I’m writing this blog post at 6:35 am on the wobbling train from Greytown to Wellington. This morning I woke up at 5:30 (new start) and am having to adjust to watching a great deal of Married at First Sight with Matts Mum and Dad. Needless to say, I couldn’t be happier - especially because this weekend Matt and I got engaged!!
We were driving into town to buy some pants for Matt when I spotted a square ring shaped box in the side of his pants. Me being me, I said “What’s that?”. He swatted my hand away and looked very anxious. For the rest of the car journey Matt said weird things like “I wish the weather was nicer” and “I feel like going for a walk”. We did a mad-cap drive around to Oriental Bay before I told Matt I was getting too hungry and we needed to go and get some food. So, on driving back into the city I saw Nikau and suggested we go there.
I ordered pork belly and ceviche and Matt ordered kedgeree and ceviche. I also broke my wine fast and ordered a Riesling as it had been a fairly horrific week.
Over the meal, Matt acted even more strangely but then insisted I was the one acting strangely. My favourite moment was when he pulled out his insides of his pockets, but to re-emphasis that they were no longer with ring.
At the end of the meal, Matt stood up and walked outside with zero explanation. By then, I knew the jig was up. “Oh shit” I thought. “You’d better be sure now because there’s no turning back”. I sat on my hands and nervously scanned around the cafe, which had around 5 other tables. He came back in, got straight down on one knee and I immediately burst into tears like a baby animal. It was so overwhelming. Everyone at Nikau wasn’t sure if I was being dumped or not. I managed to blubber ‘Yes’ and then told Matt he needed to pop the ring on. And so it was done!
We immediately texted our families and then popped over to my mum and dads. We later drove home, bought TWO bottles of Moet from Greytown Fresh Choice and then played music on YouTube at his parents house and danced in the back garden together playing it loudly over the Bose speaker and probably pissing off all the neighbours.
We had already looked at rings together a few weeks ago, so it wasn’t a huge huge surprise, but I was absolutely stlll surprised. I think that even if you 100% know it is happening, it is still a surprise after everything you may have been through in life that someone is so certain that they love you that they will go through some kind of strange public ritual to declare that love to you and say that they want to be with you forever and have the intention to seal the deal. AGHH!
The ring I picked out was from my best friend Maria’s fathers shop ‘Jewel Centre’ on Cuba Street. Maria, her Dad and husband Ali were there when we picked it. It has a gold band and is half a carat with a claw setting in white gold. I already knew the style I liked more or less and it didn’t change, although we had already looked at two other shops, an antique shop and Partridge Jewellers (where I must say they were very helpful at informing us about diamonds generally). I wanted something very classic which would stand the test of time. I had been inspired to appreciate yellow gold more a few years ago after Lily Pebbles mentioned it in a video. I am thrilled with my ring and even more so with Matt.
We absolutely felt pressure when we were on holiday last year to get engaged but the timing wasn’t right for us. I think you need to be 100% certain about what you’re aiming for together and at that time we still were dealing with some firsts (first holiday away together) and personal stressors (Matt was very overworked). It just didn’t feel right.
There is no right or wrong way to get engaged. The only thing is that it should feel right for you. I personally didn’t want Matt to pop out of a cake. I feel like it was so lovely that everything was low-key. And I have to say, pork belly is probably one of my favourite dishes ever!
