I GOT ENGAGED IN VENICE!!

The title speaks volumes to be honest... However, my blog wouldn't be right if I didn't do a full anecdotal post about my engagement and the proposal. March for me has been a bit of a rocky month as my Grandad sadly passed away and trying to get to grips with my new job and living in a new city on my own has been a bit stressful, this is as well as not seeing my boyfriend- sorry, now fiancé- for 6 weeks due to the Beast from the East. But with a trip to Venice planned to celebrate our 5 year anniversary and a surprise proposal, I can honestly say I am over the moon with happiness and I am so excited to prepare to take the next steps in our lives together...

So I will get straight to it, especially considering I don't talk much about him on here; I have known Jack since school, Year 9 to be exact and began getting to know him during my IT classes when doing my GCSEs. Or should I say taking a strong dislike to him for making fun of my obsession with One Direction at the time. We spent a lot more time together in Sixth Form and got together on the 27th March 2013 when I was 17 and he was 18. We went to prom together, went through uni together, done 3 graduations (don't forget I did a Masters), lived together for 2 years and now we are doing long distance while we get some experience in the world of work. To be honest, living apart is testing for any couple however being engaged now shows that we are both committed to make this work until life brings us to make changes.

The proposal was very beautiful. We only decided 3 weeks before the trip that we wanted to celebrate our 5 year anniversary in Venice, it is very romantic and somewhere we both wanted to explore.  He had told me the day before that on the morning of the 27th he wanted to visit the island of San Georgio Maggiore which is just minutes away off Venice by water taxi. I was curious why he was so persistent about visiting, I was under the assumption that the church and bell tower looked like it should be on Assassins Creed and just went along with it(!) How wrong was I! It was roughly 9.30am when we got the water taxi over which offered a beautiful view of the landscape which I took a photo of...

As I put my phone away, trying to squeeze it into my tiny hand bag he asked me "has it been a good 5 years then?", "aye, it's been good" I replied barely looking at him. "Elisa Jayne Adams" he projects as I watch him go down onto one knee. This was it; something I had been wishing for a long time, something that many friends and co-workers had been sceptical about which I was in denial of to avoid feeling disappointed if it didn't happen. I didn't know what to do, so I began to walk away elongating "oh my God...", rather comical looking back. I turn around and he is on one knee with a hexagonal turquoise box with a bright, oversized, red flower shaped ring, greeted with a "will you marry me?"

Stunned, and slightly concerned that the ring was huge and nothing to my taste at all, I didn't even hesitate to say "Yes". Hell, I love him, if he wanted to wear that for the rest of my life to show our love for each other I would! It was fairly short and sweet, with tears in my eyes he got up and put the ring on my finger. Before we could even share a kiss he explained that this wasn't the real ring; he didn't know my size and wanted to get the real ring perfect which we would pick out together, so he used this toy ring that his Mam gave him so nothing it felt more special. HOW FUCKING ADORABLE!!

Before I knew it, we were letting our families know. He had been traditional and asked my Dad, I stumbled upon a Facebook message he had sent to my Dad simply saying 'hello Steve' which my Dad told me as he isn't very tech savvy and thought he had been hacked as it was so unusual... but I put 2 and 2 together and this was when he was asking his permission! This also happened while my Grandad was in hospital so the only people who knew about the proposal on my family's side was my Dad, Mam and my Grandad who was told the day before he passed away. Knowing that he knew and took that secret to heaven broke my heart and that's when the tears and the emotion came. Before that I was just stunned to fathom any realistic emotional response.

It took a while to sink in, my boyfriend of 5 years was now my fiancé! My friends and family are all over the moon and I just wanted to get planning the engagement party as soon as possible and celebrate with our close friends and family. My favourite part of it was that we were just on our own, Jack is a very private person and the proposal totally reflected that with nobody else around us and was done first thing in the morning before the island got busy. We had the day to enjoy ourselves in our new relationship status and reflect on the last 5 years of our lives together. When we returned back to the UK the first thing we did was go and pick out a ring together, one of the happiest moments I will treasure for ever. It's just a shame that I've had to get it custom sized to order as my hands are so small!

As I said at the beginning of this post, we are both so over the moon and excited for what the future holds for us. I am excited to start creating content about wedding planning, although it won't be for a while yet, and to begin planning my own wedding, something that I only ever though about doing when my and Jack were a couple! I want to take a moment to say thank you to all my friends and family for their love and support, we are so excited to start this new chapter in our lives together!

Elisa x