It's a Love Story: The Beach Proposal

Sometimes I wish I had some elaborate engagement story that caused girls around the world to swoon and sigh, but then I remember the night I got engaged and I know that wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

In fact, in just a couple of weeks it will be 3 years since the Mr. proposed to me.

Honestly, it feels like longer ago. So much has happened since then - wedding planning, buying a condo, wedding, honeymoon, and millions of small (and large) moments and milestones as a married couple.

But since I've never shared our engagement story on this blog, I figured it was an appropriate time to reflect and share.

The date was 07/07/07 - and for me, it really was the luckiest day of my life.

The Mr. took me out to celebrate my 24th birthday (which was actually 7/6/07) at this amazing restaurant near where I lived in Manhattan Beach called Bora Bora (sadly that restaurants has since closed).

We shared an amazing dinner of ceviche, crab-stuffed fillet mignon, and wine. Sadly we didn't take any pictures, but it was such a fun dinner.

After dinner, the sun was setting and the Mr. suggested that they take a walk on the beach in the sweet light. At that point I knew something might be up, so I agreed easily.

While we were walking along picturesque Manhattan Beach at dusk, the Mr. suddenly dropped to one knee and asked, "will you marry me?"

I replied, "OF COURSE!"

We kissed and hugged and I cried. It was perfect – sweet, secluded, and very "us."

Then suddenly in the distance, near Santa Monica, fireworks started going off. We joked that they were for us and stayed on the beach until it was totally dark.

We then went back to my apartment, took a few pictures, and called our families.

Here's the pictures from about 45 minutes after the proposal...



After the proposal I asked the Mr. a million questions and found out that he'd talked to my Dad already (which made me cry) and that he had been in possession of the custom-designed engagement ring that he handled 100% on his own for almost a month.

Here's a close-up of my ring:


I love my ring because it's unique, and because the love of my life chose it just for me without any input!

I remember for weeks and even months after he gave it to me, just staring down at my hand thinking, "OH MY GOSH! I'm ENGAGED!!! YAY!!!"

I can't wait to read the rest of the proposal stories on Kelly's Korner!

It's a Love Story: The Night We Met

It was a hot summer evening at the University of Southern California (USC). Campus was the alive with the energy for the second week of classes on that fateful Tuesday night of September 9, 2003.


The University of Southern California

I started off the evening in my Sorority house – where I lived with most of my bestest friends in the world.

I was studying (who am I kidding, it was only the second week of classes, I was probably watching a movie) when one of my best friends, Marisa popped by my room, and asked, “do you want to do margarita Tuesday at La Barca with Matt and I tonight?”

“Ugh, I’m not sure if I’m going to out tonight. I’m all tired from rush and all the parties last week. I might just stay here.” I replied.

“Pleeeease come out with us” Marisa begged. “I’m sick of it just being Matt and me as a couple. It’s more fun to go out with more people.

“Fine, I’ll go.” I said cheerfully, giving in. I’ve always caved to peer pressure easily. Good thing that I did NOT stay in that night.

So an hour later we piled into Matt's truck and spent the next few hours enjoying cheep burritos and margaritas at our favorite local Mexican restaurant. It was one of those perfect dinners – all laughs, and toasts, and stories of summer.


This picture was taken a couple of months later but I was wearing this exact shirt the night I met the Mr.

We arrived back at our sorority keyed up from our dinner and margaritas. No way were we ending this night early. So we grabbed a couple of sorority sisters and walked to the just down-the-street, campus dive bar, the 901 Club, or as the locals call it, the 9-0.


The 9-0

We showed our “IDs” to the bouncer and he let us in. When you walk into the 9-0 the smell of the beer-soak floors hits you like ton of bricks. But we didn’t care. We went for the crowd, not the ambiance.

That night the 9-0 was jam-packed with every sorority girl, jock, fraternity boy, and GDI looking to be a part of the whos-who USC social-scene. It was too crowded to really even dance but that didn’t stop us. It was uncharacteristically hot for a Los Angeles night – maybe 80-some degrees outside and 100 degrees inside of the jam-packed bar.

I was out on the dance floor and ran into a guy that I had dated sophomore year. We exchanged pleasantries and he introduced me to an acquaintance of his, his freshman year apartment-mate, J. In the dark bar I couldn’t really see his face, but I could see that he was very tall. And I love tall guys.

I don't know if it I believe in love at first site, but I like to say it was "chemistry" at first site.

Ben turned to me and asked if I wanted to dance. And I did.

After a song or two on the make-shift dance floor, J leaned over to me and asked, “Do you want to get out of here? It’s so hot!”

“Yes!” I replied enthusiastically because I was sweltering. And the next thing I knew we were out the door.

“Where are we going?” I asked him.

“Oh my fraternity house is just across the street, let’s go there,” he replied.

About a million things raced through my mind. Was he a sketchy guy? A total player? Did he think that I was going to hook up with him after knowing him for less than an hour? I should have never left with him just because I was so hot. Dang this LA heat!

I wanted to just run home, but something inside me said that I should stay.

And my instincts were right. We ended up just sitting on his couch all night talking. We talked about our families, home towns, majors, passions, dreams, and more. We were the same grade, both Greek, and lived within a block of each other -- we felt like we'd known each other for years. I think we talked until 4:00 AM before he finally walked me home. As we were getting ready to leave his house, he gave me a quick kiss and asked me for my phone number. I gave it to him and exactly two days later he called me to go out.

And a couple of months later we were officially boyfriend and girlfriend.

But that’s just the beginning of the story. The real story is how we turned a random chance meeting at bar into a lasting love and marriage. But that's a story for another day!


One of our first pictures as a couple taken at one of my sorority invites.

Want to read more about our early relationship? You can see our first love letters here.

It's a Love Story: Our Early Letters

In working on a Valentine's Day Present for the Mr. I was digging through our memory boxes -- filled with letters and notes to each other. And although we're not John and Abigail Adams, I thought you might get kick of of a blast from the past - seeing our "love" letters.

A bit of background...
The Mr. and I met and started dating on Greek Row at USC (i.e. we were in a Sorority/ Fraternity). USC Greeks have a tradition called "Monday Night Dinner." Monday Night Dinner is where each Sorority and Fraternity has a formal dinner in their chapter house and during dinner the new members of each house do "deliveries" to the other houses. Which means that you can send a card or cookies or whatever to a guy you like or that you're dating and a girl in your house will deliver it to him a his formal dinner. And he can do the same for you. Because of this time-honored USC tradition we have two years worth of Monday Night Dinner letters and cards to each other. I can't even say how thankful I am to have this treasure!

The Mr's letters usually came on stationary like this:


And mine usually looked like this:


Although there are hundreds of letters, I thought I'd share some of the earliest ones from when we'd first met and started dating, because those show how far we've really come. Who knew I was writing to my future husband?!

The first letter the Mr. ever wrote me:

{Click the image to enlarge and bless you if you can read his handwriting}

My first letter to him:

{Click the image to enlarge and clearly handwriting is not my strong skill either}

We were trying to be "just friends" but clearly that didn't happen!

The letter he wrote me asking me out on our first real date at El Cholo, a great Mexican Restaurant in LA:


The letter I wrote to him the week after our date at El Cholo:

{Note: It's funny that I mention Thanksgiving in that letter because he offically asked me to be his girlfriend the day before Thanksgiving, 2003. So clearly, I saw him before Thanksgiving :)}

Hope you enjoyed seeing a bit of young love just in time for Valentine's Day. Hope that your Valentine's Day still feels like the first one together! Xoxo!