Happy #WeddingWednesday, my gems! This is so fun for me because this is a series I’ve wanted to do on my blog since before I got engaged – like years before. I am the girl who has been thinking about her wedding since she was born, and once I met Dalton and the reality of getting married became even more real, thinking about my wedding became actively planning my wedding and even “playing wedding” with some of my fellow wedding-loving friends. Needless to say, I am PUMPED to be sharing all of the wedding details with y’all both on the blog, on Instagram, and on the Youtube channel (those will just be “wedding series” videos since I don’t upload on Wednesdays). For the first installment, I really just want to talk about Dalton and I’s relationship, how he proposed, and how we picked out my ring.

Dalton and I started dating on November 6, 2017. Dalton will tell you that he knew the moment we met that we were going to end up getting married, and while I love that, I do not share that sentiment. Not because I didn’t love Dalton, but because I had not the best high school relationship so I was a little nervous about “calling it” that quickly. It only took about a month, though, before I realized that I, too, was as smitten with Dalton as he was with me. In fact, about five months in, I remember my mom just blatantly asking me “Devyn is this it? Like are you done?” and I, without hesitation or looking up (I think I was looking at a magazine at the time), responded, “Yep, I think so”. And as much as this may sound like a cliche, the rest kind of was history.

We met each other’s families, visited each other’s hometowns, adopted our baby Duke (our basset hound baby, that is) in June of 2018 (technically this was me adopting a dog but don’t think Dalton didn’t love Duke as his own once he got over my impulsive decision to get a dog), and in January of 2019, we moved in together. One of my favorite things about my relationship with Dalton is that we’ve been together since we were 18 and 19, so we’ve experienced some of life’s greatest moments together. I was at his brother’s wedding and was there virtually when his nephew and niece were born. He was there when I reconnected with my dad and met my stepmom, and he spent a few years with my mom before we lost her. We’ve been to friends’ weddings, celebrated our favorite people as they graduated and entered the “real world”, and held each other during the loss of too many loved ones, and adopted our second basset hound, Dory. He’s supported me through many career-path changes and mental health seasons, and I’ve been to a TON of football games and have way too much knowledge about video games. We’ve only been dating for about five years, and while sometimes it is baffling to me that I’ve spent that much time with one person, I genuinely cannot remember life without Dalton. He is truly my favorite person to do things with, whether it be to visit a new place or simply start a new Netflix series. Being in love with your best friend is literally the best thing in life, and I hope you can experience that in your life.

Dalton has known about my obsession with weddings and how excited I’ve always been to get married since pretty much day one. As much as I want to believe that I didn’t spring that onto a man I was newly dating, I know myself and this is likely exactly what I did. He’s always told me that he didn’t want to propose until he knew we could have the wedding that I’ve always wanted. In hindsight, it’s definitely a good thing that we waited because I did not have a handle on my mental health until at least two and a half years in. Recently (roughly 2021), I just asked him if he was ready to get married or if I’d just brought it up so much that I’d convinced myself we were both on board. Once he clarified that he was, indeed, ready to get married, we started to look at rings (more details on that later).

In total transparency, I knew Dalton was going to propose. I knew when he bought the ring, so I knew it had to be coming up relatively soon. I also did some research about when we could get married given Dalton’s dream job has a pretty demanding and not totally clear schedule. I knew that there would be a two to three-week window in the summer of 2023 when we would be able to get married and have our honeymoon before Dalton would (hopefully) have to go back to work. Once I looked at the dates we could choose from, I landed pretty quickly on July 1 because I have an affinity for the “first” of things. I also knew that I wanted to be engaged for more than a year because while I’ve always been excited to plan a wedding, it is a very daunting task and I knew that I wanted as much time as possible to get everything right. After relaying this to Dalton and not so subtly telling him that I would love to be engaged by the end of our spring break this year, I had a clue that it was going to happen. I also hate surprises, so I did everything I could to spoil it for myself (note: please don’t tell me that I should have kept it a surprise, what works for you works for you, let’s not push our personal beliefs or desired experiences on others). Dalton, however, came up with a VERY clever last-minute surprise for me, especially given that he is the worst liar.

