The Pink Track Suit

In celebration of our 5th Wedding Anniversary tomorrow

I thought I would share  our engagement story. Enjoy!

You know how there are some days you will never forget what you were wearing, what you ate, or what song was playing on the radio for as long as you live? The day of my engagement is one of those days. Even if I didn't have pictures to remind me, I will never ever forget that I was wearing a pink track suit when my husband proposed to me.

It was December 22, 2004. I was a senior in college and home for Christmas break. Ben, having graduated the year before me, was working at Enterprise Rent-A-Car. He was going to be joining me that night back in my hometown to spend Christmas with my family. I had a feeling that Ben might propose to me on Christmas Eve and had the perfect outfit picked out for December 24th. Little did I know that Ben had other plans.

On the 22nd, we decided to order pizza from the local pizza place and have a low key dinner. Ben had to drive two hours to my parent’s house, so I called him and told him we were going to order the pizza little early and were going to pick it up and put it in the oven to keep it warm so we could eat right when he got there. Ben started going off about how he thought that was an awful idea and he really liked his pizza hot and fresh. I thought this was very strange behavior for Ben since he is the most laid back guy I have ever met and will pretty much eat anything. I got annoyed called him a "pizza freak" and hung up.

When the time came to go get the pizza, I was in the middle of a good book and asked one of my sisters to pick it up instead. My dad was making a huge deal about me going to pick up the pizza, and picking it up alone. I was annoyed with my dad, but agreed and drove in the cold December evening the 6 blocks it takes to get to the pizza place.

I got out of my car, walked in and heard somebody calling my name behind me. I turned around and there was Ben down on one knee right in the middle of the pizza parlor. He asked me to be his wife. I said nothing. I could not believe Ben was asking me to marry him. I was so caught off guard. I started to get tears in my eyes, gave Ben a huge hug and said "Yes"!

Can you imagine the look of surprise on my family's face when I came home with the pizza and was wearing an engagement ring? Yep, they were pretty surprised...well...everyone but my dad. He was in on the whole thing!!

So on December 22, 2004 I got engaged in a pizza parlor wearing a pink track suit.

My hair was a mess and I was not wearing a speck of makeup.

It was far from the engagement I had pictured in my dreams...it was better.

I was going to be marrying the man of my dreams and sometimes the outfit, the hair, the makeup, the location-none of it matters when you are the happiest you have ever been in your life.