Our Wrightsville Beach Engagement Story

Many girls dream about their engagement day all their lives. I am no exception. A lover of romantic simplicity, I never wanted a lot of pomp, circumstance, and spectacle on my engagement day. Instead, I always dreamed my engagement day would come in the form of a simple, yet intimate moment between my future fiancé and me. Something a little spontaneous, real, and memorable. A cute story to share. So it's only fitting for me that Alex popped the question on a quiet, peaceful August morning as the sun rose over the beautiful Wrightsville Beach oceanfront.

Alex's proposal couldn't have been more perfect even if I wanted it to. Shock, smiles, and genuine happiness, on the ocean. When I close my eyes, I can still hear the sound of the ocean waves crashing the shore as the sun poked its head over the horizon. I can still feel the sand between my toes as I paced back and forth from the waterfront to the GoPro we had setup to record our morning excursion. I can still see the surfers pass by and wade into the water on their quest to catch the morning's biggest waves ahead of Hurricane Isais' arrival onto the NC coast. I can still see that staple smirk and nervous look in Alex's eyes as he paced around me right before getting down on one knee and asking me to spend forever by his side. And I can still see the picturesque sunrise that followed the moment I said not "Yes!" but "Of Course!" to a life of love with my best friend. Talk about pure bliss.

It was an absolute dream of a day, one I'm sure will be cemented in my memory for all the years to come. Even now, a month later, I still stop, stare, and admire my beautiful engagement ring with every movement of my left hand. I'm consciously aware of its shiny, sparkling existence on my left ring finger and every time I see it, I ask myself how in the world I got lucky enough for it to become mine. Alex tells me now that I put a lot of pressure on him to find the "perfect ring". I laugh because I don't think it's true; I would have loved any ring he picked out, but this one is perfect, like it was meant just for me.

Let's go back to the beginning:

Alex and I have been together just over 9.5 years. We met each other in late 2010 during the first semester of my freshman year of college (his sophomore year). We both lived in the same residence hall and had a mutual friend who lived a few doors down from me. One night, a few of my friends and I ended up in the hall outside the mutual friend’s room at the same time Alex was in the midst of playing a prank on her — a prank which included him adding pictures of himself to her bulletin board on the wall beside her door. As he didn't know most of us girls in the hallway, he did what any nice guy would do: he introduced himself for the first time. But what came out of his mouth made us all laugh out loud; it went something like this: "Hi my name is Alex and I'm kind of a big deal."

Don't ask me how or why I was impressed by that line, but here we are years later still laughing about it. The phrase "I'm kind of a big deal" has manifested itself as a cornerstone of our relationship so much so that even my mom jokes around with us about it. And we never get tired of reminiscing that day, because it would become the first day of the many days that would follow in our lives together, we just didn't know it back then. When Alex tells the story from his perspective, he admits he was being a little arrogant because he figured he’d never see any of us girls again anyways (guess he was wrong about that).

For the days and weeks that followed what I call "big deal day", Alex and I didn't see much of each other, but I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't over the moon with excitement when I saw he had randomly friended me on Facebook one night shortly thereafter our first chat in the hallway. We briefly ran into each other every now and again, but as we wrapped up finals week (my first ever finals week), things were mostly quiet. Alex still bugs me for not coming to his residence hall stress relief study break program during finals week (one he explicitly invited me to), but hey, I was a busy lady playing hard to get! (kidding but not kidding)

The two of us really hit it off over the months that followed the end the 2010 fall semester. Over winter break, Alex hit me up on Facebook Messenger with the whole "Oh hey, have we exchanged phone numbers yet?" Boy, you ain't slick, but the joke's on me; as cheesy as his "have we exchanged numbers yet" bit was, I still dished him my phone number because I was so happy he had finally reached out to flirt with me. Over the break, we continued to text each other nonstop. I even had to add Alex to our family phone plan's "My Circle" so I could have unlimited texting with him. If you never had to endure the days of limited texting, consider yourself lucky. 

After we returned from winter break for the 2011 spring semester, our relationship really took off. One of our first dates was /awkwardly/ attending the Chicago vs. Green Bay Championship football game at Alex's friend's house. I say /awkward/ because it was /awkward/. We didn't know whether to high five or hug during the post game celebration. But in all fairness to me, I thought he actually had a crush on my roommate, so I wasn't exactly sure what we were at the time. Yep Alex, I put that on the Internet! Anyways, it turns out he did like me. Following a few more dates, we officially started dating in February 2011, Valentine's Day to be precise. To let the story go full circle, my mom showed up on campus one of the days after we had started dating and said to him: “My name is Gina and I’m kind of a big deal.” For those of you who know my mom, this level of comedy shouldn’t surprise you.

