He Proposed...And I Said Yes!

For all of you wanting to know the full story behind the awesome rock on my finger and the wonderful man I now call my fiance...

Here's the whoooooooole story:

Ben Allen and I started dating with the intention of marriage on 10-10-10 :) So we've been discussing "the marriage timeline" occasionally for quite some time. My father had recently lifted the 2-more-years-minimum, so we started discussing whether that would change our timeline or not. Our conversations began frustrating me, partially because I'm a natural worrier (which yes, I'm working on...) and partially because it's hard trying to consider all the possible pro's and con's of all our timing options...so Ben (very wisely) decided we needed to "table the topic till August." So we did.

However...

The week before Ben left for Italy, he secretly met with my father to ask for my hand in marriage. ~Apparently, he for one was all in favor of the new-and-improved, shorter timeline...;) He received the proper "grueling" from my dad and got his whole-hearted permission! Ben told him he was planning on proposing on 11-11-11 (He has this thing with date-number patterns...) However, my dad mentioned that Ben was coming to Florida with us, sooooo...

For the next two weeks, Ben was in Italy with very little opportunity to contact me. We talked for a total of 45 minutes in over 2 weeks. Then, by the time he got back from Italy, I had already left for Florida, so we had two or three days to call and text back and forth.

During those interchanges, Ben was constantly asking me to do a dinner date with him our first night on Thursday...and I was adamantly refusing! (I know...so silly looking back...) I thought, "We can go on a dinner date any old day of the week...but I only get to see my extended family for one week out of the year! I don't want us to miss that just to go out to dinner!" After a few days of bantering, we reached a compromise of going Friday after all my aunts, uncles and cousins left.

After he arrived on the island, he was VERY sweet & affectionate to me, to the point where I began to wonder what was with him...~not that he isn't ALWAYS sweet & affectionate...but it was much more pronounced than normal ;)

Friday he took me to a wonderful restaurant called Salt Rock Grill out over an inland bay. We got the best booth in the house, complete with candlelight and the most delicious food I've had in my life! (Unbeknownst to me, Ben had called ahead to make sure this was the case...) All of dinner, he was grinning, but much quieter than usual. Once, I thought I saw the outline of a ring box in his pocket, but I was working very hard on not getting my hopes up - especially since our conversation about tabling everything till August - so I talked myself out of it. I thought there was no way he would really propose without me knowing that he met with my dad or discussing it with me again...

When the sun began to set, we headed back towards the condo. Halfway back, Ben was afraid we were going to miss the sunset and asked me if it was ok to watch the sunset from a different beach spot he had found on his run. (He told me he had called ahead to get permission to park in the lot...at which point I became even more suspicious...) We walked toward the beach through a beautiful garden full of flowers and palm trees. When we arrived at the water, the sunset was breath-taking! Then came the most exciting part...

He took both my hands and began a sweet speech about my character and love for the Lord... He ended with, "And that's what I love about you." I gave him a quizzical look, because our standards are that we wouldn't say "I love you" unless we were engaged. Seeing my look, he got flustered and couldn't get another word out. Then it hit me. Oh. My. Word. He's trying to PROPOSE!! Seeing that thought dawning on my face, Ben fumbled for words even more and teared up. (Apparently he had a whole speech prepared and at that moment, went completely blank!) So he skipped to the end:

"Keri, I love you. And I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?"

He dropped to one knee, showing me the most beautiful ring I've ever seen in my life.

And I said yes. :)

Ben's last secret was that he had asked my cousin Spencer to come back to the island to help my brothers record and take pictures of the proposal. The following video is the recording Caleb, Matthew, and Spencer took of the proposal. You can't hear anything Ben or I say, but I think you'll find it pretty entertaining (and frankly, HILARIOUS) all the same...

Hope you all enjoy!