing us a party. I stressed I didn't want an engagement party, we would've been happy with just a keg of beer, laughing around with our family and friends. As I said a few times when we were cheersing, I said "I have the most amazing parents, most amazing family, most amazing friends, and now the most amazing fiance."
Getting engaged is apparently very tiring! Everyone all weekend said I looked exhausted, and I still am! Hopefully the next few days will be slightly more low key. Thank you so much for supporting me and Meg. We have been truly blown away by all of the wonderful support. After an early bed time tonight, time to start planning next weekend! I pray it isn't as Epic as this past weekend was, LOL.
1 of 5 2 of 5 3 of 5 4 of 5 5 of 5