Our Engagement + Happy Birthday TJ

Today is my best friend and fiancé's birthday! Yes, I said fiancé and it still feels so unreal! I wanted to take a moment to share a blog post different than the usual ones on here and share how special this guy in my life for (almost) 6 years is.  This past Saturday, he completely surprised me with a proposal and every moment of it was so "TJ".

Before I get into the details, I want to wish TJ the happiest birthday! December of 2009 was when he first asked me to be his girlfriend and that day completely changed my life.  His personality makes people smile, his presence makes everyone around him happier, his selflessness makes me want to be a better person, and his love and sweetness makes me feel so blessed to have such a wonderful person be my other half.  I can't imagine spending the rest of my life with anyone else and I definitely can't wait to eat birthday sushi tonight!

The Proposal

On Saturday morning, we were getting ready to go to our friend, Tyler's, birthday lunch at Raleigh Beer Garden.  When we got into the car to go, TJ asked me to play some tunes on Spotify, which was typical, but only this time he requested a playlist called "Us" that he had put together that morning.   We started listening to all of the songs that reminded me of "us".  He then told me that we had a few stops to make before going to lunch.  We stopped by the place we met, the place where we had our first kiss, and multiple other places where we had special moments over the past 6 years.  He had something thoughtful and sweet to share along each step and I tried hard to hold back tears but in the parking lot of my old sorority's house, I needed some tissues.  The reason we met was because our friend set us up for one of my sorority's semiformal events soon after I had joined Delta Gamma at NC State. It was the best date I ever had and I couldn't believe how well we hit it off!

After we walked up to the bell tower, he asked me to marry him and I cried but said YES! He had set up some old photos of us, flowers, champagne, and glasses.  He had asked two of our best friends to take some photos from underneath a bench behind the bell tower and am so thankful they were able to capture these moments! I honestly never even saw them until after it happened... I was just so surprised about what was going on.

That wasn't all though.  We proceeded with our plan of going to eat lunch at Raleigh Beer Garden but TJ had told this plan to like 30 of our family members and friends weeks ago and they ALL were there when we showed up! It was such a perfect afternoon of catching up with all of my closest friends, some of who drove from other sides of the state.  It was so perfect and thoughtful!

Let the planning begin! ...Maybe after the holidays. I still have yet to finish start my Christmas shopping.

xo, Shelby