We're Engaged!

Originally Posted 2/8/25

Event Date: 1/17/25

Michelle and I got engaged!

It happened a few weeks ago at time of posting, but I wanted to talk about it and show off how it went!

The Setup

Becoming engaged and marrying each other had been something both Michelle and I had spoken about a lot ahead of time. The specifics of when I'd propose to her though, and how, were a mystery. At first, I'd sort of tease her about it. I'd pretend to start proposing but be tying my shoes instead, or things like that. Eventually Michelle asked me to stop, and so I did. Any time afterwards she'd bring up engagement, or how she was wondering what my plans were, I'd usually respond jokingly with something like "Yeah except, I never think about proposing. It never crosses my mind". She of course would tease back with something like "Oh yeah? We already have spoken about how we'd want to get married, but no engagement?" and I'd go "Yup, that's right, just show up at the altar". It was a lot of fun going back and forth like this, it became a sort of joke.

I started seriously looking at buying an engagement ring around October 7th of 2024. I was a bit nervous at first, so ended up waiting a bit before actually buying the ring. I wanted to make sure the nervousness was just because this would be a big step forward, or if it was from being previously engaged.

On October 11th, my friend reached out to Michelle and I to see if we wanted to join him and his wife on a weekend getaway in January of 2025. Michelle was very excited to do this but I was a bit more... hesitant. In 2024 we traveled a lot, and because of that we didn't really have much money to go on any sort of trip. After talking it over with Michelle though, she said she'd pick up extra shifts at work to afford the trip, so we agreed to go.

On October 14th, I bought the ring for Michelle. I had already come up with a plan on how I'd propose - I'd use one of my hobbies, Magic the Gathering.

When thinking about how to propose to Michelle, I had of course thought about the sort of standard nice dinner option. But I wasn't really a fan of this idea - too generic, and she'd see it coming. We don't often go out to really nice restaurants, so if I suddenly wanted to, she'd suspect something was up. I rather do something that was more specific to Michelle and I - something unique. But this posed a bit of a problem - I love Michelle with all of my heart, but her hobbies are largely taking naps and watching TikTok. I couldn't really do much with either of these ideas, and so I decided I'd do something with one of my hobbies.

Magic the Gathering had released a Lord of the Ring Set in 2023, and part of that set was The One Ring. I thought this would work great while proposing, and so tracked one down and bought it on October 16th. I told Michelle I had to run an errand for work, and picked up the card from a local shop. The actual ring was arriving via mail, and so I had to figure out a way to get it in the house without Michelle noticing. I was able to get FedEx or UPS (I forget which) to drop the ring off at a nearby Walgreeens, where I picked it up and put it in my backpack. Once in the apartment, I found a spot on a bookshelf Michelle didn't go near, and put it behind some DVDs we had. I took the trash with me to work and threw it out there so she wouldn't see the packaging.

Now that I had the two things I needed to propose, I had to think about how. Around this time, Michelle started joking how she had originally thought my friend, Tanner, reaching out to us was part of my plan to propose - have someone else set a date so it didn't seem like I was planning it. However, she sort of dismissed that idea because I originally didn't want to go on the trip, and it'd be weird if I made her pay for her own engagement. I realized, though, that this getaway would actually be the perfect time to propose - Michelle would want to look nice anyways to be around our friends, and so I wouldn't have to worry about convincing her to dress up randomly. It'd work great.

On November 27th, I reached out to Tanner and Ali (the couple we were going to be getting a cabin with), and told them my plan. I wanted to make sure they were aware and would be cool with it. I also needed them to be on board with trying out Magic, as well as encourge Michelle to join us in playing. Magic isn't Michelle's favorite so I was a bit nervous she'd decline to play. I figured, worst case scenario, I'd ask her to just come over to look at a specific card and not actually play. Tanner and Ali though were very much on board to help! I then archived the text chain I had with them, so Michelle wouldn't accidentally see it. I figured it'd be easy enough to explain to Michelle why Tanner wanted to learn Magic - Tanner and I both played Hearthstone together, and so if she asked either of us we could just explain Hearthstone and Magic were somewhat similar, and Tanner wanted to learn about Magic.

From here, it was pretty much a waiting game. Michelle would talk about how she was so curious if or when I was going to propose, I'd jokingly say I've never even thought about proposing. At one point she thought I might have bought a ring because she asked if we should go into a ring shop so she can show me the styles she liked, and I said no a bit too fast. I tried playing it off though that I was just worried and stressed about money, and so really did not want to be looking at expensive jewelry.

