Wedding Wednesday No. 1 // WE’RE ENGAGED!

Y’ALL! ?? Thanks for bearing with me the past few days while I’ve been soaking in all of this happiness since we got engaged last weekend!! It has been such a whirlwind, but I’m excited to be back on my blogging + Instagram game to share all of the fabulous details with you!

One thing before we get started: This story of how we got engaged is the first of many Wedding Wednesday posts that will live under the “wedding” category on the blog!! I’ll continue this series up until our wedding day so I can bring you along with me throughout the entire planning process! It might not happen every Wednesday (unless I just have THAT many updates) but I’ll make sure to cover all the major topics ? Stay tuned for Instagram polls in the next few weeks – I’ll be asking you what YOU want to see on the next few Wedding Wednesday’s.

Last Saturday, March 2nd started out like any other Saturday that Rudd and I would spend together. If you’ve been around for a little while, you know that Rudd lives just south of the Asheville, NC area, and I live right outside of the Columbia, SC area. We switch off weekends traveling to see each other, and last weekend was “my turn” to go see him!

A little backstory: Rudd and I have a pair of sweet friends (hi Megan and Andrew!) that we hang out with often when I visit Rudd. Megan had “suggested” a few weeks ago that we plan a fun/fancy dinner date with the boys at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville the next time I was in town – I thought nothing of it, but little did I know that I was about to get engaged…

Rudd and I ate at one of our favorite breakfast places (Hendough Chicken & Donuts) in Hendersonville that morning, and everything seemed totally normal! Rudd is not someone to get nervous, so I didn’t suspect a thing. We mostly just hung out for the rest of the afternoon before getting ready for what I thought was a fun double date night! Rudd suggested that we get there early to grab a drink and walk around, and again, I didn’t think anything of it! (Looking back, I feel like I should’ve totally known!!)

We got ready and ended up getting to the Grove Park Inn around 5pm and walked straight out towards the terrace on the back side of the resort. We had been to the Grove Park together before, so it seemed totally normal to me that we would just walk around together for a bit, especially because it was such a beautiful day!! After we walked about 3/4 of the way down the back terraces and then stopped, Rudd suggested that it might be a good spot to take few Instagram photos for me (which he does on a regular basis!) I thought that sounded like a great idea and proceeded to get out my phone…

The next thing I know, Rudd is down on his knee asking me to marry him! If you asked him, he would tell you that I said “What???!!! Are you serious???” about 5 times ? I was COMPLETELY surprised!! I knew that we would be entering this season of our lives soon, but I had absolutely NO idea that it was going to happen last weekend! After a few minutes, we turned around and saw our sweet photographer snapping pictures behind us. Tracy Waldrop Photography did such an amazing job and I am so thrilled to have these photos to cherish forever!

After the actual “ask,” Tracy walked us around like a PRO and took tons of beautiful pictures of us outside! I was totally shocked at that point and couldn’t believe that I had just gotten engaged!

Rudd completely designed my ring himself at Spicer Greene Jewelers in Asheville. He wanted this day to be a total surprise for me, and it made it that much more special now that we are engaged! My maternal grandmother handed down my great-grandmother’s diamond earrings to me a few years ago, and I gave them to my mom to hold onto last fall in case Rudd ever wanted to use them. I had no idea what the plan was until he handed me the ring on Saturday! The two diamonds on the sides of the middle stone are the earrings. It is so significant and special to me to be able to wear a part of my family’s history on my hand every single day for the rest of my life, instead of having the earrings just sit in a box!

After we finished taking pictures outside together, Tracy said that she wanted to snap a few more of us inside at the President’s Lounge. We went inside the hotel and started walking down a long hallway – that’s when I saw an entire group of people waiting for us at the end of it, and quickly realized that it was both of our families plus a handful of our sweet friends! I immediately burst out in happy tears and rushed to hug all of them! It was one of my favorite moments of the day!

Of course my mom made a beautiful cake and cookies for our friends to take home as favors. We all celebrated together for a little while and I opened a few fun presents! It was so special to have all of those people all in one place together!! I was so thankful that Tracy was able to get some great group shots of us with our families and friends – I know I’ll be framing some of these in our new home!

After we retold the story and snacked on some yummy cake and drinks, our families had dinner together at the Edison restaurant inside of the resort. It was SO much fun! One of the best parts was hearing the entire backstory of how the day came about – obviously everyone knew I was getting engaged except for ME!

The Grove Park Inn staff was beyond amazing and I learned later how great they were for Rudd to work with to plan the entire engagement and celebration. It will forever be such a special place for us to visit again and again! I still can’t believe I can say that we are ENGAGED now!

A quick note on my navy jumpsuit – I purchased it on a whim earlier in the week so that I could have something fun to wear for our “date night” and I’ve never loved a piece of clothing more!! If you need something for an upcoming event, it would be absolutely perfect. Runs true to size – I got my normal size 4! Shop the rest of my engagement outfit below.

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