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Wednesday 10 October 2012

The Proposal Story

 
It's Wedding Wednesday!

I have been so overwhelmed, interested, consumed and inspired by all things wedding since I got engaged, I decided to start a blog dedicated to the planning of the wedding.  There is so much that goes into putting the big day together, and I have been excited by every aspect of it so far - so I wanted a place that I could ramble on about all my ideas and inspiration, as well as a way to document the process from start to finish.  So, hopefully every Wednesday (depending on how busy life gets I suppose) I will be here blogging about all the little details!

I thought it was appropriate to start where it all began: the story of the proposal.

This is my fiance, Eric.



That's him high above the world in Dubai.  He's funny, smart, accomplished, well-travelled, and totally handsome. :)

Eric and I started a tradition of taking a trip each year for our birthdays.  Being that they are a week apart, we just forego buying each other gifts, and go somewhere instead.  In 2011, we took a crazy fun trip to Toronto where we saw a Jays game, a Bomber game, went to Niagara Falls, toured a few wineries, and hit up Toronto Island.  For the 2012 Birthday Trip of Awesome, we decided to pack up and do a road trip west to eventually visit my brother and sister-in-law in Osoyoos, BC.

Now, leading up to the trip, a number of people had asked me at various points if I thought any sort of engagement was going to be happening.  To be truthful, I didn't!  I have always known that Eric was "The One" if that's even a thing, but because we hadn't talked about it at any sort of length, and he hadn't asked me what kind of ring I would like, or made any hints or slip ups of any kind, I wasn't expecting a proposal on this trip.  Eric, bless his adorable heart, has a really hard time keeping secrets.  Combine that with my bloodhound-like instincts and I knew that when the time ever came that a proposal was coming, I would know right away.  So I had no idea, which made it all the more special and exciting.  Eric told me after the fact that he thought I knew, but I honestly didn't, which I believe is proven in this one undeniable fact: if I thought in any way, shape or form there was even the slightest possibility that I was getting engaged on this trip, I would have made SURE that I got a manicure before we left.  And as the first pictures of the ring on my hand prove, I was all nibs and stubs.  Sigh...

So off we went on our road trip, and our first major activity after a couple long days of driving and an extended stop in the hospital of Medicine Hat (story for another day) was a stop in Banff, Alberta.  Here Eric had planned a private helicopter tour of the Rockies for us (super sweet!) and we were able to take the tour a day early because they had some space.  So up we went over the tops of the Rockies, and it was amazing.  I highly recommend this to anyone going to the Banff area, it was absolutely spectacular. 


After the helicopter ride, we headed over to a trail to see if Eric could get some pictures of the Banff Springs Hotel (he's a pretty talented photographer as well).  I actually dipped my water bottle into a mini-river that we found along the trail, and the water was ice cold and crystal clear.  So delicious!


Sunlight coming through the trees on the trail...


After the trail walk, we went to the Banff Springs Hotel to check it out and ended up having some champagne and cognac on their outdoor patio, which has a spectacular view of the mountains.


 
Cheers! (Notice the nibs and stubs.  Awful.)
 
 
After camping overnight in Banff (yes, I said camping, I actually camped) we headed off to Osoyoos.  I was very excited for the activities we planned here, mostly which involved drinking wine, tasting wine, shopping for wine, ziplining, and then drinking some more wine.  My brother and sister-in-law are both sommeliers and have an extensive knowledge of the wines of the Okanagan, so I knew we were in good hands.  Justin is also General Manager of the restaurant at Tinhorn Creek Winery called Miradoro, so I told him before we left that Eric and I wanted to have dinner at his restaurant one night.  Originally Eric and I were going to do it Wednesday, but because we had ziplining planned for Wednesday I didn't want to be late to dinner, so I suggested changing it to Tuesday.  Eric seemed totally indifferent to what day we had it on, but I found out later I was causing him to sweat a little and make some last minute arrangements! 
 
