GE Wedding: We're Engaged!

It's a little late, but I am announcing my official engagement to Mr. GE Designs. We've been together for 8 years, and we've lived together for 6. So the engagement and marriage, isn't much of a change, but I'm excited about it being official. And I apologize to any friends that we didn't tell until today, but any one who's close to us knows that we've been a "married" couple for years anyway. BUT the ring makes certain family members feel more at ease. =)

So, I've decided to start documenting some of my preprations and thoughts for our wedding. I'll be searching for local vendors, photographers, flowers, etc. Sort of a daunting task. Thank goodness I've established some relationships with event planners through GE Designs. Also, I have my dear girlfriends to hand over their vendor finds for their weddings. I'll also be creating some new items for myself and my shop, with my own wedding in mind.

To start, I should share the engagement story:

JP (Mr. GE Designs) and I went on a little getaway vacation in Scottsdale, AZ early this month for 5 days at the Intercontinental Montelucia. JP went to ASU out there, so luckily he knew the area and was able to take me to some awesome restaurants around Scottsdale. The town was gorgeous -- the only thing it's missing, is a beach. I will have to say, that with Fashion Square Mall, I can easily move out there. And the weather! Gorgeous in October! Once there, i was so glad we went, as opposed to the hurricane occupied areas of Mexico and the Caribbean. One quick side note for the hotel we stayed at -- gorgeous place, friendly staff, and total luxury, but the in room dining was sooo overpriced.

The second day there, JP wanted to take me hiking to Camelback Mountain. If anyone out there is unfamiliar with Phoenix, Camelback Mountain is a local red rock "mountain" that the locals hike and climb daily. From far away, it looked like it wasn't much. Plus, if you see all the people climbing up and down the entrance, you'd be like, "I can do that." Unfortunately, when we started going up the mountain, at 4:30pm, I wasn't prepared for all the rocks and fancy footwork needed to get to just the first quarter of it. Yikes. We made a few stops to help me catch my breath, but JP kept telling me, "keep going, the view will make it all worth it." I tried a few more minutes up some steep part, but I had to stop and turn around because the area closed at sunset, and the sun was setting quick.

I seem to digress with this Camelback story, but I found out later that JP planned to propose at the top of the mountain as the sun set with the "spectacular view." He told me later that he had the ring in his pocket on that hike attempt. That would have been totally romantic (yet I would've been totally out of breath). Poor guy carried the ring with him throughout the rest of the trip, waiting for another "perfect" moment to pop the question. I'm glad he didn't do the restaurant proposal at any of the fabulous places he took me to. I'm a pretty private person, and I hate drawing attention to myself in public.

So fast forward to our last night there on October 12, 2009. Around 9pm, we decided to hang out at the jacuzzi, since the resort seemed so empty. We had the jacuzzi and the pool all to ourselves. After we dried off, we put our robes on, took some drinks to a pool-side cabana facing Camelback, laid on the modular sofas, and just relaxed as we enjoyed the view of the mountain and the resort. We were cuddling and JP started talking about how wonderful the trip was and that he loved me, and after a few more sweet words, that I can barely remember, he got down on his knees and whipped out the ring. Things are fuzzy after that, but I can say I did cry, we hugged, kissed, and oh yeah... I said YES.