Engagement!

As you all already know, Eric and I are engaged!! It happened July 1st when we were in Florida. The past two weeks have been a complete whirlwind; I’m just now finally getting a chance to document it. We’re already almost halfway through the month and I have no idea where the time went. I’m hoping I’ll be able to get caught up on documenting everything but I’ll start with the engagement 🙂

Eric had been in Orlando all week for work and my plan was to fly down Thursday night to meet him so we could do Disney on Friday and maybe get some beach time for a couple days.

It was late Thursday night by the time I got there and we had an early morning planned – we wanted to get to the park right when it opened.

He later told me he was basically sitting on the ring box the entire 30-40 minute drive to Disney so that I wouldn’t see it in his pocket.

We decided to take the ferry over to the park instead of the monorail.

Little did I know what was in store for us at that castle.

Eric later told me he made me go through security first so that he could whisper to one of the security ladies that he had a ring so that hopefully he wouldn’t have to take it out.

The whole place was magical as soon as we walked in. It was like stepping into a fairytale world. There were people singing and dancing in the streets, everyone was so friendly whether it was an employee or a visitor. The sun was shining and Cinderella’s castle was right in front of us.

As we started walking up to the castle, we saw a photographer in the middle of the street taking pictures for people. I gave him my camera so I could get a picture. Eric asked him if they had photographers stationed all the way up to the castle. He wanted to get a picture closer.

Once we got all the way up to the castle, there were two very small lines for photographers taking pictures. Eric told me to get in one line and he went over to the other to see if it would go quicker. I saw him lean over and say something to the photographer and then handed him his GoPro (video camera). He motioned me over, I saw him get down on one knee, and with ring in hand he belted out “L-A-U-R-E-N Will you marry me?” (It was to the tune of “M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E”  Super cute and clever but I think I was in too much shock to even realize until after the fact.

We took the camera back so that the photographer could continue taking pictures of the people waiting in line. He came back over and as he was hugging me, I started shaking and tearing up so we just kind of took a minute to ourselves. I calmed down and finally got the ring out of the box and on my finger.  Everyone cheered and congratulated us and were all so sweet and willing to take pictures for us.

I couldn’t imagine a more magical place to get engaged and I still am baffled how he was able to sneak a ring in without me knowing – I literally was shocked when I realized he was actually proposing.

It was so perfect that it happened first thing in the morning because it made the rest of the day so much more special. After a lot of taking pictures, messaging family, calming down, and regrouping, we headed over to our first ride of the day – Space mountain.

Just looking back on these pictures is so fun for me because I don’t know if I’ve ever had so much fun. We were on such a high from getting engaged that we were already having the best day – getting to ride rides at Disney World after was just the icing on the cake 🙂

It’s a small world after all.

Someone was handing out buttons in the street – Eric got one saying “I’m celebrating” and I got “Happily Ever After”.

Stopping for lunch.

We decided we had to get Mickey/Minnie shirts.

In line for Splash Mountain – probably one of my favorites of the day.

Thunder Mountain Railroad

Since Eric’s family knew he was going to propose, they graciously got us a reservation at Crystal Palace (delicious buffet style food, beautiful place, and you get to take pictures with various characters).

The reservation was around 4 PM and it was perfect timing because it started pouring rain as we were inside eating. It stopped as we were leaving but the whole afternoon was off and on storming the rest of the day. We were so glad we got in almost everything we had wanted to do early.

Relaxing on the people mover as we waited out some of the storm.

Once we got rained on and our clothes were wet, our new shirts came in handy!

A lot of the rides were closed temporarily due to weather. The only ride we really really wanted to do that we didn’t get a chance to yet was Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (which typically has a pretty long wait). We got in line even though it was closed because we knew if they opened it soon, we would be some of the first on. After a needed reprieve from the heat, the rain cooled us off and then the skies parted and the ride opened back up! It worked! We were on one of the first trains.

By later that afternoon, the weather was not showing any sign of letting up. If it kept raining, they were going to cancel the fireworks which were still not for another 3 hours. We got to do everything we wanted and so much more, we decided we would forgo the potential fireworks and head out since we knew it would be a late night already.

Back to the car. Thank you Disney for the best day 🙂

We literally had the time of our lives at Disney. I know it’s only been two weeks but we’ve probably talked about it every day and love reminiscing about it. I couldn’t imagine a more magical day having a blast, laughing, and running around like kids with my best friend and the man I’m going to marry. I’m a lucky lady and could not be more grateful.