Bridgette Eades!!!
Thank you Bridgette for your beautiful engagement story and have a Happy Valentine's Day! Enjoy your $25 Starbuck's giftcard!
Bridgette's winning entry:
My name is Bridget and I am actually from the west 'burbs of Chicago. We decided to get married in Watervliet, Michigan because it is near the fabulous "resort" cabins that we rent in Coloma every year since I was born. My family has gone up there every summer since my grandmother was a girl! Though I live in Illinois, Michigan has always held a place in my heart. :) It is after all, the Riviera of the Midwest! ;)
Anyway, our engagement story begins with a friend's wedding. My now fiance was a groomsman in this wedding and a mutual friend of the groom (my fiance's best friend) would be coming up from Miami for the occasion. Since we don't get to see him very often, we were very excited to hang out with him and his new girlfriend. We were even more excited when about a month before the wedding he suggested we do a camping trip at the first place where my fiance and I had camped, in Savanna, IL right on the Mississippi River. Since it was going to be a Friday night wedding, that left plenty of time for an awesome camping trip. :) (Little did I know, he was in on this plan all along)
Well, the weekend of the wedding rolled around and we had a blast. The bride had hinted that she was even aiming at ME when she did her bouquet toss to which I just shyly grinned and hoped for next time. On Saturday morning we took off and had a blast setting up camp and biking through the hilly bluffs that line the river. As dinner time rolled around and we were back at the campsite, my fiance and his best friend suggested they take us girls out to a really nice restaurant. Now I should make one thing clear, that when I go camping I am in "camping mode" which means no make-up, hair in a ponytail, dirt on my clothes, the works. It's camping for crying out loud! I could in no way get ready for a dinner out somewhere nice... but we made the best of it, washed up in the campground bathroom, threw on some chapstick (the closest thing I had to lip gloss) and were on our way.
Shortly after we left the campground, my fiance Brandon suggested we drive up to the look out point on the bluff one more time to catch the sunset. Everybody agreed so up we went. We got to see a little bit of the sunset as it reflected off of the Mississippi River and it truly was a beautiful sight. However, during the last ten minutes or so, some clouds rolled in and covered up anything else that we could've seen. As a result my mind immediately turned to dinner as it was getting pretty late and I started hinting to Brandon that maybe we could leave soon. But Brandon kept talking and talking (little did I know, he was stalling and stalling) while his best friend kept "testing his new camera" and taking tons of pictures of us. Finally when I was about to turn around and tell him that I was REALLY getting hungry, I heard a woman behind us gasp. As I turned around to see what was wrong I saw Brandon on one knee holding out the most beautiful ring I had ever seen. My breath flew out of my lungs and happy tears burst out of my eyes as I kept saying over and over, "Is this real?!" Haha, probably not what he wanted to hear, but he didn't mind as eventually I sputtered out a huge yes and everyone else on the look out point started clapping and yelling congratulations. Brandon's friend then ran back up the bluff to his truck and got out our plastic camping cups and a bottle of champagne and we toasted to our new engagement with everyone on the bluff.
We never did make it out to our "nice" dinner, but I had the best night of my life laughing with friends and watching my new engagement ring sparkle in the campfire. :)
And as promised, here are Wed Michigan's other two favorites!
Angela Cummings
As Christmas day approached, Eric and I spent a lot of time in the car, driving to and from our respective homes. Around this time, the Beyonce song, "Single Ladies (Put a ring on it)" was popular and being played regularly on the radio. Every time the song came on, Eric would mention how that wasn't about to happen- he was broke. Christmas day was spent first at my parents' house and then at his parents'. I thoroughly enjoyed receiving lots and lots and lots of gifts, as we opened presents from the time we got up in the morning until late into the evening. Eric had gotten me a few games and had made me a version of the game Ticket to Ride. As the gift opening finally wrapped up (pun intended), his family discussed which of the many games people had received should be played first that night. Before a decision was made, I was surprised to see that Eric had already grabbed the Ticket to Ride Italy game he had made for me and was setting it up. I almost gave him a hard time about not asking what everyone else wanted to do before taking my game and getting it out. Now, I'm glad I didn't.
It had been such a long, full day of opening gifts that a proposal was the last thing on my mind. Instead, I sat at the table with Eric's mom and aunt, wearing my jingly reindeer antlers and mindlessly munching on Christmas cookies while Eric went about piecing the board together and passing out game cards. In the game Ticket to Ride, you are given several short train routes to complete and one longer route. Eric had dealt my short routes and long route when suddenly his aunt started calling for his dad, brother, and grandpa to come to the table. I absentmindedly looked at my cards, and in place of my long route was a card that read: "Angela, Will you marry me? Love, Eric." I turned with tears in my eyes to find him kneeling behind me with a beautiful ring, and of course, I eventually got over my shock and said yes. =)
Now, when the Beyonce song comes on the radio, we both laugh, and he responds to the "Put a ring on it" with "I did."
Melanee B.
Paul arranged for us to stay at a bed & breakfast in Vermont the first weekend in November. I was really looking forward to getting away from Boston and especially the drive north where we might see the last of the famous "fall foliage." We left on a Friday afternoon and stopped to see his friends in western Massachusetts on the way. We arrived at the B & B after dark, checked in, and just hung around for the rest of the night. The neat thing about this place was that it was a very big, very old house set on land that used to be a dairy farm, so you could see miles of rolling hills and mountains in the distance. We spend the next day walking around a nearby town and sitting in coffee shops. When we got back to the B & B, there wasn't a whole lot to do, and I was coming down with a cold so I took a nap for a few hours. I think this was when Paul went down to the dining room to "talk" with the bartender and make dinner reservations.
Paul thought we should dress up for dinner and head down early for a drink, and this sounded like a great idea. When we eventually got to our table in the dining room, the waiter came by and offered to bring us champagne while we looked at the menu. Our champagne arrived a few minutes later and I asked Paul what we should toast to. He just looked at me without saying anything and I was like, "What?" He told me to look at my glass, I did, then I asked "What?" again. I looked really closely at the champagne and finally made out the shape of a ring of bubbles inside, which turned out to be an engagement ring. I just said, "Oh my God..." and Paul walked around the table, got down on one knee and proposed. And that was how it happened :)
Thank you to all of the wonderful entrees... I truly enjoyed reading all of your great proposal stories!
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