Zara. I think YES.

Written by Brooklyn Boy.

December 10, 2010.

I left work and walked down 7th Ave, on my way to a work event. Every 45 seconds I'd transfer my phone from hand to hand, press it hard against my face, and try to keep my fingers from frost bite. It took some convincing but I managed to corral two of my friends to join me for the event that night. My tact was to entice them with the all-you-can-drink wine bar. Plus I told them I'd take the hit for the cover. 

Upon arriving we were cramped into a small elevator and hoisted to our floor. The elevator doors opened, we shed our coats and quickly took advantage of the bar. With glasses of wine in hand, we chose seats along the wall, and began commenting on everything, from the various outfits to guessing targeted attendees professions. Throughout the course of the evening, each of my friends, myself included, noticed an attractive, well put together gal in a gold sequined vest. We named her Sparkle Vest.

I quickly gathered Sparkle Vest was a part of the host team as she was moving around talking to everyone and sometimes addressed the guests from the stage. Interestingly enough, at the time of this event, my job was to recruit, train, and manage volunteers. Who would have guessed that when Sparkle Vest addressed the audience she'd be looking for... VOLUNTEERS. Bingo! That was my ticket. I knew when and if I built up the courage to talk to her, we could at least talk about volunteers. I'll be honest, the glass of wine may have helped with the courage part. Before I knew it I managed to find my way over to where Sparkle Vest was seated. I pulled up a chair (out of no where she tells me), introduced myself, and kindly offered my expertise in volunteerism. Somehow (thankfully) our conversation switched from volunteering to other more important things like family, church and mutual friends.

After our delightful conversation I rejoined my two friends who were still taking full advantage of the wine bar. I excitedly told them about the nature of my conversation with Sparkle Vest. My friend responded that Sparkle Vest had been making eyes back and forth with him all night! Oops. (Hannah laughed hysterically and denied making eyes at anyone that night when I told her my friends accusation.) But apparently, I had unknowingly stepped on already claimed territory! Now it was really on.

As my friends and I gathered our belongings and slowly headed towards coat check, I had the honor of introducing my friends to Sparkle Vest. My friends were more than chatty at this point in the evening and offered wonderful volunteer suggestions - insistent in their abilities to change the world one resume at a time. We still laugh thinking about some of the ridiculous comments made in that final conversation of the night. Leaving, I was bummed I hadn't initiated a contact information exchange, but I felt very confident that I could do a little internet searching (not in a creepy way) on Sparkle Vest and this gem would appear. At least via facebook.  Regardless, this was just the beginning.

Later that night, back in Brooklyn, I found myself perusing Facebook and somehow found Sparkle Vest's profile. Stumbling upon her profile quickly led to a Friend Invite. Weird how that just happens! Although there was no dialogue that night or in the weeks to follow, we were now friends, at least.  In fact is wasn't until a month after our online friendship started (Sidenote: She doesn't love the online nature of this part of the story, but it's worth mentioning that good ole' facebook messaging played a part in our beginning) that I bucked up and emailed Sparkle Vest. Get the ball rolling. My plan? Lets talk about volunteers for her next event ;) I guess it was my extreme hospitality and helpfulness that prompted her response. Unfortunately, I dropped the ball and for no reason at all, forgot to respond. I then received a simple follow-up message asking "Where'd you go radio silence?" Ouch! Seconds after the now infamous, Radio Silence, message landed in my inbox, I immediately responded back and asked Ms. Flora to join me one evening at the Ace Hotel for a beverage.

She agreed.

Since then we haven't been able to go a day without each other.

**Hannah wanted me to mention that after I responded to the Radio Silence message, all facebook messaging was halted and other normal communication commenced, i.e. phone calls and dates.

They were a gift from my sweet grandmother. I adore these sparkly gold shoes.

After dinner, Brooklyn Boy said he borrowed a friends apartment with a huge balcony and a view of the city. We were going to drink champagne and call our parents and just soak it all in! We took the elevator up to the 20 something floor and walked to the front door of the apartment. I heard tons of people inside.

"Bud, WHO is in there???" I thought, oh maybe our roommates or something??

Well, we walked in and saw BOTH of our families standing there. And lots and lots of friends.

The gigantic side note to all this is that my mom was in town earlier in the week for the Nate taping, but had FLOWN OUT on Thursday?!?! I knew she left, because my dad was taking her on a 30th Wedding Anniversary trip to California! I mean, come on! You can't just sneak this stuff by me - I'm pretty with it. Wink. Wink.

