A California Christmas + the Perfect Proposal

I’m looking outside right now at those vicious Dutch rain clouds and wishing I could go back to 2 weeks ago when I was frolicking in the sun along the California coast with my toes in the sand, a shiny new engagement ring on my finger and my new handsome fiancé givin’ me some lovin’ and kissin’. Also present were my two best friends, Smithers and Ink (I give nicknames to all my closest friends, it just kinda happens), who were our top secret SNEAKY photographers to capture the moment of one that I was certain would never be caught on camera—THE PROPOSAL. Ok I’ll start from the beginning...

Christian and I had planned for months to fly out and surprise my parents for Christmas. Although we were there in August for my twin sister’s wedding, it was just too short with all the wedding craziness so we said ‘Christmas in Cali? Why the hell not!’ And thus ‘Operation: Surprise the hell outta my parents’ was underway and my-oh-my were they surprised!! We surprised my mom at work and my dad at home, but my mom’s reaction was absolutely priceless, words cannot describe it...so it’s pretty awesome that my twin sis caught it ALLLLLLLL on camera :)...

The holidays in Cali were amazing (well so was the night we arrived in LA, a nightcap in Santa Monica turned into plenty of time spent in dive bars teaching Christian how to play American games like shuffleboard and darts...hahaha). Christian spent the week golfing near the sea with my brother (who basically kidnaps him whenever we’re in town), I spent my time lounging in the sun with my mom, sisters and friends and just enjoying the idea that there’s no place like home—mom’s home cookin’, wining and dining with my best friends at The Side Door (which was so so tasty!) in Corona Del Mar, late-night chats (I tend to just not sleep when I’m home now) and enjoying some pre-Christmas Eve dinner Happy Hour escapades with my brothers and sisters, sans the oldest sis though :(. The week was great...so great that I kind of just totally forgot to take pics but sometimes its good to leave the camera behind and sit back & enjoy. It wasn’t really until Christmas Day that I decided to whip out the camera for a trip to Crystal Cove, a beautiful stretch of rocks, beaches and caves, which turned into a total surprise for me. What I thought was a trip down to the beach on Christmas Day with Smithers and Ink to take photos and show Christian a little slice of Californian heaven turned out to be their sneaky mission to help Christian propose!!—I have since dubbed the three of them the ‘trio of sneakiness’.

THE PROPOSAL

As the four of us made our way down to the beach and over the rocks snapping away and me thinking ‘oooooo Cali how I love thee!’, we then found ourselves standing on a tiny secluded beach surrounded by caves. Smithers and Ink kinda disappeared at this point. The sun was setting and I was thinking ‘wow...the colors of this sunset are UNREAL!’ This was when Christian hugged me and started whispering so many sweet words but I just thought he was having a great time and had no idea a proposal was on the way. Often when we’re on vacation and Christian is loving it, he talks about how great our lives are together and how happy he is...so naturally I thought he was just having a good Christmas with me. Well then he reached in his pocket and I knew!! I laughed, smiled, said ‘oh my gods’ a bunch of times, asked if he was serious, smacked his shoulder in disbelief, smiled over at Ink who was peering out from a cave snapping some pics and then he got on one knee and...well...I can’t remember much at this point because I was SO SHOCKED! But there were yes’s and kisses and hugs, congrats and pure delight...oh and champagne!

Fortunately, it couldn’t have been a more perfect Christmas and not only did Christian arrange to have my best friends present for such an important day in any girl’s life, but they caught it all on camera. These pictures are so precious and basically tell the story all on its own. ‘twas a very Merry Christmas indeed!!