Reminiscing the last decade of togetherness:

I'd call the last decade of our lives a happy blur. If I'm being honest, the years have flown by so fast, each year teaching us more about love, patience, and trust than the last. We've gone from teenagers to college graduates to working adults in what seems like the blink of an eye. Together we packed our bags and moved across the country, overcame a hardship or two along the way, and welcomed not one, but two furry friends into our lives. We cultivated a life of travel, exploration, and adventure. We encouraged one another to take chances, cheered loudly for one another from the sidelines, lifted one another up when needed, and grew into versions of ourselves that we're both extremely proud of today. Not only did each of us grow individually, more importantly, we grew closer to each other, allowing us ample time to set the foundation for our future. With all we’ve accomplished, all the feats we’ve overcome, all the lessons learned we’ve added to our repertoire, and all the memories we’ve collected along the way, I can’t help but smile because I know it’s just the beginning.

Yes, we dated for a long time and yes, people constantly bugged us about when we were going to get married. But we never let any of it change our course. We worked on our own time, which is more important to me than anything else. Some people date a short time before getting engaged while others take a little bit longer, and both are okay. There’s no one-size-fits-all marital clock ticking in the background after all.

Which brings us back to engagement day:

A few days before the engagement, Alex and I both decided we needed to get out of the house and do something fun to celebrate the end of summer. I had recently returned home to North Carolina after spending four weeks away visiting family in Wisconsin, Alex was about to start his second year of teaching (at a new school), and we were both feeling restless, eager to get out of the house and breathe in a little fresh air that wasn’t in the fence line of own backyard (thanks Covid). We tossed around a couple ideas but ultimately landed on the bullseye: a morning beach trip to catch the ocean sunrise (aka one of my favorite things ever, as Alex knows). Alex and I have always been spontaneous, fly by night type people, so there was nothing out of the ordinary about us crazy kids deciding to wake up at 3:00AM to drive to the beach.

The day of, we sleepily crawled out of bed, made some coffee to go, and jumped in the car to start our morning commute. We arrived to the beach 20 or so minutes before the sunrise, perfect timing in my book (I’m notoriously late for everything). It was a bit cloudy as we walked along the sandy path separating the road from the Public Access 24 marker and I remember telling Alex we might have picked a bad day to watch the sunrise. Nonetheless, we continued on, scoping out a perfect spot in the sand. Turns out we weren’t the only ones eager to watch an ocean sunrise — so too were handfuls of other people, some walking, some jogging, some surfing, some collecting seashells, and some sitting in the sand having light morning conversation, just like Alex and me. It wasn’t a busy, bustling place; it was a calming, quiet paradise.

All the way to this point, I wasn’t expecting Alex to propose. Though he gave me a few signs that I should have picked up on (i.e. his unusually chipper self on the car ride to the beach - Alex is not (capital NOT) a morning person), I was seemingly oblivious to his plan. It wasn’t until right before the moment, and I mean right before the moment, that the thought popped into my head. In that moment, I thought to myself, “Oh my God, is he about to? No… Maybe… Wait…” And just like that, it happened. There he was down on one knee with a ring box in his hand, asking me to marry him. To say I was shocked would be a complete understatement.

The first words that came out of my mouth were: “What!? Are you serious?” He laughed, probably thinking in his head: “No Jen… April Fools in August!” I looked up at him again, put my hands over my mouth in excitement, and happily shouted “Of Course!” He slid the ring onto my finger, I gave him a big hug, and we enjoyed the heck out of those first minutes as a newly engaged couple. Considering my shock, I didn’t even have a chance to cry. I was so happy when I finally came back to life, tears were just not in the cards. Only smiles — big smiles.

We stuck around the beach for another hour or so, snapping lots of pictures, sharing lots of stories, and simply enjoying the moment. As we left the beach, we started making our phone calls, reaching out to family and friends to share our exciting news. As expected, everyone was over the moon with excitement, including my mom who cried at least seven times that day. The first time I FaceTimed my mom to share the news, I was making lots of morning small talk when I flipped the camera around and moved my left hand into focus. A light sparked in her eyes and it was one of the happiest things I’ve ever seen. Really. She and my dad had known Alex was going to propose, but Alex didn’t share any specifics about the ring or his timing plan, so it was a pleasant and joyful surprise for us all.

What. A. Story! Alex and I have experienced a lot of life in the 9.5 years we've been together. Nearly a decade's time worth of lessons in love separates two college teenagers eager to "make it official" from two young adults watching a beautiful sunrise at Wrightsville Beach, together vowing to take their relationship forward and turn the page to a whole new chapter of lifelong love. We have a love story that has evolved through various life phases and I couldn't be more excited to plan a wedding and marry this guy. Here's to the next chapter in our story, one where we continue to learn and grow and live as spontaneous and adventurous as we do today. I will always remember August 1, 2020 as one of the happiest days of my life (so far). Cheers to love and let the wedding planning commence!

Enjoy!

JB