WELL little did I know, mom had packed her bags and left NY, i.e. brought her stuff down to the 6th floor of my building where our good family friends live and had been hiding out since Thursday!!!

My dad had flown up earlier that day - the whole 30th Wedding Anniversary story had been a ploy to fake me out!!! I had know idea I was so dense and gullible :) This picture below is probably my favorite!!!

Brooklyn Boy's parents had driven 7 hours that day to be there! His sweet sister had flown in earlier, too!

I. Was. Shocked.

He had it all planned to a T. You can see more of the ridiculously thoughtful details HERE.

Sister had already been in town with her boyfriend Mr. Plano Man. It was the biggest treat ever to have her in town. Sis & Mom are below. 

OH did I mention Brooklyn Boy had coordinated for 2 of my closest friends, Ivy & Erin, to fly up and be part of the night? A year or so before, I flew into Dallas for Ivy's surprise engagement to Drew!! It was just so special to have them both there.

Here's the view we had from this apartment balcony. Goodness!

Here's the whole gang! 

Look at little Norma (the dog)!

I'm overwhelmed just looking at all of these sweet people. They absolutely made the night!

Thanks to Karen Dickey for all the fabulous pictures.

You've got to check out the video Brooklyn Boy put together if you have time. As you may remember, we hunkered down all weekend because of the hurricane. We had tons of time to kill, so he compiled all the footage and made THIS video. I just love it :) And I suppose these posts are more for my benefit so I have everything written down in one place - so thanks for reading!

It was the day before my 26th birthday. It was a normal week, except we'd made it through an earthquake earlier in the week and were preparing for an impeding hurricane.

I knew Brooklyn Boy was planning something for my birthday. Lets be honest, I set pretty high birthday standards for birthdays in our relationship, with the Surprise Cereal Party in early August.

Ohhhhhhh how wrong I was!!

(It's hilarious thinking back on some of the ridiculous things I said to Brooklyn Boy prior to the proposal. Sweet Brooklyn Boy just smiled and played along.)

Our First Stop: Hillcountry Chicken for cokes with good ice.

Here we are before. I still have no idea.

But Lance's stomach was hurting..... weird! Maybe the coke?!

We leave Hillcountry and head to dinner. He's barely told me anything! I just know we are walking to a restaurant that I've never been to. As we walk there, we stroll through Madison Square Park, a place near and dear to us. We'd had our first kiss there 7 months before.

Knowing full well that Brooklyn Boy knows exactly what happend in Madison Square park months before, I, thinking I'm just hilarious, say "Lance, you know we had our first kiss here??"

He stopped right there and told me, "Of course I know that."

He stood to face me. "You know that I love you so much right? And that I want to spend the rest of my life with you right?"

Sweet as those words are, I knew both of those things. Just when I start to think, "Oh, that Lance, so affirming", Brooklyn Boy starts digging around in my 'birthday present' bag. I nervously/excitedly start exclaiming "What are you doing?? Are you doing what I think youre doing? Right now???" Lance, undeterred, got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I, of course, said yes :)

I truly couldn't believe what just happend. The ring?! The most beautiful ring! And Madison Square Park? I just couldn't believe it. 

We waste no time, and walk float to dinner.

Planning is one of my love languages. I couldn't keep my hands off of him as we walked to dinner :)

Next stop: The Breslin at the Ace Hotel

We had our very first date at the bar at the Ace Hotel, which made dinner there even more fun!

The further into dinner we get, the more the unbelievable details begin to surface. Turns out he'd flown to Dallas a few months before to talk to my dad!  And he'd had the ring made in South Carolina.

!!!!!!!!

I asked him about a million questions during dinner, and marveled at all his answers. It was just perfect.

Afterwards, he grabs my hand and beeline's it to the . . .

Photobooth!!!!! 

I'm smiling just looking at these pictures.

What he had planned next, I was NOT prepared for . . .

Stay tuned for Part 2!

 All photos aside from the not so great iphone ones taken by Karen Dickey.

I snagged these two images from my Flower Board on Pinterest. I think they show what I'm talking about. Punchy, loud flowers, understated size, rustic vessel.

And this is just so simple and lovely. It looks so substantial! I think its unconventional size adds to the interest - thats why I always like olive trays. They're delicate but absurdly long. Ha. Is that a weird comparison? Maybe!