We're happy to be the second stop on the Chronicle Books blog tour for the lovely new keepsake journal The Story of Us. This journal, created by Tacori and Chronicle, is a sweet way to remember all of the special moments in your relationship, from the first date to the honeymoon. For our stop on the tour Eunice and Sabrina tell their engagement stories-- both equally sweet yet full of quirky mishaps.
Eunice's Engagement Story:
Our engagement story had, well, a few bumps. Daniel had planned to propose during a trip to Paris. Given how much I love France, he knew it would be the perfect venue. Unfortunately for him, just before the trip to Europe we attended a big weekend festival in Austin. In the midst of the festival, I suddenly became quite cranky. At first, I blamed the heat and the camping, but pretty soon I was really irritable and after a day or two I was fuming (for no apparent reason) and had transformed from the funny, uber-reasonable girl he knew and loved into what can only be described as a total harpie. So much so that Daniel actually consulted with his best friend Tom (luckily a good friend of mine as well) as to whether asking me to marry him might be a huge mistake - luckily, Tom reminded him of all my more charming attributes.
When we got back to San Francisco I noticed strange blistery bumps all over my torso, and soon discovered that in fact I had a raging case of chicken pox. Apparently, one of the first symptoms of chicken pox is out-of-control unreasonable irritability - needless to say, Daniel was hugely relieved that I had not simply transformed into a terrible monster overnight. Unfortunately, because I was incredibly contagious, and was banned from flying, our trip was canceled.
Daniel ended up proposing 6 months later at sunset at the top of Buena Vista Park where we were playing with our dogs, Indy and Simon, just after I had caught a muddy and slobbery ball, with his mother's antique pink diamond Cartier ring. In the end, it was the perfect proposal - he caught me totally off guard and it was all the more sweet for being a complete surprise.
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Sabrina's Engagement Story:
My husband is from England and both of our birthdays are around New Years. We had booked a lovely old town house in Hampton Court where we were going to spend the holiday; we arrived on my birthday and his friends were all arriving the following day. They all knew he was planning to propose, so he was locked in! When we arrived, it was dark, cold and rainy (despite being 3 in the afternoon - that's England in the winter for you!). Hampton Court is famous for its gardens, designed by Christopher Wren and overlooking the Thames river.
Plan A was to propose to me in the gardens. He asked if I wanted to go for a walk. I thought he was crazy given it was pitch black and drizzling, but I went along. We walked out there in the cold and damp only to discover there were no outdoor lights. We stumbled around and got a brief glimpse of the Thames before heading back to the house.
Plan B was dinner at a restaurant with romantic view of Tower Bridge that Julian remembered as being swanky from his days in London. We walked in to the dulcet tones of a bar pianist singing "Close to you" by the Carpenters, which should have been a sign that things weren't going to end well. Julian had tipped off the Maitre D' before hand about his plans, asking for a special table by the window, but the guy had forgotten and seated us in the bar next to the pianist, who continued to bang out easy listening numbers throughout the evening.
Plan C was to propose in front of a romantic fire at Hampton Court. We got home from our dinner, and he set about making a fire with some extremely damp firewood. After several failed attempts, he finally gave up and just got down on one knee and proposed. I was completely surprised and baffled, and said yes!
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For a chance to win this beautiful book, along with a copy of Handmade Weddings, and Fortune-Telling Book for Brides leave a comment below. We'll pick a winner this Friday, April 6th, and don’t forget to follow along with the rest of the tour at these participating blogs!
Wednesday, April 4 – Apartment 34
Thursday, April 5 – Valley & Co.
Friday, April 6 – Engaged & Inspired
Bonne Chance!