Here we go!

A proposal on New Year's Eve...what a way to start a new year.

It finally happened! Though Luke only bought the ring a little over a month beforehand, it seemed like an eternity before he dropped to one knee and proposed. The story of our engagement doesn't really begin at exactly 1 minute after we finished watching the ball drop and making fun of Carson Daly; rather, it began a few months ago when we first really started talking about marriage. Then, the weekend before Thanksgiving, we went ring shopping. The key word is shop; we weren't looking to buy. But when we walked into Jared's, our third store that day, Luke and I found the perfect ring. I cried when I put it on and the salespeople were so distressed they all took turns hugging me. When I started referring to it as "the Precious" and Luke started calling me Gollum, however, the time for hugs seemed to come to an end. But intentions and cautious salespersons aside, we walked out of the store that day with a shiny new acquisition tucked securely in Luke's pocket.

And thus began the waiting...

After deliberately exploiting my impatience and Gollum-like tendencies, Luke proposed on New Year's Eve. He said that 2008 was over; that 2008 was the last year I would be his girlfriend; that he wanted me to be his wife so that we could be a family and build our lives together. And in my zeal I completely forgot protocol and merely shouted, "Put it on my hand!" He soon enough reminded me, however, that a proper reply is required. Such manners, that fiance of mine. :-)

Fiance...it seems like such a pretentious word for someone like myself, whose French is limited to what I can pronounce on the menu at La Madeleine. And yet it's a word I'm starting to like a lot.

Out to post-engagement celebration dinner with my father. Note my silly attempt to display that he did indeed put a ring on it.

And now for ring porn!

It's my admission that I know nothing about planning a wedding. But I know what I like, and so does Luke. I know that my mother will employ her super-mom-fix-it powers to help us make it amazing. And I know that no matter what our wedding will be a celebration of the best things in life: love, laughter, family, friends, and new beginnings. And that makes for one heck of a good time.