The Proposal

It's time – here comes the story of the proposal (fair warning, it’s pretty long so you might want to grab a cuppa!) As I said in the previous blog, it was on the 17^th January 2017, at 22.40 - a week ago today, almost to the hour. However to do the story justice, I will take it right back to the week before.

On Tuesday 10th, Anthony went out with my Dad to see a show in London. They meet up every so often anyway, so I didn’t suspect anything. Little did I know that while out, Anthony asked my Dad’s permission for my hand in marriage. Needless to say, it was granted in a heartbeat! At this stage, I believe Anthony had already picked my ring (more to come about the ring later), so he also invited my Dad along on Monday to go and collect it. He also phoned my mum to ask her permission as well – I’m surprised that he didn’t go deaf from her screaming! - I just love him so much, he’s so perfect!

So on Monday 16^th January, Anthony got on a train at 7am to “go to a business meeting” – again, I wasn’t suspicious because I know that him and his business partner Geoff hadn’t had a meeting for a while, so probably had a lot to do. What he was instead doing was getting a train to Aylesbury (from Stevenage that involves going into London then back out, it’s a pain in the arse route) to go to my Dad’s house. They then drove to Birmingham where my ring was on reserve. This store that he bought it from is incredibly specialised – Anthony hadn’t just picked a ring, he’d picked the specific diamond and the specific band, both of which are flawless! He then went back to Aylesbury with my Dad, but had to quickly get the train back to London, where he actually did have a business meeting!

We then skip forward to Tuesday. For Christmas, one of my presents from Anthony was tickets for Aladdin on the 17^th. I had plans until 5pm, so once I was done I hopped onto a train to London – Anthony was already there “seeing his dad”. Turns out he was actually checking us into a 5* hotel! We went for a super quick dinner at a quaint little pasta bar opposite the Prince Edward Theatre, then went into the show. Anthony was pretty insistent on us getting a programme, but I wasn’t that fussed (we’ve seen the show before and we never normally get programmes) so I said that he could get one if he wanted. He didn’t move, he looked like he was waiting for me to get my purse out, at which point I was thinking ‘how cheeky can he get! I’ve already paid for dinner and drinks, I don’t even want a programme!’. In the end he got up and went and bought a programme from someone pretty far away from our seats – it turns out that all of the hesitation to get his wallet out was because the ring was in it!

We watched the show, it was amazing, a pretty great date night as far as I was concerned, but I thought that was where it ended; I knew we were going to have a mad day the following day, as I was heading to my cousin’s house early to help her dress the venue for her wedding on Thursday! We headed back to Kings Cross to get our train back to Stevenage, and had a 20 minute wait for the next train, so we went for a walk. We went to the little swing outside of Kings Cross, and I happened to make a comment about how nice that would be for a proposal if there was no one around, and that I didn’t mind whether our proposal was private or public as long as it was personal to us. I cannot believe that we had that conversation less than 10 minutes before he proposed! I honestly wasn’t even prompting, Anthony could tell you that I talk about proposals all the time!

We went back into the station and went over to the 9^3/4 trolley by the wall, and had a couple of individual photos. At this point, an incredible amount of American tourists come up to the trolley area and start queuing for a photo, so we’re like “ok we’ll get a quick couple one then get out of the way”. I gave one of the American ladies my phone, and started posing as if I was pushing the trolley. At this point, I also want to just make it clear how much we owe this woman – she used her initiative to keep snapping photos and to get a video! I really wish we’d got her name, but I was just so overwhelmed after!

While posing for the photo, apparently I misheard what Anthony said – what I heard was “now’s the time to strike a pose”, instead he said “now’s a good time to propose”. I say to him to stop messing around while still looking at the camera, which is when I notice the American lady’s face. I turn back to Anthony, and he is down on one knee, with the most beautiful ring in existence between his fingers. What happens next is a blur – all I can say for definite is that there were a lot of tears involved, and that I ended up with a ring on my finger!  

At this point I was so flustered and overwhelmed that I was barely functioning as a human being! I suddenly realised that our platform has been announced for our train and that actually we should probably get a move on, which is when Anthony says “actually I think we should stay in a hotel – I’ve booked us into one just down the road”. While walking we talk about who already knows, and both of us phone parents and close family – it's when I'm on the phone to my Mum that I realise that I hadn’t actually said yes! I remember my cousin Amy saying that happened to her, and at the time I was like “seriously, how?!” then went and did the same thing myself!

The hotel was perfect. Anthony had packed a bag for me, even with the small things that most guys would forget, like make up wipes, and perfume, he just covered every base! The whole proposal was perfect, and it pains me to say that I couldn’t have done it better myself. I would never even have considered Kings Cross, but it was so SO magical – it involved both Harry Potter and Disney (seeing Aladdin, though at this point that felt like forever ago!), and Kings Cross has so much significance for our relationship – while we were long distance at university, we would travel Kings Cross to York and vice versa. That station has seen us in every state, heartbroken at the thought of not seeing each other for at least 3 weeks, ecstatic at seeing each other after a minimum of 3 weeks, panicked at being late for a train, bored waiting for a delayed train – name an emotion and we experienced it within Kings Cross.

This was such a long post, so if you made it to this point then well done! I'm just the luckiest girl in the world, with the most perfect fiancé, and I wanted to make sure that I am telling every part of the story so that you all know just how thoughtful and tenderhearted he is, and how phenomenally well he knows me! Now it's time to plan a wedding!

Thanks for reading, catch you soon!