The Proposal x 2

Okay, ladies & gents, it’s finally time for me to tell you how we got engaged! In two parts!

Part 1

For our ten-year anniversary the fiancé (then BF) and I decided to go on a short trip to Maui. I had always wanted to do something special for our ten-year anniversary, especially since there were so many years we couldn’t celebrate (my favorite is when we had a big fancy dinner planned for our 6^th anniversary and my brother called the day before and said this: “There was a small fire in my dorm room and now it smells funny. I’m coming to stay with you this weekend.”).

Neither of us had ever been to Hawaii, and we were very excited. I thought a proposal was possible; I had recently re-warmed to the idea of marriage, I had just finished grad school, he was almost done with grad school, it was our 10^th anniversary, and we were in Hawaii. It just made sense. We had an amazing time the first couple days in Hawaii; we snorkeled with sea turtles, we hiked to petroglyphs, we drank many pina coladas and mai tais. But after our actual anniversary day ended without a proposal, I wasn’t sure it was going to happen. We only had one day left on the island and we decided to drive the Hana Highway. The Hana Highway is a beautiful (and intense) drive with many places to stop off and explore. About halfway through the drive we pulled off to do a short hike to a small waterfall. We were all alone there, so I went to set up a picture.

This isn’t the best picture of us (at all!), but you can see Mr. Cheetah holding the ring box in his clasped hand on the right.

Right after the picture was taken Mr. Cheetah turned to me and showed me the ring. And didn’t say anything! Finally I said “and?” He asked me to marry him, I said yes and then came the very sweet speech. :) Which I wish I remembered better...

Here’s the ring! It’s a lovely sapphire and he picked it out himself. This photo was taken right after his proposal.

And one more back home:

And a better shot of the proposal spot:

Unlike most newly engaged couples, we didn’t start calling people right away. We wanted to enjoy the new engagement and the last hours of our vacation just the two of us. But I did call my sister from the airport the next day.

Part 2

Mr. Cheetah and I wanted to enjoy the first day or two of our proposal by ourselves. And that’s true… but I also had another reason for keeping it to ourselves in the very beginning. I knew this proposal wasn’t over yet.

Many years ago Mr. Cheetah and I were talking about weddings, engagements, and proposals. Neither of us was quite ready for that step, but we like to talk about everything. I mentioned that I could see myself proposing to him and that I didn’t think the proposal was only the man’s job. While Mr. Cheetah agreed that a proposal wasn’t just a “man’s job,” he also confessed that proposing to me was something he really wanted to do. I knew then I had to let him propose first. And I mean first, because I had a plan to propose back to Mr. Cheetah after he asked me.

We returned home from Hawaii (with a ring on my finger) late in the evening. The next morning Mr. Cheetah had to get up early to run an errand, but was planning to return to bed. While he was gone I left a little present on his pillow*:

When he came home he was very surprised! I proposed to him and he accepted! Although he didn’t technically say yes until a few minutes later over breakfast ;).

Now the engagement was 100% official and we started spreading the word like peanut butter on toast!

*About a year before the actual proposal I felt it was time to get prepared and I bought these cufflinks as a proposal gift. I considered getting him a ring or a watch, but I knew that he really wanted nice cufflinks, and this way he can wear them on our wedding day. Turns out he actually bought the ring around the same time—we had them both burning holes in our pockets (or secret hiding spots) for almost a year!

*all personal photos*