Engagement Story

So this is the story of how Josh and I got engaged.

Josh was playing in a tennis tournament in Asheville. Depending on how the tournament went, we were planning to go to the Biltmore House on Sunday. Well on Saturday morning, we got up and drove about 20 minutes to the tennis tournament. We then drove about 20 minutes to go eat lunch with Mark in downtown Asheville. The plan was to then go see Josh's Dad about 30 minutes away. After being at his Dad's house for about 45 minutes, Josh decided we should go to the Biltmore House. I was a little reluctant because it was about another 20-30 minutes away and it would be 3:30 or so by the time we got there. Nonetheless, I got online and bought our tickets and we rush to leave his dad's house.

We get to the Biltmore House and I have a small inclination that something might happen (AKA Josh would propose). We tour through the house and look at all the nice things. We decide to go look at the gardens (a perfect proposal place, right?!). Well after walking for about 3 hours, I decide I need a little break so we sit down on a bench in the greenhouse. We are just sitting there and Josh says something along the lines of 'this is our special place' and me, being the nice girlfriend that I was at the time, said 'we'll see about that.' Just then a group of people walked into the greenhouse and Josh says 'let's keep walking.' At that point, I didn't think anything of it... not looking back, HELLO HE WAS ABOUT TO PROPOSE!

Well we decide to walk down to the pond that's there. We stopped and watched this cute little bunny for a while and then kept walking. I saw this cute little gazebo that overlooked the water that I wanted to go look at. We get closer to it and there is a HUGE BLACK SNAKE. So it slithers away and we carefully go into the gazebo. Still no proposal.

We keep walking and by this point I really just want to sit down and I really don't think Josh is going to propose. I was okay with it and just thought I was being 'that dumb girl' that makes stuff up in her head. While we are walking, I see a cute little bench and we go sit down.

Well we are sitting there talking and Josh says 'I really do want to spend the rest of my life with you' and I said 'well I really want to spend the rest of my life with you too.' Then he sticks his hand in his pocket and I think 'okay, this is it, he's proposing!!!' and then he pulls out a map of the Biltmore house and says 'wow, we've walked a long way.'

I try not to give it away that I was disappointed or anything like that, so I say 'yes, we have' and then look back out at the water. As I am looking at the water, I notice out of the corner of my eye that Josh stuck his hand back in his pocket. I turned my head back toward him and he had gotten down on his knee and pulled out a little black box. I yelled in his face, 'are you serious?' then he said 'Emily Alden will you marry me?' and I started crying and said 'YES!'

So there we were sitting on a bench, ENGAGED! and Josh tells me how 6 of the little diamonds on my ring were from my mom's wedding ring. I started crying even more as it was the most thoughtful thing I could have ever imagined.

We then walked back up to the house and there was a bridal party taking pictures in front of the house. I felt like I was on cloud 9 and thought I was living in a different world from everybody else. We walked back to the car (let it be known this was about our 4th hour of walking) and then went to the winery at the Biltmore. We then ate dinner at Antler Hill. It was very nice and I cannot wait to go back. Turns out, it is our special place after all!

We are planning to get married on March 5, 2011!