About a week before our trip, Michelle got sick. We really weren't sure if she was going to be well enough to come, but luckily she was feeling better by the time we had to leave for the trip. I also fortunately had moved the ring and The One Ring from their hiding spots and into Magic the Gathering deck boxes I had, so they were prepped for the trip. I'm not sure how I would've gotten those things if I had tried to do it while Michelle was home sick. About a day or two before our trip, I emailed my friend Tanner telling him that I wanted to get the proposal on video if possible. I had a little handheld camera, and I'd offer to let him see it and try it out while I got the Magic cards prepped. I figured Michelle wouldn't really think anything of it, since she knew Tanner is in video production and I used to be. So from her perspective, she'd just think of course I was trying to show off my tech to Tanner. I had originally wanted to just try to sneakily setup a camera, but figured this method would be easier. A few days before we left, I also told Michelle we were going to want to play Magic, and it'd mean a lot to me if she joined in. I told her I was letting her know since I know it's not her favorite, and so didn't want to surprise her with it.

The Day Of

The trip started on January 17th - we were driving to the Adirondacks to go to an AirBnB Cabin. On the drive, Michelle spent about half of it talking about how she had been hoping I'd propose this weekend, but now didn't think I would. Leading up to the trip, she had been trying to ask if we were doing anything special, if she needed to pack anything in particular, or what. I had not really given her anything to work off of - just saying we were going to just sort of vibe and see what everyone wanted to do. She also said she didn't think I had a ring yet becasue when she suggested that I could hide it in the storage locker we have, I said I hadn't considered that. So, since I had not thought about it, I couldn't have had a ring yet. She was also saying how much it'd suck when she goes back to work, because she had been telling all her coworkers she thought it was going to happen this weekend, but now she didn't think it would.

I, of course, had to just sort of nod along and try to say how sad that would be, without giving away of course that I was planning to propose very shortly. We arrived at the cabin shortly after 3, unloaded the car, and discussed where to go to dinner. I had wanted to change into a nice shirt at this point, but forgot until we got to the restaurant. We had a nice meal out, everyone else started drinking (I don't drink), and headed back to the cabin. We all sat around the couch talking for a bit.

I wasn't sure when a good time to propose would be. Given everyone had started drinking, I wasn't sure how much suggesting Magic would make sense. I also wasn't sure if my friends wanted the weekend to suddenly become more about the engagement. As we were all hanging out and talking though, Michelle said she was going to go upstairs and change into pajamas. When she left to do that, Tanner turned to me and asked when I was going to propose. I figured that was sign enough that now was a good time.

When Michelle came back downstairs, I suggested we all play magic. Michelle looked towards Ali to see if they really were going to, and Ali said she was looking forward to it! So Michelle sat down at the table, and I asked Tanner if I had shown him the camera I had. He said no, and so I said I'd go grab it with the Magic cards and he could mess with it while I was prepping. I went upstairs, grabbed the bag with the Magic the Gathering stuff in it, as well as grabbed the camera. I came back down, showed Tanner how to use the camera, and he begun playing around with it. I put the bag near Michelle, searched for the card, and said "Oh, Michelle, I got a card recently that I thought you'd like, check it out". I handed her "The One Ring", and as she started reading it I knelt down on the ground, pulled out the ring from the deck box, and she immediately gasped and basically started crying from excitement. I also started giggling from excitement, until she finally asked "So are you going to ask me?" and I said "oh right! Will you marry me?" and SHE SAID YES!!!!!! I then got to break the even better news to her - that we didn't actually have to play magic.

While Michelle and I were celebrating, Ali went upstairs and brought down a sort of gift basket she made for Michelle to celebrate the engagement! Michelle immediately started calling some of her friends to tell them the news and show off the ring. We also got all of it on video, which I'm really happy for! After the excitement I got to tell Michelle about how all of this had come together, and joked a bit about how she had always said as long as I didn't propose to her in my pajamas she'd be happy. She never said anything about her being in pajamas lol.

The Next Day

We were staying in Wilmington in New York, and so the next day we headed for Lake Placid to check out the Olympic Center, as well as sort of just walk around the town. We had a nice time wandering around, looking at stuff, shopping around a little bit. And we took a lot of photos!

Photos

A photo from the Lake Placid Olympic Museum. It was a lot of fun to walk around, and they had some pretty decent food on the second floor!

A photo taken by Tanner. You can see some more of his work on his website here.

Michelle and I playing a board game called Quoridor

You can see in my hand there my Camp Snap camera. Fun story: I dropped it down a flight of stairs on this trip and it was fine. Most of the photos not taken by Tanner in this post were taken with that camera.