 
Tuesday morning comes and we take our bikes that we rented the previous night and head out to the International Bike and Hike Trail, which is a 20km trail that runs between Oliver and Osoyoos.  Nothing like a good 40km bike ride to start your day.  It actually was a good ride, except for the first third of the trail is loose gravel so that wasn't the best, and then of course that also means that the last third of it on the way back is gravel, which just about killed our legs at that point.  But we soldiered through it, and after a long afternoon nap, we got ready for dinner.  My sister-in-law told me that she booked us a shuttle to take us to the winery for dinner, which I thought was super nice of her because then we didn't have to worry about driving.  Eric and I went outside to catch the shuttle, and a limo was sitting outside their place.  I walked right past it and said, "That isn't for us, we're waiting for a shuttle."  Eric suggested we at least ask the guy - Osoyoos is a pretty small town so the likelihood of a limo sitting outside their place being for someone else was slim.  Les the 108 year old limo driver did confirm he was going to Tinhorn, so we got into the limo and I raved about how nice my sister-in-law is that she got us a limo!  Little did I know that Eric planned the whole thing, and he didn't let on at all...
 
We arrived at the winery and headed right for the tasting room.  I was also very excited to visit Tinhorn because they have something called a demonstration vineyard, where you can go look at the grapes up close and taste them right off the vines.  So after tasting a few wines, we headed down into the vineyard to get a closer look.  We're starting to taste some grapes and look around, and then one of the tasting room employees comes out and tells us to grab some Gewurztraminer grapes and then come up and try that type of wine, because it tastes very close to the grape itself.  Thrilled that I was getting all this personalized attention and wine education, I enthusiastically grabbed some grapes and headed back up to the tasting room.  We tried that wine and a few others with some dark chocolate, and then went back down to finish tasting the grapes.  (I would later find out that my brother hadn't had time to put the chilled champagne out at the back of the vineyard, so he called the tasting room and told them to stall us, and ran out and set the champagne while we went back upstairs...)  Because I was so excited and thought this was the coolest experience ever, I tried every single type of grape on every single vine.  I also was enthralled by the signage they have in the demonstration vineyard and stopped to read every single sign about how the harvest the grapes, what their schedule is, what grape rot looks like, what kinds of pests they have to deal with, and so on.  So while poor Eric is nervous because he knows what is about to happen, I am happy as a clam, taking my time in the vineyard, reading everything, tasting everything and just generally being a slow poke!
 
 
MMM...grapes
 
Finally we arrive at the back of the vineyard and I notice a gorgeous archway of vines, and under it a table with a crisp white tablecloth and two chairs, with a bottle of champagne on ice.  It looked so beautiful and so picturesque, I thought it was a prop at first!  Eric then said to me, "I called ahead and set something up for us."  I was blown away, it was so sweet and thoughtful and in the most beautiful setting, but I still didn't even think of a proposal, I just thought how incredibly sweet he was that he arranged this for us!  (I have to laugh now at my complete oblivion to the situation, from the limo ride, to getting called back to the tasting room, to taking my time in the vineyard, to seeing this.  Oh man, so much for those "bloodhound-like instincts".)  Then he dropped to one knee, and asked me to marry him right then and there.  I was so surprised and shocked, I almost blurted out "YES!" before he was done asking!  He pulled out a gorgeous solitare diamond and put it on my finger, and we shared champagne in the vineyard before going up to the restaurant to have dinner and call our parents with the good news.
 
 
Site of the proposal...absolutely stunning.
 
 
It turned out that Eric had met with my parents to ask their blessing two weeks before we even left on the trip, and having received it, he contacted my brother and sister in law with what he was planning and arranged everything beforehand.  Everyone was in on it and kept the secret wonderfully, because I really had no idea! 



Delicious engagement dessert!
 
 
We spent the rest of our trip blissfully engaged, went ziplining, tried about 70 Okanagan wines in total and brought home three cases of different types of wines from the wineries we visited.  I know this is a bold statement coming from a twentysomething girl engaged to a world traveller, but - Best.  Trip.  Ever. 
 
 
Happy Wedding Wednesday!!! 
 
 
~M

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