I've finally found some time to sit down and write this, fingers crossed it makes sense and I can get my photos inserted in the right order...!
In the beginning
H and I met in my first week at university, he was in the year above me and had stayed in halls to be with his friends who were part of the JCR. We were both with other people at that time but within a month or so we had decided that we wanted to be together and so we gave it a go. Our long running joke was that it would just be a fling to keep us occupied during term time but ten years later we’re still together and we’ve decided it’s definitely not a fling!
The proposal
Having returned from a once in a lifetime trip to the USA where we had the most amazing road trip I figured that the time for a proposal had passed until our next big holiday. So my 27th birthday which fell a few days after we got back was low key. I went to work and when I left chambers there was a parcel for me with a note from OH saying "DO NOT PEEK - to be opened later." I lugged this parcel all the way home and was pretty annoyed because it was bulky and I had to get it on the tube along with my work trolley. So got home, put the parcel away and played with my two new kittens that I had been told were my bday pressie. At about 5pm there was a knock at the door and a bunch of flowers was delivered. A dozen pink roses - the note read "do you remember these were the first flowers I ever bought you?" Of course I remembered! Valentines day 2003, a dozen pink roses were left outside my door at uni! I started to cry because I had an idea what was coming then...
OH comes in at 6pm with a huge box full of food from my favourite Thai restaurant which doesn't do take always but which he persuaded to make up a meal for him to bring home to reheat for me! He also had a bottle of Cristal champagne for me. I've had one bottle of that before on the day I qualified so it's a pretty special brand for me. He kept jumping around saying "look at the year, look at the year" It was a bottle from 2002, the year we got together.
We had our lovely dinner and then he asked if I wanted my parcel. He brought it out then said he would take a picture of me opening it (he never takes pictures of me, it was just an excuse to get down on one knee) I opened it and it was a box of cupcakes that were supposed to spell out "will you marry me?" but whoever delivered it had turned the box upside down and the letters were mushed up so he had to ask me himself instead!! I have to admit I was numb. I'm usually a crier but I just felt really spaced out. The ring was beautiful, exactly what I wanted. He'd been meeting up with my best friend for weeks after work to design it etc.
I found out later we were supposed to go to some plush hotel for the night but I insisted I wanted my kittens by my actual bday so he had to change his plans. It was perfect as it was in our own little house with our little kittens!