Happy Engagement!

It was the surprise of a lifetime! Ben was secretly planning a rather public marriage proposal after my segment on the Martha Stewart Show! I had thought they were sort of rushing me through everything (the cue cards kept saying "hurry up!"). It was a carefully planned ploy to leave time for a question and answer portion of the segment where Ben stood up and said he had a question. I thought..."why doesn't he let someone else ask a question...he already knows everything about me and my work"....but when he strided over to the stage...I knew! He got down on his knee and asked me to be his wife! I was completely taken by surprise and just wanted to bawl my eyes out in happiness! Of course I said yes! I am just thrilled to be engaged to my beautiful and sweet-hearted Ben! :)

And Martha and her staff were in on it the whole time! After Ben knew I was scheduled to be on the show, he snooped through my email to find the producer's contact info. After it was discussed at a meeting he got the go ahead! There was a lot of sneaking around and secret keeping on both Ben's part and the staff's part...but they did a good job because I had no idea! And our first engagement gift was from Martha (how awesome!) and she was just so pleased and happy. Thank you thank you!

Ben's mom was able to join us for the show too...yay! And before we headed down to NYC, we stopped to visit my parent's for the weekend. It was Ben's idea, which was strange, but who was I to argue? He found little moments of time to be alone with each of my parents to ask them for permission. How incredibly sweet...but that's Ben for you!
The whole thing was so wonderful I can't even express it!

And of course I have to show off the ring! I always thought it was a little cheesy when people did that...but now I understand how they feel! This beauty is really special for many reasons other than the fact that it was a gift from Ben to me. The aquamarine stone is March's birthstone (which is the month we were engaged), it's an antique ring from France...which of course is perfect. And it looks like an Easter egg! I just adore it...especially because it was from my honey.
These fantastic photos were taken by Ben's cousin Russ, who is an amazing photographer, as you can see.

We are so overjoyed and loved reading all of your many comments about our happy day. Thank you so much for all the sweet words! I really feel like royalty, if for only a moment in time! :)

If you haven't seen the video yet, you can watch here. :)