The Answer is YES: The Celebration

Happy Wednesday, y'all! Up to this point, you've heard about and have hopefully read my previous two posts on Will and I's recent engagement. If you are new to my blog or have not had the chance to read the previous two posts, you can do so here and here. But I know you must be itching to hear all of the final details from that sweet July 26th weekend so I won't make you wait any longer! Be sure to read the entire post though because I will be breaking the silence and letting you in on some news that Will and I have to share...and I mean BIG news...

...After driving around for about ten minutes, my stomach started to growl which was a good thing because we had finally arrived to where we were going for dinner. I never did find out where we were until after we had parked on the 6th floor of a parking deck, and got on an elevator and headed to the 27th floor when we were greeted by a sign that read Bentley's Restaurant on 27. I had never heard of the place but it looked AMAZING! 

After getting settled at our table, we received complimentary champagne and toasted to the start of the next chapter in our life together. Luckily, there were very few people in the restaurant, and it felt as if we were the "stars of the show" and received amazing service (which I think would be superb even if they were busy) and had the opportunity to walk around the whole restaurant and enjoy the many beautiful views of Charlotte as the sun began to settle down.

No celebratory meal of any kind should be without some sort of appetizer so we ordered the Grown-Up Macaroni and Cheese, and then got to talking about all the planning and behind-the-scene details that Will had been keeping on the down-low for weeks. But let me just say real quick that the appetizer was to-die-for and consisted of Maine Lobster, Black Truffles and three cheese sauce! Ahhhhmazing.

Okay, so as you can imagine I wanted to know every last detail and made sure Will left nothing out when he was recapping the whole planning process. It went something like this:

• Will did in fact ask for my dad's permission and one of the comments my dad made to Will was something along the lines of "It would be a blessing from Heaven to have you officially part of the family". Yes, I am a daddy's girl and Will knew that I would say no if he didn't get my dad's permission first!
• A picture is worth a thousand words right? Well I made sure that Will knew that I wanted someone to take photos on the day of the proposal so he made sure to find someone to do just that. The wonderfully sweet Caitlin was going to take all the photos that day but had to go out of town that weekend. Emily was going to be a part of the day one way or another so Will recruited her to be the photographer and person to get me out of the house, look decent and left as clueless as possible. Good job, you two. Oh and how could I forget to mention that Emily even came up with a hashtag for us to use. #MelandWillSealTheDeal ;-)
• The now fiance also knew that I wouldn't want to be proposed to in front of a lot of people, but wanted to make it as special as possible so he went above and beyond what I would have even guessed and had my family in on the whole thing! Family is number one in my life besides God so this was literally the best part of the whole thing in my opinion.
• Oh, if you didn't already know, I am extremely detail oriented and like to be organized and Will happens to be the same way to a certain degree and created an in-depth itineraries for my parents and Emily to utilize so that there was zero confusion on anything the day of. I may have laughed out loud who he told me that and asked him to show me the itineraries he created and I just had to share some of it with you...
  
  Melissa and I are going to go to breakfast and then the mall in the morning and will plan to get back by 1:45 pm.  I will say I  have to run into the office and then you can show up at 2:00 pm and take her to get her nails done and whatever else you think she would like to do, just make sure you keep her out of the house until at least 3:30 pm.  I’ll come back around 2:30 pm (after y’all leave and will set up some flowers and stuff, but will be gone by 3:30 pm).
  
  
  Schedule:
  2:00 pm – Emily arrives at apartment and takes Melissa to get nails done (and whatever else you think she would like to do).  Tell her that I texted you and felt bad I had to go into work and asked you to come hangout with her – doubt she will buy it but it’s worth a shot haha.
  
  
  [Keep her out of the apartment until at least 3:30]
  
  
  After 3:30 pm – Emily and Melissa return to the apartment and get ready for Dinner (I have told her we are meeting a colleague and his wife for dinner uptown tell her you are going to go meet a friend at the epicenter for drinks and you can just drive her up there since I will already be uptown at the office).
  
  
  5:40 pm – Emily and Melissa leave apartment and head to Marshall Park (address below). 
• Will was defiantly thinking ahead and had visited the park prior to the day of to figure out the best area for him to hide, for Emily to take photos, for him to get down on one knee and to see what areas would look best in photos.
• Remember how we were suppose to have a "dinner date" with Will's co-worker and his wife? Yeah, that was all part of the plan. Will had made all of that up! He never talked to his co-worker about going to dinner, he never went into work before "dinner" and everything was all made up.

Whew! Sorry for all the details...I didn't want to leave anything out though! After story time, we ate a delicious meal and then had to say our goodbyes to my family before they headed back home to Greensboro. Will and I finally had the chance to respond to the out pour of text messages we had and made phone calls to our family that we hadn't already talked to and told them the news. We even stopped by Menchie's for some frozen yogurt because what meal is complete without dessert? And plus, it's so good and hard to pass up. 

And that's pretty much how the story goes, y'all! Don't you think Will did an AMAZING job with everything?! I couldn't be more excited to be his fiance and future wife! We are having a ball planning for our wedding and i'm happy to say that we both agree that we want a marriage more beautiful than our wedding. I think we both realized that while we were completing PRE-ENGAGEMENT courses. Yeah, those do exist and if you're serious about your relationship, any and all the help you can get is worth it! But why would Will and I feel that we needed to take pre-engagement classes before pre-marital classes? Well...I'll tell you why. Part of the reason is because of our big announcement...

WE ARE MOVING TO HOUSTON, TEXAS!

Goodness, it feels so good to finally be able to say that out loud! Will and I have known for some time now, but wanted to make sure that we were not letting our excitement get the best of us! We will be moving down before we get married next June and are going to visit over Labor Day weekend to look at apartments and townhouses! We plan to look in the Galleria and Rice Village areas but will need to be pretty close to Post Oak Parkway where Will's office is located.

This leads me to letting you all know why Houston. Will currently works at a middle-market investment bank here in Charlotte as an Analyst, and typically an analyst is in that role for two years before they start applying for an associate level position. Well, Will completed his second year last year and his firm thought he had been doing so well that they offered him to stay on for a third year which is usually unheard of. Of course he accepted and has been excelling at what he does. All of the long hours and hard work paid off, but like any analyst, one must start applying and looking for associate positions since that is the next step if you plan to stay in this type of business. 

So a few months ago, Will traveled and interviewed with firms in multiple states, New York, Boston, and Washington DC to name only a few. We decided to take New York off the list pretty earlier on just because it wouldn't be an ideal place for us to live. Washington DC was next off the list since there weren't that many options that Will was interested in. But a great opportunity came around for Will and I to move down to Houston where his firm has another location that is in need of an associate. Yet again, Will has gone above and beyond in his current role and has proved how strong his work ethic truly is. And the rest is history!

I can't begin to explain to you all how happy I am with all that God has done in my life and I am beyond excited to see what kind of adventures God has in store for us in Houston. Even though I have never lived in a state other then North Carolina, yet alone more than two hours hours away from my parents, this move isn't our "final destination". An associate role generally goes for about two years and from there we will decide what we want to do.

In the coming weeks and months, I would love to hear from y'all on any recommendations you might have for places to go and things to do!
   

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