Wedding Wednesday: Our Engagement Story, Photos & Trip To NYC!

What an amazing and unforgettable weekend I had on starting on August 23rd, 2019. As many of you have already seen, I previously shared over on Instagram that Nick got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. Of course I said yes!

I've seen many other gorgeous ladies I look up to participate in #WeddingWednesday on their blogs in the past, and always thought it would be something I would think of doing too when that time came. Now the time is here, and with the lovely support I received when I asked on Instagram stories if it would be something you would be interested in, I decided to move forward with it for only special aspects of our wedding planning!

I've been so excited to share our engagement story! I was kindly offered engagement photos from Julia Marie Photography, and wanted to wait to share everything at once! I'm so glad I had a photographer who truly knows how to capture real life feelings and moments! Seriously, she's amazing! Check out her Instagram here! (She's even local to D.C!)

I'm going to give you a little back story of Nick and I before getting into our proposal day.

Nick and I met almost 2.5 years ago on June 05, 2017 during my first day of work at my job right out of college. I had a boyfriend at the time who I was dating for a little over 3 years. Nick was the newest IT trainee, and I was the new Textile Designer. Luckily most of the week my computer was having issues, so I spent most of my days with him while he worked, trying to get it fixed. After that, we continually chatted through passing at work, or through Instagram DM (lol). A month or so later one Friday afternoon he asked me out for a drink, and from there the rest is history! I broke off my previous relationship and now we've been together a little over 2 years. We both knew that this was it from the beginning.

Things for us moved at a fast pace. I moved into his tiny apartment within 3 months. This was also exciting for me because it was the first time moving out. We talked about normal future things like marriage, kids and more, but Nick was always unsure if he wanted to get married. He didn't want to end in divorce like what he's been through when it happened to his parents.

Fast forward to the beginning of July 2019... Nick and I were out to dinner at one of our favorite spots (PJ Whelihans) for our weekly Friday date night. Nick brought up the idea of wanting to take a weekend trip to NYC for fun, and do things like go to the top of the World Trade Center, and see a Broadway show. I knew in the back of my head that the engagement was coming eventually, but just never knew when, so of course thoughts were running through my mind.

We planned the trip for a month later, and I locked a hotel partnership with Yotel NY so that we could stay in the city over night. It has always been a dream of mine to stay overnight in a high rise hotel with a view of Manhattan at night. (Check out my review of Yotel here!)

Here's how the entire day went from start to finish! We got to New York, and went to the hotel right away to drop off our bags so we didn't have to carry them around all day. We were starving so we wanted to grab a bite to eat. Ate at this adorable market in Hell's Kitchen and had some of the best burgers we ever had.

After that, we took a Lyft down to the World Trade Center building. We bought the all inclusive package to go to the top and had priority lines, offered drinks, shopping vouchers, and an iPad to rent for viewing landmarks once at the top. Well worth the extra couple dollars! Once we got to the top I was immediately shaking because I just had a feeling. The views were incredible and I loved every second of it. Unfortunately this wasn't the spot, because after we had some drinks, we made our way back to the bottom. I figured that this just wasn't the time or place after that, and that it wasn't going to happen. We took another Lyft to NoMo Soho so I could get a few photo shots, and headed back to the hotel to nap.

Around 6pm we got ready to head to dinner, and went to the outdoor terrace to eat. We had some champagne and were ready to see Wicked on Broadway soon! Unfortunately, we had to make our way through Times Square to pick up our tickets last minute... Thanks Seatgeak... We ended up being half an hour late to the show, but made the best of it because we weren't even planning on walking through Times Square.

The Broadway show ended around 10:30pm, and we took a brief moment to stop for a slice of pizza on the way back to the room. I truly felt like I was living the perfect dream date. We had such a great time throughout the day, were holding hands walking through the lit city on a Friday evening, all dressed up fancy, and walking with greasy pizza literally in our hands. I seriously felt like I was in a movie.

I was so excited to head back to the hotel room to see the views from our room because we had a great view of the skyline. As I mentioned, It's always been a dream of mine and on my bucket list to stay in a high rise hotel with the city night view.

As I opened the hotel room door, I immediately ran up to the window and started snapping photos. The glare from the light in the room was ruining them, so I had asked Nick to turn off the lights so that we could see nothing but the city skyline. The room was dark, and I could hear his footsteps walking closer until he was behind me. He said "Hey babe..." - I turned around and there he was... On one knee!! He said "Will you make me the happiest man, and marry me?" All I could say was "Here?! Right now?!" and he laughed and said yes.

Turns out he was supposed to propose on top of the World Trade Center, but realized he left the ring at the hotel when we dropped off our bags LOL.

I always dreamt of a beach proposal, or something grand and majestic my whole life. But this was truly our perfect proposal. It was so private which I knew meant a lot to Nick, which made me happy! I'm so happy it was a special moment we shared... Just the two of us.

We have not set any date yet or anything. We know we are looking for Spring or Early Summer of 2021. I want to have a full outdoor wedding, so the weather must be nice :) We haven't decided yet if we are going with a destination wedding to our East Coast beaches, or if the wedding will be local. We are going to be touring venues within the next few weeks and next few months before December hits, to book.

I think that's all I have as of right now to share! Of course I will be updating y'all with our plans as I want you to feel apart of this process, and get ideas of your own :)

Now, onto the engagement photos! I am so happy with the way they turned out - Julia Marie Photography did an amazing job! Here are a few of my favorites.