I'm ENGAGED

Which means that after 5.5 years, I said YES!

And here's the story:

On Saturday Joel headed out to run errands and told me he would be back in an hour. Ten minutes later I had a knock on our front door from our mutual friend Juli. She told me she was instructed to take me to The W Hotel for an overnight "staycation".

When she dropped me off in front of the hotel, I had a feeling this was it. It had to be it. My heart started to beat out of my chest and as I made the elevator ride to room 1518 I really did think that I was going to throw up. 

When I walked into the room, expecting candles and rose petals, what I found was Joel lounging on the couch watching soccer.

I gave him quite the look and started buzzing with questions. a. ) What are we doing here? b.) Why did you reserve such a gigantic suite  c.) What are we doing here? d.) What are we doing here? e.) What are we doing here?

He told me his company had upgraded us at the hotel and that we were going to have a special date night of just the two of us. He wanted to treat me. 

Okay fine.....I GUESS that's okay.

It was a really sweet gesture, and I was excited, so I fully of gave up the idea that this was going to be the day that I was getting engaged. He had booked a manicure for me at the spa and then the plan was lounge by the pool and before a fun dinner in West Hollywood.

Again, I can deal with this.

I marched my happy self down to the spa, put my headphones in and lost myself to Keeping Up With The Kardashians.

When I went back up to the room, totally unsuspecting, things started to fall into place.

Joel had changed to his suit coat, grabbed my hand, and led me into a room where he had flowers, two flutes of champagne, and a ring box.

He grabbed my hand, got down on one knee, and proposed.

 

Joel had asked my dad's permission earlier in the week so my parents were anxiously waiting by the phone. I had held my composure just fine until I talked to my mom and told her that I was actually engaged!

mid phone call

We both cried, and screamed, and cried, and screamed.

Joel had arranged for a cabana down at the pool so we had our champagne brought down and made the rest of the thousands of phone calls down at the pool. 

 

The ring is absolutely perfect and fits like a glove. It is the exact ring that I didn't know I wanted and I am so in love with it. Joel has been working on the dang thing since November!!

  And what a smart fiance I have to arrange a manicure before my engagement!  Really makes for extra nice photos!

Did I just say Fiance!?!

So after my photoshoot with my new best friend (my ring), we freshened up for a night on the town.

The hotel had set us up with a reservation at The Eveleigh in West Hollywood who greeted us with full glasses of champagne to the start the night off right!

We did not start the bridal diet that night and stuffed ourselves silly with cheese, fries, seafood, and 2 desserts.

It was a really romantic restaurant with dim lighting and an open ceiling - the perfect setting for our first dinner as an engaged couple!

 

The whole day was just perfect, and much to the help of The W Hotel is Westwood. We were treated so kindly and the room they upgraded us in was just perfection. We have always been a fan of Starwood hotels, but if you ever have a special reason to visit one, I highly recommend it. They really do add an extra something special - like when Mark, the concierge, bought vases for the flowers from his HOME!

 It was the most perfect, dream engagement that I'm still on cloud nine. Joel did an amazing job and I can't believe I'm lucky enough to have him as my fiance! 

 

And finally,  we are so happy to be legitimate parents to our #1 fan.