Engagement.

Since we had been planning on attending a wedding in Guin Thursday night, Payton's dad had asked us earlier in the week if we would mind going up to their lake house after the wedding to put together a trundle bed as a surprise for Payton's mother. To me.......the trundle bed was legit because she had been talking about wanting bunk beds at the lake to sleep more people. BUT the fact that Granstan (Payton's dad) who can build, construct, design ANYTHING wanted Payton and I (who can hardly screw a screw) to "build" a bunk bed was a little puzzling. None the less, I kept thinking...... his dad loves to surprise; and it would definitely be a humorous, blog worthy experience. Therefore, we went to the wedding, camera in tow, and headed up to the lake house shortly after.

(Before the wedding)As we pull up to the lake house and parked, Payton reaches behind my seat and pulls out a bandanna. After questioning him several times as to what he was doing with a bandanna, he tells me to not say a word and to look in the opposite direction. I somewhat obey his instructions, look the other way, ask a million questions, and he proceeds to blind folds me. If you can imagine, I'm going ninety to nothing...."What are you doing?" "Is this a joke." "Are you serious." "You're making me nervous."

As I'm burning his ears, he gets me out of the car, and guides me to the back porch of their lake house.

The questions NEVER ceased, I'm a nervous wreck, and he's really wishing I would hush so he could do what he wanted to do. I finally cooperated and allowed him to guide me to the end of the back porch where he picked me up and set me on the edge of what felt like a bed. I quickly asked if I could take off the blind fold and when permitted to do so, he was on his knee in front of me.
As he's down on one knee pouring out his precious heart, I'm doing my BEST to soak up every minute of the moment; yet the scenery of the back porch was so surreal. My attention was divide! I couldn't take anything in at the moment! Candles everywhere
a table set up with rose petals and our favorite candy
a slide show playing of our favorite pictures with our favorite songs
beautiful flower arrangementsa massive bed
a box with a beautiful ringand of course the man of my dreams all right in front of me!
Full of emotion, reassuring me that this was not a "joke", and after asking me twice if Id marry him, I said "I WILL!"
"Are you serious?" "Is this a joke?" "Are you kidding me?" is all I could get out for about ten minutes, and once he finally got me to HUSH, he read the sweetest poem/story that he had written beginning with the first time we met leading up to this moment. At this point I'm sobbing. He finishes reading and pulls over a bowl of water. Side Note: one of our issues since we've been dating is his hate for feet. If you know me at all, you know the extent of this problem. I LOVE for my feet to be rubbed. Considering Payton hates feet, until this point, he purposely had never touched my feet therefore leaving me feeling much frustration from time to time.

As he pulls over the bowl of water, he begins telling me that since June (when he began the proposal planning process); he purposely would not touch my feet because he wanted the first time he rubbed my feet to symbolize how he wanted to serve me for the rest of our lives. He also wanted to stress by washing my feet how he desired to follows Christ's example in our marriage the best he could. I continued to sob. Once he finished, he prayed over me, and started answering all my questions.

"Does my dad know?" "When did you ask him?" "Is my mom okay with this?" "Who all knows?" The questions went on........So he pulled out a book he had put together with the entire process. From picking up his first "bridal collection" magazine issuing engagement rings, to asking my dad.The book also included the process of the bed.......
The Bed: Before Payton was in the picture, I had become obsessed with the bed that Sandra Bullock sleeps in in the movie The Proposal. Id researched, googled, shopped around on a mission for that bed. Didn't know what I was going to do once I found this bed, considering I was still living with my parents, BUT I knew at some point in my life I wanted that bed.

Payton closed on a house on August 16 (about that in another post), and considering Id eventually live in that house, we had started discussing furniture. I conveniently ran into an interior designer in Homewood who both Payton and I had discussed using to custom make the bed we both now wanted......"The Proposal Bed." To my shocking surprise, Payton and his dad had been working all along on the designing and building of the bed that I had always wanted........and that's what he proposed to me on........ Two hours had gone by at this point, and as I'm developing a head ache trying to let everything settle in, he informs that he has one more thing to show me.

He takes me back to his parents bedroom, opens the door, and replies "You cant have new "bling" without having new clothes to wear." Their bed was entirely covered with new outfits, pajamas, belts, jewelry, etc. Like I said, he began planning this occasion at the beginning of June and since there were numerous lies and "cover ups" that had to take place to keep me clueless, he kept a journal of every lie so that he could go back and explain why he told me this and that. I think God's grace will cover it :)
He out did himself severely. And once I realized that I was not waking from this dream, the reality of the Lord's faithfulness and goodness greatly overwhelmed both of us! We are beyond gracious and definitely desire to give Him the honor and glory He desires. My love for this man is unexplainable. His efforts and detailed planning will never be able to be topped. He is the most thoughtful, selfless, doting, inspirational man I know. He could not have planned a more perfect engagement. But putting aside the gorgeous ring, beautiful bed, acts a service, and an awesome, new wardrobe; knowing that I get to spend the rest of my life under the same roof with him is uncomprehendable.
And we do have the entire engagement on video. Hope to show it to you once its edited! And for the ring.......The three diamonds on each side were Payton's grandmothers diamonds. And the design and center diamond is all his handy work!
April 9, 2011 here we come!