December nineteenth was the most amazing, rainy day I have ever experienced. I went up to San Luis Obispo with my sister, brother in law, and nephew to visit with one of my best friends Nicole. Prior to leaving, I had made plans to get dropped off in Santa Barbara on the way home with Pat to celebrate, his good friend's birthday (Doug). We were planning on meeting his friends at dinner in Santa Barbara around five to celebrate...however, that was obviously not what happened!
After getting dropped off with Pat and saying good-bye to my family, Pat and I went out for breakfast at an amazing restaurant called The Sojourner Cafe (which was delicious by the way!). After, we went and took a walk down by the beach in the pouring rain. We realized we still had about four hours until the dinner, so Pat asked Doug for some ideas of what we could do. Obviously Doug was in on the surprise because he told us about a park and a botanical garden we could go walk through. Pat and I agreed to go up and check it out. We started driving and ended up in the hills of Santa Barbara. The drive was beautiful and I had no idea it even existed. Pat, the tricky boy he is, pretended to get lost on the drive. We pulled into the parking lot, and it was pouring like crazy. Pat convinced me to get out and we started our walk down under a shared umbrella. The park surrounded an old house that was broken down, but beautiful. If it wasn't so rainy, the view from the park is supposedly breath taking. We walked down the path and ended in a courtyard with a huge tree wrapped in lights...and Pat suddenly stopped and said, "Wait". I turned to him and he was holding a black box with something sparkling inside. I gasped and just stared at him for a couple seconds with tears streaming out of my eyes. He was smiling and dropped to one knee. Then he said the magical phrase..."Will you marry me?" I couldn't even say anything, I just grabbed his neck and wouldn't let go. After a couple of seconds, Pat got back up and asked me what my answer was. "Of course!" is what I muffled in his neck. He then put the family heirloom ring on my finger and we just stood in the moment hugging. We walked over to a look out and he then said "come over here". We walked around the side of the house and there was a beautiful, romantic cabana-like tent built for us. There were candles everywhere and fresh garland hanging, hand made by our family. We walked over and sat on the blanket and ate the fruits and crackers out of the picnic basket that were waiting for us. This is where we sat and talked about our lives and why we want to marry one another. It was so magical, and I could have stayed in the little tent forever. It was still raining at this point and the noise it was making on our "roof" was perfect. After talking and just taking everything in for a long while, Pat told me that he had made dinner reservations for us. Walking on air, we cleaned up and started driving down to downtown for our special dinner. Once we got to the restaurant Pascucci, we were taken back to our table. I looked up and saw that both Pat's family and my family were sitting at a massive table waiting for us. They were cheering and clapping and I immediately started crying. It was amazing to see everyone there, especially because I had no idea about the whole day! We said our "hello's" and got to hear stories about them setting up and the stress of finding a new location, etc. It was so great to celebrate with family and I am so thankful that Pat included our families in the special day. After dinner, we walked back to the car and were called by my sister's boyfriend Patrick to come meet him and exchange some soap that Pat had bought for him from the farmers market in Berkeley. We met Patrick and my sister outside of a place called, Joe's Cafe. We then said goodbye and Pat said he wanted to go inside Joe's. I hesitated then we walked in and I was overwhelmed with the screams and cheers coming from a group of people standing in front of us. Pat had surprised me again with our closest friends from school and home. I realized how emotional I was, as I started crying again--dang, Pat really got me to cry a lot that day! We hung out with our friends and showed pictures and talked about our day together. It was so great to celebrate with our closest friends, and again, I am so thankful that Pat included our friends in our special day. We then started our drive home as a newly engaged couple. It was amazing, and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with my best friend. God is so good.
Here are some pictures from our special day.
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