Getting engaged and getting the sparkler

So I meant to blog when I first got engaged but getting engaged seemed to take over and then wedding planning came along! For the first two months of this year I have been in a maelstrom of weddings and wedding planning and wedding suppliers, in fact anything with the prefix of wedding!

Being asked to marry Stan was the most amazing but surreal experience ever! He asked me as part of a conversation - just dropped it in - in the Hotel Altepost in St Anton (oh dear, we'll HAVE to go back there now just to reminise - how difficult will that be). It was inevitable that he would have done it but it could have taken a while although he did say he was thinking of doing it in Finland. Looking back at the holiday in Finland I'm not sure he would have done - just not one of those sort of holidays i.e. too many people around. Anyway, I digress (something I'm likely to do on many of my blogs). Stan had also been amazing and told me that he had bought me a wedding present in advance - the Perfect Story - a beautiful sculpture by Lorenzo Quinn of a book hollowed out and a embracing naked couple inside. Just gorgeous! I proceeded to inform everyone in the hotel that I was getting married (little bit tipsy at this point) and then we had some champagne. Bad idea! Consequently I have completely and utterly decided that a) drinking champers at altitude is a real 'no no' and b) I don't really like the taste of the bubbly stuff anyway so what the hell was I thinking of?? I felt dreadfully ill the next day and having to wake up and pack to leave on a coach at 7am was so unpleasant that the day after was one of hangovers, feeling dazed and experiencing dumbfoundedness. Neither of us were particularly 'over the moon' as one would expect a newly engaged couple to be....come Monday though, we were soaring for the stars! Monday, or Christmas Eve, was wonderful; I was so excited that it was Christmas and I had my mum, sister and niece to stay and that I was ENGAGED. No longer to be left on the shelf - hoorah!

We got my engagement ring that day; Stan popped into town to get last minute presents (how did I not see through that one??) and texted me to say that he was in the pub recovering after putting the deposit down on a ring. He suggested that I pop in after Christmas to look at it - yeah right!?!!?!? I motored into town and dragged him back to the shop; he had paid for the one we had originally seen a while back and loved but I insisted on trying on the entire selection before plumping for the original gorgeous sparkler. The words 'typical female' were uttered more than once by my beloved!!