The engagement

Yes.  One tiny word, but it holds so much meaning. On Friday, Adam asked me to marry him. There was a ‘squeak’ and quite a few tears before I was able to vocalise my answer, but we got there in the end!

We’ve talked about marriage for a long time. It was never a scary subject to broach. Even in the very early days of our relationship, we both knew it worked and that together, we’d go the distance. Getting married was always going to be a natural progression in our relationship. I didn’t really know when it was going to happen, but I knew it would.

In saying that, I still can’t quite believe I’ve now got a fiancé! I don’t really feel any different, but when I look down at my left hand at my engagement ring I can’t help but grin rather stupidly and think about how it got there…

On Friday evening Adam suggested we go for a walk on the Malvern Hills. It’d been ages since the two of us had taken a ramble together, so I thought it was a lovely way to start our weekend.

It was cool, starting to get dark and very windy as we climbed towards the Worcestershire Beacon.  Being the end of the week, and not the most pleasant weather, we virtually had the hills to ourselves and lingered, chatting and taking in the moody view.

Adam suggested we find a seat, slightly downhill from the hill’s highest point to get out of breeze, so we plonked ourselves on a wooden bench, gazing out over Great Malvern and the Severn Valley.

Soon after, he reached into his back pocket, pulling out a beautiful diamond ring and asked me to marry him. He slipped the ring onto my finger and we both just looked at each other, so full of love, so excited and so ready to become man and wife.

As we made our way off the hills, he told me the back story to the whole event. How he’d starting designing the ring when we were still living in Australia – sneakily asking questions to ascertain my jewellery preferences and stealing one of my rings to make sure he got the size right; how he’d sent the ring back to the jewelers in Malvern three times before he was happy with the finished product; how he’d asked my father for my hand in marriage at Port Isaac in Cornwall; and how dad had actually seen the ring before he flew back to Australia and was sworn to secrecy. I also learnt Adam had intended to ask me to marry him the night we went looking for the aurora borealis, but changed his mind when we were joined by a pair of performers. I was amazed – although I knew Adam would ask me to marry him, I was completely unaware of everything that’d been going on behind the scenes these last few months!

We’ve been showered with love and well wishes since we announced our engagement. It’s been so very humbling. Up until I met Adam, I’d never really had strong opinions or visualised my wedding, but I’m getting rather excited about the two of us crafting a day to call our own.  I’m truly on top of the world.

M. x