Engaged on the Empire State Building

jessla · June 24, 2009

So, I guess I should share my engagement story!

My FI and I met in early 2005, when I was still in high school, and he was taking a year off after high school, at a mutual friend's birthday party. To shorten a very dramatic, long story, my best friend and I both fell for him, fought for him, and I won. (Don't worry, we're still friends, and she's going to be one of my BMs... she never really liked him as much as I did .)

We dated officially for a month before he left for boot camp in the Navy. And, after a lot of going back and forth, we agreed to go for a relationship. I went to college in Boston, and he got stationed in San Diego. It was difficult, but totally worth it.

In September 2006, he left for his first deployment. He was supposed to be gone 6 months, but later got extended to 9. I flew out to San Diego in May/June 2007 to see his ship pull in, and it was probably one of the best days of my life to be in his arms again! We realized at that moment that if we could make it through that,we could make it through anything!

A few weeks later, Joe came home for leave. And, during his leave, he took me to New York City. The very last attraction we saw was the Empire State Building, since neither of us had ever been to the top.

I was kind of sort of expecting he would propose, since there had been hints. But I wasn't sure. We went to the top, and we walked around to every side. When we were done going the whole 360 degrees around, I decided it wasn't going to happen, so I asked him if he wanted to leave so we could catch the ferry on time. But he said that we should walk around at least one more time. So we were taking a walk around, and I saw an empty spot, so I jumped in to look down. I looked down for a few seconds, exclaiming how beautiful it was. When he wasn't replying, I turned to Joe, and he just dropped down onto one knee with a ring box popped open and blurted out, "Will you marry me?!"

My mouth completely dropped. And I just stared for a few seconds with my mouth open, trying to figure out if I was imagining things or not. And then I was finally able to reply and say, "Yes!"

Here's us out to dinner in NYC:

Anyway, it's been 2 years since the proposal, and we're planning our wedding for this coming January! My fiance is finally out of the Navy, and I'll be finishing my masters in December . So, LDRs do work out sometimes .