That one time we got engaged...

shovel or champagne?!

It’s been a crazy busy few weeks for Tim and I. And we apologize for the lack of posting! So let’s just get to the point… We’re getting hitched!

Now let’s get into the back story of this long awaited day.

For the last few months, Tim has been acting quite… strange. But let me define this ‘strange’ behavior. He was a lot more ‘loving’. I started to get a lot more ‘I love yous’ and funny looks and extra romantic gestures. This isn’t to say that Tim lacks in the romantic department, because were the most gag-worthy lovey dove couple ever. But his romanticizing blew over the scale the last few months. I mean.. I got 48 roses on a Sunday and had no idea why, but we’ll get to that.

On top of all the over lovey-dovey that I enjoyed so much, he started to have these random ‘guy only meetings’, and I was never told with WHICH guys. Tim and I are pretty transparent about everything, so I started to side eye just a little.

So, I did what a girl does best. Calls her best friends and say “Guys, you need to grab the shovel or the champagne…Tim’s up to something and I don’t know what it is”. For those who don’t understand this concept- “prepare to bury him or to celebrate!”. Jeesh! Women right?!

Yeah yeah I sounded nuts, but I knew whatever it was, it’d show its true colors eventually and I’d be prepared! WINTER IS COMING! (GOT reference was a must)

One of my friends replied with a “Got it, I’ll have both ready, ‘cause we’ll need the champagne either way!”. Now that’s what I call a ride-or-die.

Fast forward to August 12th, the day of East Meets West’s 1 year anniversary. We threw a nice business birthday celebration equipped with a whole pig roast on our big green egg-Tim’s other lover. We had over 50 of our closest friends and family surrounding us and we felt overwhelmingly blessed. Tim stopped the entire room to thank them for being there with us, and a few had thought he would drop to one knee. Little did I know, he had planned on it, but chickened out.

I wake up the next day with a wonderful headache and 3-day hangover. Tim waltzes into the room with 2 dozen red roses and my eyes light up with surprise. I then get up to grab water for my terrible cotton mouth hang-over, and there he is, in the kitchen, preparing another 2 dozen white roses for me. I ask “What are these for?” he says “just because”. Well, he didn’t leave anywhere that morning so I asked “when did you get these, ‘cause you didn’t leave the house…” “I hid them in a secret spot…”- I squinted my eyes then kiss him. I just couldn’t figure out the mystery of where he hid them! I let it go and enjoyed the beautiful roses.

Fast forward again to August 21st. This was the day of the Solar Eclipse that swept over America. Tim and I met on the ‘new moon’ phase so we felt, or at least I felt, that it was a special moment that needed to be properly witnessed. Tim had made the decision that we would watch the eclipse from the San Diego Safari Park and watch if the animals reacted any differently. We were up bright and early making sure to be one of the firsts at the park. We made our way to the Condors to watch the once in a lifetime event. We were lucky enough to have folks near us with glasses share the experience, and it was pretty darn amazing! As far as the animals go, the condors seemed to prepare for bed, but I’m sure it wasn’t as noticeable as the areas with complete totality.

The eclipse took place at 10:23am for us, and as the sun made its way back out we began walking the park. I had to use the ladies room, and when I came back out, there was Tim, sitting and waiting for me, drinking a tall cold beer. I was a little confused about the 10am beer, but thought “well I guess it’s dark SOMEWHERE”. The beer was actually meant to calm his nerves.. he had the box in his left pocket all day! It would explain why he only wanted to hold my left hand all day…

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For the remainder of the day, we had planned a beach day with our good friends John and Melissa. We met at their house and Tim secretly showed Melissa the ring and told her his plans for the day. We headed to Sunset Cliffs, an area past Ocean Beach that I call “secret beach”. In order to even get to this special part of the beach, you have to do some rappelling to get down and walk around some slippery rocks to get to a certain cove that we love. While I was comfortable and used to this boondoggle, I wasn’t to keen on making my new friends risk their lives for a beach day. We all managed to get down safe and sound with all of our limbs intact. We set up shop and Tim decided to walk around the other side of the cove that I refused to risk my friends lives on. He comes back and says “lets go bub! Low tide!” I look at my friends and say “you don’t have to go, but if you want an adventure come with!”. They stayed behind, or at least I thought they did. About 1 minute into the boondoggle, I turn around and there’s John and Melissa making their slippery way with us. I was so excited! They wanted to adventure! NOPE. Tim had signaled behind my back to come along and take photos.

Tim and I make our way down this cliff and onto low tide rocks. It felt like we were walking in the middle of the ocean! Melissa decides not to jump off the ledge and sits there- which I thought was completely normal because it was pretty scary coming down. Nahhh, it was just the right place for her to take the photos.

As we stood there hanging out on what felt like the ‘edge of the earth’, Tim starts talking and says “I brought you here for a special reason”. I was so oblivious and said “Yeah, we haven’t been here in a while”. He says that he’s “a little late, but..” (Tim told me he’d marry me a year after our first date). He then turns and grabs the box out of his pocket and I automatically burst into uncontrollable tears. He slowly drops to one knee and the rest was history… And if you’re wondering, I said “YES”.

The moment was perfectly captured thanks to our amazing friends and it marks the best day of my life thus far.

High on love, and the day coming to an end, we had to make sure to call some important people. No one likes finding out news like that on Facebook these days! We captured some amazing reactions which you can watch below, as well as the actual moment of the proposal!

So, there you have it… It’s safe to say the shovel is back in the shed and the champagne is pouring. We’ll be pouring a whole lot more 8.18.18. :)

Signing off,

The future Mr. and Mrs. Cripe