A Christmas Engagement

It's taken me a little while to post this story, mostly because I feel like I can't find the words to really do justice to how happy and perfect it was, and how extremely happy I am because of it. However, this story makes me so happy that I can't help but share it. 

..........................

I've known that marrying Nate was a possibility for quite awhile. After all, I wouldn't have kept dating him all these months if marrying him wasn't even a possibility.

However, whenever the subject of a potential future would come up between us Nate was pretty quick to steer the conversation away from that particular subject. Knowing that Nate loved me, I figured he just needed more time, that he was stressed with school and work, and that soon enough he would ask me what I thought about marrying him.

However, that is not what happened.

As sometimes occurs in life though, what actually happened was far greater, and far more wonderful than anything I could have imagined. 

Friday night found me, my sister Megan and my parents downtown to attend the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert. I was sad that we hadn't had luck finding an extra ticket-for Nate. However, we had a plan-after the concert he would meet up with us at our house, and stay for some of the weekend. So I put on a smile, a pretty dress and off we went to the concert. The concert was amazing, and I was so glad that I came. After the concert Dad suggested we head over in front of the temple to take a family picture. 

As we approached I started scanning the crowd, looking for someone to take a picture. All of a sudden Nate was in front of me! I gave him a big hug, thinking it was so sweet that he just couldn't wait another 30 minutes to meet me at the house, and had come to meet up with us here. 

As I hugged him though, I looked over his shoulder and saw that my family had kind of scooted back from us, and they were all on their phones. Now, anyone who knows my Mom knows that she would have been right there behind me to give him a hug and chat with him. The fact that they all stood so far away, seemingly uninterested in him was weird.

"Did anyone know you were coming?" I asked

His reply- "Your Dad did."

At that moment I knew.

From there Nate started whispering all the lovely wonderful things a woman always wants to hear, and then some more. Words that made me smile bigger than ever before, and made me feel so loved. As he pulled away I asked "Are you serious?" The words "Dead serious" came out of his mouth as he dropped to one knee.

"Nicole Elizabeth London, will you marry me?"

Never had a question been so easy to answer.

"Yes!" I said. Not once but many times as he hugged me, kissed me, and slipped a ring on my finger.

What happened next was a blur. We laughed, and hugged, and kissed and a few people around cheered. My family came and hugged us, our friends Chase and Jordan who had helped Nate and been taking pictures came and hugged us. We took pictures, outside and then inside. 

After a little bit my family left us, to have some time alone. Nate and I found the quiet empty chapel in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and had one of the best conversations of my life. It was there that it really hit me-I had known that marrying this boy was a possibility for a little while, and more recently I had come to conclusion that if he asked I would have no hesitation in saying yes. However he had never talked to me about it, and so I tried not to let myself think about it too much. But here we were-engaged. That whole time I had known this is what I wanted he had wanted it too. And when I gave him opportunity to discuss that future, and he had passed on those opportunities he knew it was hard for me-but he also knew that, being the romantic that I am, a surprise engagement would mean so much to me. So he had shot down the conversations, while the ring sat in his room, in an effort to make proposing everything he knew I would love. And it was perfect. The biggest thing though that really hit me, was how badly the man I loved and wanted to marry, wanted to marry me.

I had never felt more loved than I did in that realization.

It really was the perfect proposal. I loved that he whispered beautiful things for just me to hear-but that also my family and some great friends got to watch and be a part of the excitement. I love that it was a surprise, that he got to do it exactly like he wanted to, and that it happened the day it did. Even the ring he picked out for me was perfect. 

Since that night I've grown more and more happy. The memories of staying up late talking about what the future holds for us, the phone calls to friends and family, booking the temple for our sealing-all of those are so special to me, and I can honestly say that each day with him makes me a happier, better person. I can't wait to marry him.

PS We're getting married March 27th in the Draper LDS temple