Engaged

The elaborate birthday dinner that we had been planning for months turned out to be my proposal dinner. Yeah, I fell for it hook, line and sinker.

My parents flew in for a visit and we spent all day Saturday driving from the airport in Baltimore where I picked them up, back to DC. Then we drove from DC to Old Town where we loaded up both cars and drove to Van’s parent’s house just outside of Richmond.

We did a quick hello and introduced my parents to Van’s parent and then headed to downtown Richmond to check into the hotel and get ready for dinner. By the time we made it to dinner, 30 minutes late, I was ready to cry. I was so exhausted from all of the travel and frustrated that we couldn’t make it to dinner on time that I was barely keeping it together.

Finally, we arrived at 27, this really cute restaurant in downtown Richmond. Everyone was already seated so we joined the group and dinner began. Van had worked with the chef/owner to create the menu for the dinner and the food was amazing. The service was excellent and everything was going well.

After dessert, the waiter brought out champagne for a toast. Van stood up and starting thanking everyone for attending, his family and “his new family” and all of his friends. He said that everyone there had shared in all of the most important moments in his life and that he wanted them to share in his proposal. (Here is where my head started spinning, my hands started shaking and I had to remind myself to breathe.)

He told me how much he loved me and that he couldn’t imagine spending the rest of his life without me. Then he got down on one knee and said, “Katie Eileen Peltier will you marry me?”

I, of course, said yes and we hugged and kissed. Before we sat back down at the table, Van looked around the table and said, “Raise your hand if you knew this wasn’t a birthday dinner it was a proposal dinner.” All 22 people at the table raised their hands, the waiters the people at the bar, everyone knew. As I later found out, everyone had known since January when Van booked the restaurant and no one let it slip. One of the waitresses told me that she had know since we came in for the wine tasting.

I was completely amazed that Van would go through all of that for me. I am still in awe that it really happened.