The Engagement Story

I had a hunch Josh was going to propose.

The destination itself was a clue, as it’s where we went on our first trip together three years ago – Cinque Terre in Italy. And it was Josh’s idea to go back. Plus, it’s freaking drop dead gorgeous, so it’s a pretty ideal place to pop the question, y’know?

But I also got vibes from my friends and family. A lot of them were asking me when I was going to Cinque Terre and they never normally keep up with where I’m going. Or if they do, they’d know “Italy”, but Cinque Terre is v specific…

My mum also told us to “Have a lovely time!” with a certain note of something in her voice. Like she was in on a secret… (Spoiler: she was.)

And my friend told me she thought we were going to be the first to get married when she was drunk last month. We always talk about who will get married first or have babies first but she’d never said us before…

All very subtle things on their own, but all together? It was suspicious for sure.

Enough to make me paint my nails the night before we left.

But it’s weird, as soon as we got to Italy, I pretty much convinced myself it wasn’t happening. I was being crazy. Because Josh is a chilled out guy, and he was being chilled out about what we did and where we went every day. And if he was planning on proposing, he’d have a plan, right?

This is pretty much all I thought about on the first day of the trip.

Then on the second day, we had decided we were getting the train into Riomaggiore (my favourite of the 5 towns in Cinque Terre) for dinner at Il Grottino where we had life-changing ravioli on our first trip.

I started thinking about all those subtle signs again. Especially as Josh was VERY quiet on the train.

I asked him if he wanted to go straight to the restaurant and he said we should go on a little walk first. Up to a viewpoint we’d been to before…

THIS IS IT.

I knew guys got nervous before proposing but I didn’t realise I would feel so nervous about it. I kept trying to make light conversation as we walked up what felt like a thousand steps, just so there wouldn’t be a weird silence on the ascent.

I knew I was going to say yes, but I was still so anxious about it. What if he did it in front of people? I’d get all embarrassed. What if I dropped the ring? I’m a fucking clutz. What if I’ve made all this up in my head and we’re just going to see the view and go to dinner?

When we got to the top, I was out of breath. It was a lot of bloody steps. And luckily no-one else was there so we sat down on a bench to take in the view of Riomaggiore, all lit up in the valley. It’s a view of colourful little boxes for houses and a pretty marina with the sound of the sea. V v pretty.

Y’know, the ideal spot to propose.

The thing is, even though I knew it was coming, it still kinda came as a shock when Josh got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.

On TV and in films it’s always a big lead up, the music swelling and it’s all just the perfect moment. But Josh kinda blurted it out when I was still out of breath from the walk up. LOL. He was incredibly nervous, even though he knew I’d say yes. It’s just a big life moment, y’know?

And then it was a blur of saying yes, putting the ring on (an emerald ring, like I’d always wanted) and confessing that I had a feeling he was going to do it. And Josh confessing he’d gone to ask my parents’ permission a few days earlier when he said he was going to the gym. I mean we usually tell each other everything so we kinda got all the anxiety off of our chests from the lead up!

Then the weird part was after. Like I said, my only knowledge of engagements is from the telly, and this is the part when they cut the scene. She said yes, hooray, it’s done. Cut.

But in real life? Josh said “So… Shall we go get that amazing ravioli now?”

I mean, if that’s not a good ending to a life-changing night, I don’t know what is.

Something I realised though is that when the guy proposes, he’s been thinking about it for a while. He’s had time to get used to it. He’s had time to think about what he wants.

But as the woman? I’ve just been proposed to. I need time to adjust to this news! So I found it so crazy that night, when Josh started talking about what kind of wedding we should have, who he thought should be in the wedding party, what kind of date we should be looking at.

WOAH.

I mean now, a week later, I’m right there with him. I’ve realised I’m actually getting married, created Pinterest boards and started thinking about guest list and all that jazz. But straight away after the proposal, it’s really fucking weird.

I’m going to try and hold back from going full wedding-crazy. Because quite frankly, weddings are hella expensive, and I have zero savings and credit card debt. So it’s going to be a bit of a wait before we can actually get married.

But still, it’s exciting stuff, right? When did I get so old? I’m a proper adult right now, huh?

Anyway, that’s our little engagement story. And I hope I’ll read this back in years to come and remember how weird/anxious/beautiful this lil evening in Riomaggiore in April was.

Thanks for all of your lovely messages on Instagram and Twitter! I’m a lucky gal.