As many of you know, two months ago on May 7th 2022, my boyfriend of six years got down on one knee and proposed to me. It was the most special, amazing, fantastic, sentimental, and incredible day of my life. I was COMPLETELY surprised, which made it even more special and I know I will remember every minute for the rest of my life. I know that Ryan probably has his own version of the day but here is my version:
I woke up on Saturday and it was raining. I knew Ryan had bought us tickets to go to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, our entrance time began at 12:00pm noon. This would give us time to see the Cherry Blossom trees before we needed to head out to meet our friends for rooftop drinks and dinner in the city. Due to the rain, I asked him if we could reschedule our tickets. I did not want to go in the pouring rain to a garden all the way across the park, and I didn’t understand why he did. The Garden had even posted on Instagram that their event for the day had been cancelled, so I tried using that to convince him, but he would not let it go. As it turned out, I actually had to do a little bit of work that morning so I told him I would be ready by noon.
There was a new fancy espresso drink I wanted to try at Starbucks so I had that delivered, along with a bagel so that I could fuel up before our rooftop happy hour later. I remember every detail of this and I am pretty sure I’ll never order Starbucks delivery again, because I don’t want to change that memory. After finishing up the tasks I had to do for work, I finally chose a cute outfit and then did my makeup. By that point, Ryan was ready to go and he was just sitting on the couch, calmly waiting. He had put music on and it was a very chill, nice moment. This whole time I was thinking to myself “I can’t believe we’re doing this.” Haha!
Eventually, I was ready to go and we both chose umbrellas from our pile at the front door. I remember specifically he was very stressed on which umbrella to choose. I had asked him if I could borrow his small black one, because I “wanted it to match my outfit in photos.” I remember thinking “Okay, if the cherry blossoms are as beautiful as he says they are, I’ll probably want a photo. I can caption it ‘When your boyfriend makes you go to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden in the rain, you don’t say no’ or something cute like that.” I guess my comment had made him second guess his umbrella choice, as he wanted to make sure it would match too. He knew there was going to be some serious photo moments, but I did not!
We Ubered to the garden, and our friends who we were meeting up with later texted me and asked what I was wearing so they could “match the vibe” but really they just wanted to see my engagement outfit, hehe. I took these photos while waiting for and in the Uber. I’m so glad I thought to document these little moments leading up to the big question.
After arriving to the garden entrance, Ryan and I walked with our umbrellas in the pouring rain to the ticket window, where the employee checked his tickets and let us in. When I tell you we were the ONLY people in the park… I still couldn’t believe it. I was like “What! Are! We! Doing!” Toward the entrance there was a big map. I stopped and said, “We should find where the cherry blossom trees are! That way we don’t waste time wandering in the rain.” I scanned the whole map but couldn’t find them on there. I was like, “Ryan, come look! They aren’t even on the map. How do we know where we’re going??” He didn’t even bother coming toward the map and said, “I’m not worried, we’ll find them, come on!” So we kept walking. At one point, the wind really picked up and our umbrellas almost turned inside out. The wind made the raindrops fall directly toward us. He looked over at me and said, “Isn’t this so fun, baby?” and laughed. I laughed too because it truly was ridiculous. We kept walking. I started thinking to myself “OMG. This is where Rufus and Lily got married on Gossip Girl.” My heart rate started to quicken. Ryan made a comment as we started to approach the cherry blossoms and could see some pink. He said “Wow, there is no one here, isn’t it so beautiful?” My heartbeat got even faster. I started running through things in my head.
Yesterday, my friend Amelia and I got mani and pedis…
There is no one here and the park is so empty and serene…
…and perfect for photos…
Wait…
Omg…!!!
We got to the cherry blossom trees and I understood why Ryan wanted to see them. They were S T U N N I N G. And many of the petals had fallen, so the floor was covered in them too. It was pink everywhere you could see. I was obsessed. Ryan asked “Do you want me to take some photos of you?” I was like, “Of course!” I noticed immediately there was a photographer in a dark hoodie a little bit away. He was facing away from us and (pretending to) take photos of plants. At that point, I knew. I was like, “Okay there is literally no one in this gorgeous park except Ryan, myself and A PHOTOGRAPHER?!” I could barely speak. Ryan grabbed my phone, took one photo of me and then handed it back to me. If you know me, you know that is NOT how I take pictures. So, I knew something was up. I was like “Ryan… we’re going to need to take more than that.” But my voice was shaking. Ryan put his umbrella down and said “So babe… I brought you here because this is where Rufus and Lily got married on Gossip Girl.” And even though I knew it was coming, I still said “Stop.” “STOP!” “You can’t be serious…” “Oh my God.”
Ryan proceeded to say some beautiful words to me and then he got down on one knee. He held out a ring box and asked me to be his wife. I have never been so overcome with emotion in my entire life. I remember feeling like I had to cry, I could feel the tears behind my eyes, begging to come out, but they couldn’t because my entire body was lit with an electric shock and I was shaking. I remember I just said “Of course!” I never said, yes, haha because it wasn’t a yes, it was an OF COURSE!!!
After we kissed, Ryan’s brother (the photographer) came closer to get some shots. He revealed himself and gave us hugs of congratulations. We ended up doing an entire photo shoot in this gorgeous garden, which I am unbelievably thankful for. We got the most amazing photos and I’ll never be able to thank Nick enough.
So, there you have it. Our engagement story. After this, we went into the city and met up with our friends who had ordered us a bottle of prosecco at a rooftop bar. The server even gave us free shots because they knew we were celebrating. We ended up celebrating all night at multiple different bars, and the hangovers we had the next day were absolutely worth it, because WE ARE ENGAGED!! I love you, RPH. Here’s to forever with you♡
