Marathon Day and Engage-versary!

Today is Marathon Day in Boston (shout out to Kristy! Next year my friend, we watch it together!). Last year on Marathon Day, I got engaged and it was amazing. Even though tomorrow is officially our "engage-a-versary," today feels like it more due to the race. So here's a re-port of last year's marathon day and how Ryan and I managed to get engaged.

Originally posted May 12, 2009.

I love the way that Ryan proposed! I couldn't have asked for anything better, it was perfect.

We went to Boston April 17th-April 21st. Ryan ran the marathon on Monday, April 20th, 2009. That's him the red shorts and black singlet, black arm warmers.

Ryan ran an absolutely amazing race. He placed 158 overall, out of about 25,000 runners. He PR'd at 2:38:46, about 6 minute miles. He is really hard on himself, and even he was thrilled with his time. Everyone was ecstatic about his race (everyone being me, his parents, his best friend, and his best friends wife).

After the race, we went to the Sam Adam's brewery. It's actually their research and development facility, where they test all of their new beers.



After the brewery tour and tasting (yay!), we headed to Hopkinton, MA, where the start line to the marathon is. Ryan wanted to get some pictures here, and I wanted to see it anyway, being a running nerd myself. Someday, if I get good enough, I will be crossing this myself. I would love to run Boston.


We took lots of pictures, and Ryan said that he wanted a picture of a certain street sign. I thought it was kind of odd--it was a pretty non-descript street sign. So across the street we went to take the picture. I took it, and Ryan started hugging me and saying these really nice, sweet, things. It didn't strike me as odd until he kept saying these wonderful things, and before I knew it, he was down on one knee! How he got down on one knee after racing 26.2 miles, I don't know, but he did it. (He did say it hurt, though!) Of course I said yes, and his parents, best friend, and best friend's wife (who were all across the street documenting this for us) starting cheering. I was teary, and Ryan started hugging me again--I was very close to falling over, so this was a good thing. We hugged for a long time. Then Ryan holds the ring up and says "Would you like to put this on now?" It was everything I wanted the proposal to be, times 1000.


That's us right after he asked me, when we had both calmed down enough to pose for a picture. I love the grin on his face...getting him to smile like this in pictures is impossible.

So we've been engaged for 364 days now...and I am so, so ready to get married! How long is too long for an engagment? It's been nice in terms of planning and mental prep, but dang...I'm ready. What do you think about how long engagements should be? Any marathoners out there who ran Boston this year?

Engaging Pics Round II

Ok, here's a couple more pictures I am thrilled about....

(Once again, click on the picture to see the true quality, blogger makes them look fuzzy and they really aren't!)

We really didn't take a ton of kissing ones.




I love, love love this picture!


This one was Ryan's idea, I think it's fun:


For this one, we climbed into a tree and I did my best not to flash our photog friend. Climbing onto a branch in a dress is hard!



We also took some on the Southeast Missouri State University Track (both Ryan and I went to school here).



It was weird to actually be sitting next to him in the bleachers at the track...he's usually running around doing coaching stuff.


We took some incredible pictures and I couldn't be happier with the results. I am really pleased with the locations we picked...they were on the random side! The rock garden with the fountain behind us is actually right across the street from the water treatment plant...um random, but unique and pretty. The track was Ryan's idea, and those were really fun and had meaning to us. The Victorian mansion in my hometown is open to the public for tours, and we went in the morning so we'd have the grounds to ourselves. We also went to 2 parks overlooking the Mississippi River, and the cool doorway is another historic building downtown.

I am also glad that we got to take the pictures in my hometown, since the wedding festivities are in St. Louis. We got incredibly lucky with the weather...the leaves were at their peak and the sky was so blue.

My friend Austin was so generous and donated his Saturday morning to take these for us--thanks second cousin!

Anyway, these semi-DIY or, more accurately, DIT (do-it-together) pictures are the nicest ones I have of Ryan and I am, and I couldn't be happier with them. We'll be using them in the photo guest book for the wedding and possibly for e-mail save the dates. I am so amazed that we came out with pictures that are so representative of us as a couple! Who says you have to pay a pro, right?

Did you do engagement pictures?

Engaging Pics Round I

Ryan and I took our engagement a few weekends ago, and I so excited to show you guys!

A few things first: I believe that if you click on the picture, you can see a much higher quality version. Also, we lucked out weather-wise big time! These pictures were all taken in my home town by my second cousin and co-worker Austin using my dad's dSLR. I don't know why Blogger makes them look so fuzzy, because they aren't! Also, Austin did some light color-correcting, etc. in Photoshop.

Anyway, here we go!

We took a couple jumping ones (they were Ryan's idea) and they turned out to be some of our favorites.

You can see the Mississippi River behind us through the trees.




We are goofballs!

No really, we are!



Here's our attempt at serious:



So there's just a few of my favorites... If you aren't sick and tired of looking at my face (hey, I wouldn't blame you), check back tomorrow for Round II!

Engagement

I was sorting through my *ahem* incredibly organized box o'pictures (Ok fine, it's just a white photo box from Hobby Lobby with pictures from the last 5 years thrown in) and found a CD of pictures from our trip to Boston last April (Ryan ran the marathon!). Also on the CD was the video of Ryan proposing to me, so I thought I'd throw it up here in the interest of full disclosure...and because watching it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

I think that I am way lucky to have this on video, because my family wasn't there to see it....so in a way, I could make them feel like they were there.

