In case you missed my posts for the last week, I have been sharing mentions of Jody & I getting engaged & today I am SO excited to share the full story of the proposal! It was truly one of the biggest shocks of my life thus far & a week and a half later, I'm just beginning to believe that this is all real!


Jody had told me that we were going to go to dinner on Wednesday night, the night of our 4 year dating anniversary. I hadn't felt too great during that workday so I wasn't really in the mood to be going out to eat, but I knew we had plans to meet a few friends for the meal & I didn't want to be a baby about it, so I sucked it up. Jody told me: 'it'll be really nice, we can take a boat to the restaurant.' I changed my outfit and Jody picked me up to go to dinner. We drove to his house, got on the boat & headed the 3 minutes down the canal to a restaurant on the water. 







As we pulled up to the restaurant, I noticed the largest balloons ever spelling out 'Marry Me?' My first thought was 'oh how nice, someone is getting engaged.' At the same time, Jody walked to the front of the boat & got down on one knee. 
Here's our actual conversation at that point:
M: 'Are you proposing?'
J: 'yup!'
M: 'No you're not.'
J: 'yeah'
M: 'no you're not.'
J: 'I am...'
M: 'No you're NOT! Stop it right NOW!'
J: 'Can you come up here?'
M: 'I'm gonna throw up!' 

It doesn't sound very sweet when it's typed out like this but it's pretty funny to watch on camera & I really was in shock. I mean, it was a Wednesday night & Jody has made jokes over & over & over to me about how long I was going to need to wait before we got engaged. We had a running joke that every time I mentioned weddings, he would push back our engagement by another 6 months, and here he was, down on one knee!!!!

It took me a few seconds but I finally got myself together & was saying 'yes' to spending my life with him before he could even get the words out. 



At that same time, I heard screams coming from the dock & turned around to see our family and friends cheering & waving at us! I was shocked all over again! I later found out Jody had been planning this proposal for close to a month & EVERYONE had known about it, except for me! 












A few realizations that I had after the night was over:

1. No wonder my sister had wanted me to stay in my workday outfit - I had been wearing a white jumpsuit! I was adamant that I change since I would be on a boat & I didn't want it to get dirty. When I put on the black jumpsuit, she tried her best to make me change my mind (obviously, I did not & obviously I did not know that all of this would be happening that night!)
2. I had noticed that Jody's parents weren't home when we stopped by his house but hadn't thought anything of it. Just figured they were out to eat also. Turns out, they were waiting for us at the restaurant! I'm still amazed by how quickly my own family got dressed & how they managed to arrive at the dock before us! 
3. Jody had mounted two Go-Pros on his boat and a drone followed us to the restaurant! I thought he was just being his weird self with the Go-Pros & thought a neighbor was playing around with the drone! Both ended up being for us!



We spent the rest of our night enjoying dinner with our friends & family and calling, texting & face timing the rest of them! What a night! I'm excited to start planning our wedding & am still in the researching phase right now, but will definitely be creating some 'wedding-centric' posts over the coming months. Let me know if there is anything specific that you want to see!

XO
Michelle Paige


Photography: Elizabeth Kristin Photography