A year ago Peter and I were in Paris. He had managed to get an approval to do some research for his dissertation in a very selective archive and I had recently graduated from college. The boss of my internship turned part-time job (later to become my current full-time job) allowed me to work a bit from Paris. Knowing that another opportunity to spend two months abroad would be hard to come by, I had diligently saved my money and planned very carefully to maximize our experience. Let me tell you, the planning was worth it. Every day when we walked out our front door this is what we saw.
Yup, we spent a couple months living under the Sacre Coeur. Peter would go off to study for a couple hours everyday and I would sleep in and then wander the streets or read in a cafe. It was quite heavenly. Then one particular day (March 16, 2009) Peter and I decided it would be really romantic to have a picnic under the Eiffel Tower. At sunset, after he finished his research for the day, he met me at a vintage shop and we walked over to the Eiffel Tower.
We took a million pictures along the way, most of which have the Eiffel Tower peaking out in the background.
The whole time I just remember us laughing, hugging, kissing, pausing for pictures, and laughing some more.
We arrived right as it was really getting dark. The lights on the tower were lit and it gave off such a magical glow from above.
We took our little tote filled with a loaf of bread, a bottle of wine, and some Comte cheese to a nice grassy area. Peter was surprisingly particular about which grassy area we should pick. (I now know that he was worried that if it was too dark, I wouldn’t know what he was doing–doubtful, but it makes a lot more sense.) We selected a spot. Peter spread out the blanket and then he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. Right when we kissed the tower started to twinkle. It does this about once an hour, but in the moment of him asking, us kissing, and then the tower sparkling, everything just felt so picturesque. It was terribly romantic. We hugged and kissed and felt really excited together. Then, we opened our tote and shared our simple dinner.
Afterward we didn’t rush to call our families. We just spent time together, walking, talking, and enjoying the magnitude of what had just happened. A lot of this happened over dessert. 
Yum!
The ring that Peter proposed with was a simple ring that I had liked in a shop. Awhile before this we had talked about how if we ever got engaged I would want to help pick out the ring. I feel like its such a symbol of the decision that we both made to spend the rest of our lives together, but the one he picked is so meaningful to us as well. I love that he listened to me as I made some off-hand reference that I liked this ring and went out and bought it for me while I was away.
When we got home we had this one made. I could probably write a book on the things that I learned while shopping for diamonds. I will definitely dedicate an entire post to it at some point in the future. It’s a very terrifying process and the more you know about it, the better off you are. Today is not that day. Today is the date the marks exactly one year from when my fiance and I committed to spending the rest of our lives together.
(Sadly, the Hello Kitty car is not ours.)
Happy Tuesday. I’ll be back tomorrow with the fabulous surprise that Peter had for me for our engagiversary. Get excited because it is home related.
Awwww! So sweet!! This is such an amazing engagement story! Paris for a proposal? You are a very lucky girl! And I just love all of your pictures. And the picnic. Sigh. Perfect!
I hear you about the diamond knowledge. Lee shopped for a ring for like 6 or 7 months and he ended up knowing a ton about cut, clarity, color, carat, etc. And I do think that the more you know, the scarier it is.
Lee made the point that diamonds are not really that scarce at all and that their value is really just determined by all of these jewelry companies. Still, there’s nothing like a sparkling ring on your finger, and yours is absolutely beautiful!!!
Wow, talk about romantic to the max! I love the story and both rings… happy “engagiversary!”
So romantic! You guys make a very cute couple…loving all the pics. Happy engagiversary!
That is one of the best proposal stories I’ve ever heard!! Thank you for sharing and Happy Engagiversary!!!
Now you can’t get more romantic than that! Beautiful ring also! Isn’t Paris grand? When I went years ago, I bought a beautiful pair of shoes. I wore them out one day and everyone kept asking me where I got them. It was fun to say, “Paris.” Very cute story.
Thanks everyone!!! Meg: buying a diamond is a nightmare and the entire time you’re thinking that you’re being ripped off because you probably are. It’s worth it to know some information about it (I completely called out a jeweler for lying to us) but if you think about it too much you could drive yourself crazy.
Danielle- I love that! It’s fun when you have things from different countries because you know that the odds of someone else ending up with the same thing are very slim.
Have a great night everyone!