We met in real life just over a year ago. Call it fate, call it the powers of social media, whatever you want to call it, it happened and I am so thankful it did. They took me into their home, let me meet their friends, and a year ago we had one of the greatest weekends ever. We promised a reunion was necessary and kept in touch all year long. This time around we flew in from Wisconsin, Boston, (and road tripped from) Tulsa to make it a mini reunion/girls weekend/hang out sesh. We were all so excited to be together in one place and couldn’t wait…. we especially couldn’t wait when James, Jessie’s boyfriend texted us separately to tell us he was planning to propose when we were there. What?! How could we possibly keep this a secret. While I would love to tell the rest of the story, it isn’t mine to tell, so I will leave it to Jessie…
“The best day of my life started like any ordinary day with 3 of my best friends in town to visit, exactly like we had done the previous year, but little did I know the REAL reason they were here to visit. Per usual, we slept in, laid around for a bit, goofed around, went to my store and started getting ready for a photo shoot for With Love, Design. The design company Jessica, Anna and I started together. The girls tricked me into wearing a white shirt (I rarely wear white) and made sure I painted my nails. We got all dolled up, took some head shots and group photos for With Love, Design. Next, Jenna took a few photos of James and I, just because she had to. Then off to dinner we went to my favorite place in Dallas, HG Supply Company. James and I go there often and we wanted to the girls to experience this place when they came to visit, so nothing seemed out of the ordinary just yet.
After a few “random” delays from everyone, we were finally all in the car headed to HG Supply. We took my car and coincidentally had only 5 miles to empty so we had to stop and get gas on the way to “eat”. Apparently, this made for a great, unplanned stall of getting to the location to ensure everyone was there and ready. As we pulled up to the front, Jenna hopped out of the basically moving car. She “really” had to use the ladies room. So she goes running in & James just drives on by valet parking. We always valet here in Dallas because there isn’t much self-parking around so I was confused as to why he zoomed right on past. I dug into my purse to pull out cash for the valet and still, James went on by. At this point, I was beyond confused and may have given him a little “ugh” of irritation. Luckily, we found the very last spot in the entire parking lot. We all get out of the car and the next thing I know, James is headed straight to the front of the restaurant saying that Cody, our friend, is waiting out front. All of a sudden Jessica and Anna were walking back to the car, Jessica asking for chapstick and Anna had left her purse in the car. (Yes, her entire purse! Although this isn’t necessarily something out of the ordinary for Anna to do.) So I toss the keys to Jessica and started walking towards James, but he just keeps trucking along. I am a little confused as to why he’s being so out of the ordinary, but we did have out of town guests he needed to host so I walked back to the car with Jess and Anna while they “searched” for their belongings.
Finally we are headed in the restaurant. I lead the girls upstairs since we didn’t see James, Cody or Jenna downstairs anywhere. I assumed they were up stairs on the rooftop while we waited for our table. Everyone was gathered in the back, left corner of the rooftop in a semi secluded “room”. As I walked around the corner looking for James, the first person I spotted was Matt, one of James’ friends from work. Then then I saw Will, another work friend, and his girlfriend. I finally find James and there he was standing alone at the end of the long walkway. I’m pretty sure I tilted my head and furrowed my eyebrows like “Seriously, what is he doing? He’s being so weird today.” As I was still walking, I look to my left and through the glass fireplace I saw my dad, brothers, sisters and closest friends. My Dad gave me the biggest wave and smile through the glass and I see he has my mom on FaceTime. (She had last minute surgery a few days before so she couldn’t be there)
At that very moment, it hit me. James is about to ask me to spend my life with him, and I’m pretty sure my face went straight to my hands. I’ve never felt so many emotions all at the same time. Excitement, pure joy, slight embarrassment that I hadn’t the slightest clue before that very moment, and before I could take another step the tears were coming. Here was the most perfect man I could have ever hoped for, right in front of me getting on one knee with our families and friends gathered to share this special moment. Pure bliss. The second he got on one knee I couldn’t hear anything else, but him and the most amazing proposal I could have ever imagined. It was kind of like we were in a little bubble, just me and him in the most perfect moment. The full proposal was about a minute long and then came the final question, “Jessie, will you marry me?” Of course I said YESSSSS! We spent the rest of the night celebrating with our family and friends. James, Jenna, Jessica & Anna pulled of the most amazing, secret day weekend of my life. James is the most thoughtful, romantic, selfless person I know, so as much as I was surprised at the secret proposal, I wasn’t surprised in the least bit of his thoughtfulness.”
Don’t let the fun stop here, click a link below to see more of my Dallas adventures:
