friend zone to fiancés

I SAID YES! I am looking at these pictures and it still feels like a dream. This day, this man, this ring, this life y’all, I am just so happy! I really want to share openly and honestly about the wedding planning process and want to know what you want to hear about! I would love for you to comment below with questions you have about the proposal, engagement so far, etc.! I just wanted to share a few pictures from our big day that was already over a month ago?! Where does time go? I also wanted to share our story, so read below…

Well, let’s see..This is Patrick. He is my best friend now and was my best friend in high school as well. But now, he is also my fiancé! We met our freshman year of high school on a mission trip bus to Louisiana. I thought his best friend was cute and he thought my friend was cute, so that’s how that went. We basically started this really solid friendship from church. I grew pretty close with his family during the years we were friends and really was like a sister to him, LOL! But really, for several years he was “big bro” in my phone, haha.. little did I know. We dated different people, well he dated more than me but we definitely were not on each other’s radars. We were too busy venting to each other about relationship issues, high school drama, and who knows what. I also waited around to get my license until I was 17 for some reason and Patrick was my chauffeur. We really never even thought of each other as more than just best friends and we were totally happy with that.

Until senior year, it never crossed my mind. It was December 2011 and Christmas break was coming up. Our relationship had started to shift from friends to more after we both ended previous relationships. I think that was the first time I thought, you know, I might love this kid. It was different for us because we already did love each other in a friend kind of way, but we broke through that friend zone and here we are almost 7 years later. We made it through long distance, growing up, college and lots of ups and downs, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The proposal: We were on vacation with Pat’s family in Florida before heading to vacation with mine in Tennessee. It was the last night of our trip and we had all decided to get dressed up and go out to dinner for our final night on vacation. I had always thought that when Pat was going to propose, I would be able to tell because he would be acting weird/nervous, etc. But he didn’t and I had no idea. We have been dating almost 7 years and have talked about weddings and things for awhile now so I knew it would be sometime “soon”. We had never looked at rings together or anything either so I thought maybe he would be proposing in fall. Or so I thought, haha. I headed down to the beach with Patrick’s sister Tori and her friend to take some blog photos that night, or atleast that’s what I thought we were doing. Our plan was to then take a few family photos before heading to dinner. So after we took blog pics, we started walking back towards our beach house where Pat’s family was congregating. I just thought they were getting ready to take some family photos but as I got closer, I started to realize what was happening. I saw his brother Justin sitting with his two nieces holding up a sign that read, “Will you be our aunt?” and then quickly heard Pat’s voice telling me to come here. I turned and immediately saw him on his knee and I literally said: I am going to throw up. HAH! Well, he asked, I said heck yes and it was the easiest decision I’ve ever made(if you don’t know me, I am the most indecisive person I know). Soon after his family was telling me to look up at the balcony but there was no one there. Well, I soon learned that my family had been watching our entire proposal from the balcony of our beach house and were making their way down to celebrate with us. It was THE most special moment to have both of our families there and for it to be a complete surprise made it that much more special. I will truly never forget that night and the feeling I had with my best friend and our families.

I just really can’t wait to start our lives together and we get to do that on JUNE 16th, 2018!! We have a date people!

Almost all of my close friends are married/engaged so now that it’s my turn going through this process, I am so thankful for their advice and to do’s/not to do’s to make this process less stressful and more fun! We have slowly started the planning process and just celebrated this past weekend with a fiesta themed engagement party and it was so much fun to celebrate in this joyous time with our friends and families that we love so much. I want share with you our ups/downs of our engagement and hopefully help you if you are/will be going through this process soon.

But like seriously, he chose the most perfect ring. I just love it so much!

Our families:

 

I am excited to take you on this journey with us and share in the wedding plans and give you any tips/advice I can as I learn!

Thanks for reading, stay tuned for more wedding updates/posts!

XOXO, LPOC