My aunt had come to town right before we got engaged and we did some shopping, and we found the dress I got engaged in at Loft and she told me she really thought that I should wear that dress when I got engaged because it was super flattering. We then went to dinner with Dalton, and I suppose they got to talking when I was in the bathroom because when I was putting my clothes up later with my aunt in my room, she suddenly changed her mind and told me to wear a different dress on Saturday, the day I thought Dalton would propose. I asked her if she knew something I didn’t and she played it off as though she didn’t know what I was talking about so I didn’t bother to ask again (sometimes when I talk to her on the phone I talk too fast and she gets confused so I just assumed that is what happened and thought it best to move on). The next day was Friday, March 18. Earlier in the week, Dalton told me he had a date planned for us that day, but he saw the weather was going to be bad so he had to move some things around. He told me he couldn’t move our dinner reservation at this brand-new Italian restaurant in town, so we were going to go to dinner it just wasn’t going with the date he had planned before. I took this to mean the proposal was outside somewhere and was going to happen on Saturday. As I was getting ready for dinner, I told Dalton that I was going to try and curl my hair with the rollers I’d just purchased but I’d save them for tomorrow. Dalton tried to convince me to just do them that day, but I was already behind so I told him I’d just wait – somehow this didn’t tip me off.

At the restaurant, we were greeted by our server who I actually used to work with and did not much care for (he was mean to me), and I immediately filled Dalton in on who he was. Dalton kept saying things like “I’m sure he won’t be mean now that we’re his customers” or “I bet he feels really bad” and I definitely thought it was weird that he was defending this perfect stranger, but again, it didn’t click with me that Dalton was trying to be EXTRA sure this didn’t ruin dinner. We got our drinks and ate our meal, talking about random life things throughout the night. Dalton got up at one point to go thank the manager for our table, it was semi-private and off in a corner not too close to other people. He said his team doctor had worked with the manager to get us this table so I just sat and waited for him to return. Finally, they brought out dessert, which Dalton had ordered ahead of time, knowing neither of us had tried Creme Brulee, he said he wanted to get us something new to try. I’m realizing that Dalton put a lot of hope into me not catching on to the little things he was saying or doing! This is when I did a double take – as I was thanking our server and looking down at the dessert I noticed a RING in the middle!! I was so shocked that the first thing I said was “YOU LIED” to Dalton – literally so loud. I was so excited I was practically shoving my hand in his face before he could even finish the sweet words he’d prepared. My friend Faith was there to get it all on video and take pictures and so many people congratulated us. I was so happy I couldn’t even enjoy our dessert!! I called/texted my friends and family and Dalton even got a congratulatory call from his head coach after dinner. It was kind of expected but still surprising and just the best night ever. I am so thankful for everyone who made it happen and I’ll never forget it.

As for the ring, Dalton and I did some “trials” before we got engaged where he would show me something he likes and I would tell him how I felt about it. Once I realized that Dalton was not going to pick something I would necessarily LOVE, I knew I would need to either give him exact parameters or pick it out myself. I never had a set “dream ring” in mind until one day I had JUST started following a blogger on Instagram and saw a closeup post of her ring. I fell in LOVE. Now, in full disclosure, based on the sheer size of her ring, I knew we would not be able to replicate it exactly, which is totally okay. I loved the shape of the stone and the setting more than I loved the size. After visiting a jeweler in person, I also decided that we would be purchasing a ring online. Listen, e-commerce is growing rapidly and why would you go somewhere when you can get exactly what you want online without having to engage with people you don’t know, and get it at a better price?! We used James Allen Rings to design my ring and pick out the stone, after checking the Better Business Bureau (per Dalton’s request) to ensure we would be getting a quality ring online. Dalton also bought the ring in early February during a Valentine’s Day sale, so he got some money off! I wanted an elongated radiant cut stone – I have pretty big hands and I have always been insecure about having a ring that looked normal on a person with smaller hands but looked tiny on mine. However, I didn’t want Dalton to spend money on a larger carat weight when an elongated stone would be less expensive and would still cover a good portion of my finger so I didn’t feel insecure about my “man hands” as I call them, so this worked out really well. I also picked out a white gold setting with a halo and pave diamonds on the band. It is EXACTLY what I wanted and I am so happy with it!! I still get excited when I put it on every day because I think it is so dang pretty. I am so happy we went about it the way we did because I definitely think this was the best option for us and the season of life we were in when we got engaged.

There you have it, folks! The story of us, our engagement, and all of the ring details I am willing to give you 😉 Stay tuned for two weeks from now, for my next #WeddingWednesday post, and let me know down below how you got engaged and if you have any requests for wedding content.

Love you all so big!!

xx Dev