I did a post on how Ryan proposed to me and our trip to Boston here. Maybe I'll repost it on our engage-a-versary, but for now, if you're interested, follow the link to see the whole story.

His best friend Dane took the video...the first 20-30 seconds are seemingly non-eventful, but Dane's commentary is priceless!





You can't really see it in the video, but Ryan asked me to marry him right on the start line of the Boston Marathon....after he ran the race earlier that day and PR'd. He's so talented and he ran so well that day. When asked how it felt to get down on one knee after racing 26.2 miles (!! And I think a half marathon hurts!), Ryan replied with, "it hurt."

Needless to say, it was perfect (for us at least, I'm sure non-running geeks wouldn't have been interested), and I never in a lifetime could have dreamed it up myself. Bravo handsome man!

I love hearing engagement stories....so how did your partner ask you to marry him or her?

Yay!

So at this wedding Ryan was the best man for recently, he really liked their photo guest book...filled with engagement pictures. Here is our approximate (my memory kinda sucks, so this is the general idea, not our exact words) conversation:

Ryan: I really like that photo guest book, we should do it for our wedding.

Me: It's filled with engagement pictures, if we do that we need to get engagement pictures taken.

Ryan: Oh. *long pause* Well, we can do them but I'm not paying for them.

Me: Yay! My friend Austin will take them and it will be free!

So, we're getting engagement pictures taken!!!!

This is kind of what I want.


I mean, a park bench...Forest Park...how cute!

Love this.


Trees! Pretty leaves...hopefully Ryan and I can do this while the leaves are changing, but his schedule is so tight it might not happen. Plus, we're doing these in my hometown because that's where Austin lives and its tough for Ryan to get down here.


I love the candid shots. All of these images are courtesy of our wedding photographer, Gail Fleming.

Are you having engagement pictures taken? Please share!

Engagement Ring Insurance

Ryan and I just got my ring insured.

I know, I know, we should have done it a long time ago...we've been engaged since April 20th, and we just now did it.

My wise dad told me to go to State Farm, where he gets all of his insurance from. Ryan and I thought we had to insure the ring on a homeowner's policy, but when I called State Farm, she said that the best way to do it is to get a personal article policy. The personal article policy is a stand alone policy, and has no deductible. It covers any damage, loss, or theft of my ring, and was a mere $30. Oh yes, $30. All we had to bring was the appraisal. We can also add the wedding bands onto the same policy.

Gratuitous Ring Shot

I feel better now that I know everything is taken care of, ring wise. I had never seen the appraisal before--I had no idea that Ryan had picked such a high quality stone. It is completely colorless, and is very well cut. Ryan got really into the different clarities and grades throughout the ring shopping process.

Have you gotten your ring insured?

The Proposal

I love the way that Ryan proposed! I couldn't have asked for anything better, it was perfect.

We went to Boston April 17th-April 21st. Ryan ran the marathon on Monday, April 20th. That's him the red shorts and black singlet, black arm warmers.

Shout out to the running nerds out there, here's the women's elite at mile 10 in Natick, MA. Kara Goucher is in the middle in the front row of runners.

Here's the men's elite:



Ryan Hall is in the middle of the pack.

My Ryan ran an absolutely amazing race. He placed 158 overall, out of about 25,000 runners. He PR'd at 2:38:46, about 6 minute miles. He is really hard on himself, and even he was thrilled with his time. Everyone was ecstatic about his race (everyone being me, his parents, his best friend, and his best friends wife).


After the race, we went to the Sam Adam's brewery. It's actually their research and development facility, where they test all of their new beers.




After the brewery tour and tasting (yay!), we headed to Hopkinton, MA, where the start line to the marathon is. Ryan wanted to get some pictures here, and I wanted to see it anyway, being a running nerd myself. Someday, if I get good enough, I will be crossing this myself. I would love to run Boston.





We took lots of pictures, and Ryan said that he wanted a picture of a certain street sign. I thought it was kind of odd--it was a pretty non-descript street sign. So across the street we went to take the picture. I took it, and Ryan started hugging me and saying these really nice, sweet, things. It didn't strike me as odd until he kept saying these wonderful things, and before I knew it, he was down on one knee! How he got down on one knee after racing 26.2 miles, I don't know, but he did it. He did say it hurt, though! Of course I said yes, and his parents, best friend, and best friend's wife (who were all across the street documenting this for us) starting cheering. I was teary, and Ryan started hugging me again--I was very close to falling over, so this was a good thing. We hugged for a long time. Then Ryan holds the ring up and says "Would you like to put this on now?" It was everything I wanted the proposal to be, times 1000.





That's us right after he asked me, when we had both calmed down enough to pose for a picture. I love the grin on his face.


Not even 24 hours later, people were already asking us when we were getting married. What is that? I think that has been the biggest surprise in terms of being engaged--people expect big plans to made, fast.


The ring! He did so good.








I used the tutorial on Weddingbee to take the ring pictures, and if I can do, then anyone can--trust me.


How were you proposed to, or what is your dream proposal?