New Pictures

So, I'm certain that all of you would love to see some pictures of the happy couple! I promise I'll get less cheesy in a little bit...really.... These are pictures that our good friend Ben Boster took over the Christmas break, because we decided we deserved some of those winter pictures....we need to clarify that these do not count as our engagement pictures, those will be taken later, when its prettier...but they do still look good!

This picture will probably be a christmas card, don't you think??


Whitney is totally making fun of these kinds of engagement pictures, but I think it looks pretty cool!

I have no idea what happened here, I probably made some joke that she's mad at....



I just think this one is cool, with the branch there, very artistic....

Just really cool, that's all I have to say!!

Well, that's all you get for now! These are my personal favorites of the ones Ben took, enjoy!

Do you Want an Invitation?

So...I'm sure most of you have probably already done this, but I just want to make sure I cover my bases so that anyone who wants an invitation can get one. Head to this website and click on the RSVP link (left hand side) and select the "I want an invitation" event and whatever reception you plan on coming to! Thanks!

http://cs02.ewedding.com/v30/?a=whitneyandbryson/

Happy New Year! I'll do a better post later!

How It All Went Down

So lest some of you worry that all of my class has gone out the window and I actually asked Whitney to marry me online, and for those of you who want the whole story because you love that kind of thing, here we go:

The Story of the Ring

Over the summer, Whitney and I started looking at engagement rings, mostly online (I know..we're a part of THAT generation...) but we found a setting that her and I both really liked, both because it was beautiful and it had some great symbolism. Of course, i didn't tell her at the time that I ordered when my next paycheck came in..

Whitney also told me over the summer that if I wanted to use it, she had been offered her Grandmother's center diamond to use in her engagement ring. Naturally I jumped on the opportunity since I love things that are meaningful like that. She said that she would contact her mom and see if she could get the diamond out of the ring so that I could take it with me when we out to Oregon in August.

But..of course...her knowing that I had the diamond wouldn't be any fun at all...

So I got a hold of her parents and asked them to pretend like they weren't ready to give the diamond up. Then when we came out in August I brought the setting with me (without Whitney knowing of course) and gave it to Whitney's parents. While we were out there, Whitney brings out her grandma's ring to show me the diamond again. I decide this is a great opportunity to cement the deception, so I say "wasn't your mom supposed to get that out for me this week?" I'm so horrible.

They brought the setting and her grandmas ring to the jeweler who originally made the ring and had the diamond set into Whitney's setting and then gave the ring back to me when I came out for Thanksgiving. Her parents also used the other diamonds in the ring to make a band for her mom and a new band for her dad - which they wore over Thanksgiving. I was afraid that Whitney would catch on, but her parents had carefully planned their story to make sure that she didn't.

The Thanksgiving Mess

Well, the next mess that required another lie occurred when Whitney got home from Thanksgiving and several people checked her hand or asked if she was engaged. (Thanks guys) so I had to come up with something to throw her off the trail (just in case she had gotten on).

So in conversation I asked "So do you think you could get your grandma's diamond when you go home over Christmas break?" Again...I'm horrible, but it needed to happen.

The Story of the Blog:

I decided that there had to be some "long-distance" element in the proposal since nearly our entire dating life had been long distance, but I refused to propose online, thus the "12 Days of Whitney" was born.

The posts were scheduled to go up every morning at 9 o'clock mountain time, so they would come up when Whitney was at work and could see them. Except the last one, which I programmed to go up while Whitney was picking me up from the airport in Salt Lake.

The whole day while I was getting ready to drive to Indianapolis, I was threading this long yarn that began with me saying "You haven't said anything about today's post yet!" and ended with "I'll have to fix that when we get to home tonight!"

The Night

I told Whitney on Sunday night that I wanted Monday night to be ours alone, since there were a lot of people who had already asked to spend time with us. I, with the help of my sister and several very helpful stewardesses on my flights, successfully kept a bouquet of flowers alive on my flights from Indianapolis and gave them to her when she picked me up. I also had bought a fun "wintery" fondue set (a snowman where the chocolate sits in his hat...pictures to come later) that I checked in my luggage that I thought would be a nice precursor to the whole "question." My mom had even bought fresh fruit for us to use and left it set out on a beautiful table at her house.

