Congratulations Laurie and ditto! I'm engaged too :)

It's amazing to be so in love and so happy and feel like everything is
so perfect. Huge cliche here, but yes I feel like the luckiest girl in
the world :)
Another AF blushing bride to be,
Linda in tampa/st. pete

Thanks so much :)
We LOVE Pass–a–grille, in fact if the size of the wedding is
manageable, we will probably check out having it at the Don Cesar. Too
many over 100–120 guests though and it will probably be cost
prohibitive. We live on the other side of St. Pete, just south of
downtown on the tampa bay side.

I haven't had much time to read or post but just read Laurie's post
about her holiday engagement and figured if I was going to congratulate
her I may as well share my news. I find this new google reader less
user friendly than the last version so I've been laying off of AF a
bit...
First off, Congratulations Laurie! I'm so excited for you and your
story was so sweet! I look forward to hearing more about your wedding
style as you progress with your plans.
I did not know I was getting a ring when I did but I had a couple of
clues that it was coming. First, my wonderful boyfriend never shops
for Christmas until the day or two before, so when he said he had "some
things to do" during the first and second week of December, I sort of
suspected it may not be for just a regular Christmas gift. Then, one
morning as we're laying in bed, the phone rings and over the answering
machine is a recording from a credit card fraud department. He LEPT
over the bed to stop the speaker but didn't say anything. I asked him
if it was his card and he said yes but didn't elaborate (apparently it
was not a card he used often and it being the holidays and such a large
purchase they flagged the transaction). Then a day or two later my
best friend found her way into asking my ring size in a way she THOUGHT
was sneaky. And all this was after our discussion of Christmas gifts
and me telling him to save his money for a trip we're taking later this
year (instead of a gift) because the only thing I didn't have that I
wanted was an engagement ring but I knew that would come when he was
ready and I was patient enough to wait. I guess that told him the time
was right. YAY!!!
He gave it to me outside on our dock on a beautiful Florida night. Our
friends who had come over for dinner had just left, and he and I were
having an after dinner glass of wine. He said how everything in our
lives was perfect and he wouldn't change anything except one thing –
that he would love for me to be his wife. It was very sweet. We're
not overly emotional so there were no tears just lots of laughing,
hugging and kissing. It was dark so when he gave me the ring it was
hard to see except that the stone was BIG. I said as much and he
quietly told me it was 2 carats. Upon further inspection inside it
turned out to be a beautiful sparkly white diamond. It's so beyond
anything I hoped for. He had it set in the classic 6 prong tiffany
style setting and said that he didn't even want to attempt to pick out
a setting that I would like so he wants me to have it reset if I want
to (which I will). I would like to have a wider band because, as you
girls with smaller hands mentioned scale, I am a tall girl with long,
thin fingers and bigger hands, so the stone is proportionate and will
be even more so with a wider band. I'm unsure about platinum vs. white
gold although he seems to think platinum is better (way to go
salespeople). The setting now is white gold.
We are also thinking spring 2006 since now we have no money (we did
major home–related additions this year) and will have to save. We will
probably want to do something beach related. I don't want to be rushed
into planning anything, I want it to be just right. Summer in Florida
will be too hot, and Fall brings hurricanes, so Spring will be just
right.
It's amazing to be so in love and so happy and feel like everything is
so perfect. Huge cliche here, but yes I feel like the luckiest girl in
the world :)
Another AF blushing bride to be,
Linda in tampa/st. pete

Thanks Stevie and everyone. I will be sure to do so. Especially the
dress decisions! That is the part of the planning I look forward to
the most aside from planning where we do it. I'm going up to NYC for
work in February and I plan to hopefully visit some of the shops with
stuff they don't carry down here. Not that I'll be able to afford an
$8k Vera Wang gown but one can dream, right?
Linda

It's amazing to be so in love and so happy and feel like everything is
so perfect. Huge cliche here, but yes I feel like the luckiest girl in
the world :)
Another AF blushing bride to be,
Linda in tampa/st. pete

I haven't had much time to read or post but just read Laurie's post
about her holiday engagement and figured if I was going to congratulate
her I may as well share my news. I find this new google reader less
user friendly than the last version so I've been laying off of AF a
bit...
First off, Congratulations Laurie! I'm so excited for you and your
story was so sweet! I look forward to hearing more about your wedding
style as you progress with your plans.
I did not know I was getting a ring when I did but I had a couple of
clues that it was coming. First, my wonderful boyfriend never shops
for Christmas until the day or two before, so when he said he had "some
things to do" during the first and second week of December, I sort of
suspected it may not be for just a regular Christmas gift. Then, one
morning as we're laying in bed, the phone rings and over the answering
machine is a recording from a credit card fraud department. He LEPT
over the bed to stop the speaker but didn't say anything. I asked him
if it was his card and he said yes but didn't elaborate (apparently it
was not a card he used often and it being the holidays and such a large
purchase they flagged the transaction). Then a day or two later my
best friend found her way into asking my ring size in a way she THOUGHT
was sneaky. And all this was after our discussion of Christmas gifts
and me telling him to save his money for a trip we're taking later this
year (instead of a gift) because the only thing I didn't have that I
wanted was an engagement ring but I knew that would come when he was
ready and I was patient enough to wait. I guess that told him the time
was right. YAY!!!
He gave it to me outside on our dock on a beautiful Florida night. Our
friends who had come over for dinner had just left, and he and I were
having an after dinner glass of wine. He said how everything in our
lives was perfect and he wouldn't change anything except one thing –
that he would love for me to be his wife. It was very sweet. We're
not overly emotional so there were no tears just lots of laughing,
hugging and kissing. It was dark so when he gave me the ring it was
hard to see except that the stone was BIG. I said as much and he
quietly told me it was 2 carats. Upon further inspection inside it
turned out to be a beautiful sparkly white diamond. It's so beyond
anything I hoped for. He had it set in the classic 6 prong tiffany
style setting and said that he didn't even want to attempt to pick out
a setting that I would like so he wants me to have it reset if I want
to (which I will). I would like to have a wider band because, as you
girls with smaller hands mentioned scale, I am a tall girl with long,
thin fingers and bigger hands, so the stone is proportionate and will
be even more so with a wider band. I'm unsure about platinum vs. white
gold although he seems to think platinum is better (way to go
salespeople). The setting now is white gold.
We are also thinking spring 2006 since now we have no money (we did
major home–related additions this year) and will have to save. We will
probably want to do something beach related. I don't want to be rushed
into planning anything, I want it to be just right. Summer in Florida
will be too hot, and Fall brings hurricanes, so Spring will be just
right.
It's amazing to be so in love and so happy and feel like everything is
so perfect. Huge cliche here, but yes I feel like the luckiest girl in
the world :)
Another AF blushing bride to be,
Linda in tampa/st. pete