In the middle of 2009, Peter and I had been talking about getting married for a few months and we were trying to plan the timing, the budget and details surrounding our wedding. Unexpectedly Peter's Grandfather passed away in December that year.  Peter was incredibly close to his Grandfather and is very close to his Grandmother who lives is Carson City, Nevada so this was a hearbreaking loss for not only him but of course for Grandma as they had been married and madly in love for over 65 years and for me and all of the family felt the extreme loss.

Shortly after, Peter's grandma took Peter aside and asked if he and I would be interested in having her wedding ring as our very own. I was so grateful and honored to hear that she would allow us that opportunity it brought tears to my eyes. It was so incredibly kind of her to offer her special wedding ring to Peter for him to give to me for our proposal.  I had no idea what the ring looked like at the time Peter asked if I would be interested in having it be apart of our proposal, but given how honored I was to be a part of that ring, it just didn't even matter.  I knew that more than anything, that is the ring I wanted to have to represent our union. I was absolutely as excited and as happy as any person could ever be to be able to receive the ring Grandma had worn for their marriage and nothing could be more beautiful than that to me. To me, that ring had represented the most amazing love and relationship I had ever personally witnessed and to be the next in line to wear it was beyond anything I could have ever imagined.  It has been one of the biggest honors ever bestowed upon me. What I didn't realize at the time this was come to find out not only is the ring unbelievably beautiful, but it is exactly what I would have picked out had I had the chance to design it myself and as fate would have it, the ring fit my ring finger perfectly without needing to be sized. :)

Before she actually physically gave it to Peter to give to me, Grandma had been visiting Peter's mom in Santa Barbara and when nobody was looking and she and I were alone in the kitchen, she let me try it on to see what it would look like on me - and it brought tears to my eyes. It was the perfect moment; just she and I together in the kitchen and I felt as if Grandpa was there with us, as we both giggled with happiness.  I have to admit after I gave it back to her so she could give it to Peter to give to me officially I went to the bathroom and really teared up. I knew at that moment that I was the luckiest girl on the planet.  I not only found the best man in the world for me, but his entire family is just as special to me as he is.  

A little bit of time went by before our actual proposal happened as we were both busy with our careers and were not quite prepared to host a wedding, however, as a complete and total surprise Peter had been planning a special moment to propose on 1/1/11.  We were sitting in bed together with our flutes of champagne, getting ready to watch the ball drop on New Year's Eve 2010.  As we went through the countdown, cheered with our champage, and kissed at the turn of the new year, he had the little box hidden behind him.  As our New Year's Eve Kiss ended, there sat a little white box in front of me.  He leaned back in, opened the box and asked me to marry him.  Joy ran through my entire body, I started to tear up and as you can guess since you are reading our wedding website, I said YES!!! He placed Grandma's ring on my finger and I immediately took a picture of my hand with the ring on and posted it on Facebook for all to see!  When I looked up it was 12:01am; we were engaged and as happy as any two people could be.  We then stayed up until 3:30amPST just talking, sharing tears of joy and together we were so excited and have waited for this day for many years.  We very soon after noticed on the calendar that 11/11/11 was a Friday and thought it would be a great addition to our proposal date!