My bags got lost.

I suspected the bags might get lost because my first flight was significantly delayed, so I had time to realize that this was another great opportunity to throw her off the trail. Since I was worried that Whitney might suspect (come on...when have I EVER wanted to stay up past midnight, especially after a long day of flying) I just told her "My plans for tonight are in my bags that got lost! So lets just hang out for a bit and go to bed, ok?" (As I learned later, this little distraction was completely unnecessary...)

We went to her house, she showed me her christmas tree, we put the flowers in water (which are still living I might add!) and then she said "Should we see if we can fix your blog?" Music to my ears!

We walk in to her bedroom where she opens up her computer and types in the address to the blog. I'm sitting on the edge of her bed, ring in my pocket, just waiting.

It pops up.

She jumps up and says "its up!" i figured she caught on...i start to get down on one knee.

She looks really confused.

"You didn't read the blog, hun, did you?"

She whips back around and sees the picture of the ring, then whips back around to me.

I ask her to marry me, she says yes, then we hug, I'm still on one knee.

"Whitney...I have a ring for you."

"Oh...that's great!"

"Its in my right hand right now..."

She ends the hug - rather abruptly I might add - and finds the ring in my right hand.

The Aftermath

So then we went back out to the living room and I had to unload the web of lies that I have been feeding her since August, and then tell her congratulations from all of her friends in Illinois. She apparantly had absolutely no idea, and was completely blown away by the whole prospect.

So for anyone who might be asking, we're looking at a mid to late August wedding in Portland, as soon as we figure out the schedules of immediate family.

I feel like the luckiest guy in the world!

1st Day of Christmas......

SHE SAID YES!!

Well...she hasn't yet...but I'm sure she will...when she sees this...

2nd Day of Christmas....Charity part 2

In addition to Whitney’s love for her family, she has a real talent for loving everyone around her. So often, I am the person who is really good (if you can call it a talent) at picking people apart. Whitney is very willing to look for the best in people. She makes friends with everyone she meets and loves them sincerely.

I think that is the thing that is most impressive to me, she is dedicated to her friends. She wants to be there for them, and she does everything she can to help them. When Whitney is friends with someone, you know that you will have someone who will drop whatever she is doing to help you.

For example: This past summer we were in Oregon for a friends wedding. The day before the wedding she and I had planned to head to the coast and spend some time there. (Neither of us get out to the coast very often, and so we were quite excited to be able to go.) Well we found out that our friends needed some help getting things ready for the reception the next day. Of course, we were both a little sad that we didn’t get to go to the coast, but we were happy to help our friends out. What amazed me is that she immediately jumped in with everything she had and figured out what she could do to help and made it happen. This is one great little example of her incredible ability to have real charity for everyone she knows.

3rd Day of Christmas...Charity part 1

A picture of Whitney's extended family at Thanksgiving

Whitney absolutely loves her family! It is such a joy to go home with her and see her spending time with them. You can tell that they are the most important people in her life. The picture below is a picture that she took of her first (and so far – only) niece. She is dedicated to them and wants to do everything she can to help them to be happy. What really impresses me is that way that has dedicated herself to my family as well. Before she even met some of them, she has been interested in their lives, wanted to know about their lives, and immediately fell in love with them.

4th Day of Christmas....Hope

A couple of weeks ago, I was out at Whitney’s house watching a very important game of the OSU Beavers. It didn’t start off very well. The Beavers were doing absolutely horribly. Her dad and her brother were yelling at the TV every time they made a mistake, and I was sitting on the couch resigned to the fact that the Beavers just weren’t going to win. Whitney (and I should also say her mother) were criticizing the rest of us for giving up on them. For those of you who didn’t see it, the Beavers won in final seconds of the game.

Albeit this is a relatively unimportant example, it certainly is an example of Whitney’s ability to live her life full of hope. She always sees the best in every situation she faces. In addition, she always sees the best in people around her. That’s really good, because that means that she sees the best in me too!