042. It's a Love Story Baby Just Say Yes.

It's taken me forever, but it's finally here. The Nick and Nicki engagement post!

So, last Saturday, the 19th, my brother Nick and his girlfriend Nicki graduated from Eastern Illinois University. My whole family, Nicki's mom, her brother Rob, and Rob's wife Lillie all made the trek down to Charleston for the ceremonies. Yes, ceremonies, unfortunately they're in different colleges. Nick was in the College of Business and Applied Sciences and Nicki was in the College of Science.

Front Row (left to right): Rob, Nicki's mom, my mom, my dad
Back Row (left to right): Lillie, Nicki, Alex

After Nicki's ceremony, I went with my parents to check-in at the hotel, and everyone went back to Nick and Nicki's apartment so she could change before dinner. We went to dinner at The Alamo Steakhouse & Saloon which is pretty much the only non-fast food restaurant in the Charleston area. They're food is actually really good as well.

We ate dinner and had a great time chatting. While we were waiting for dessert to arrive my brother starts talking. He thanks us all for coming down, especially Rob and Lillie who were heading back to Hawaii on a 10:00 flight the next morning, and how much it meant to him and Nicki to have us all there. He kept going on though which is really out of character for Nick. He talked about what a big step this was in their lives (the usual college graduation-type stuff). The whole time he was talking I couldn't help but think 'What the heck is going on here. We get it Nick; you're glad we're here.' The he started talking about her. That's when it hit me. My first thought was 'There's no way,' and then I realized 'Holy crap! My brother is about to propose!' He finished by telling her how much he loved her and how he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her!

Obviously, she said yes. It was so sweet! I totally cried.

Unfortunately, my mom didn't give me any sort of warning that this was going to happen so I was sitting next to them. This, combined with the fact that I really didn't know what was going on at first, limited my photo ops.

We finished up our meal and headed back to their apartment to celebrate some more!

My brother picked out the ring by himself, and he really did an amazing job. It is positively gorgeous. He took our mom and her mom with him, but he actually picked out the ring. Apparently the ring he chose was the first one he saw. The sales women spent 20 minutes trying to show him other rings, but he was dead set on the first one. It worked out well because she loves it!

In food blogger fashion, I did snap a couple pictures of my eats, but they didn't turn out that great. I did get a decent shot of the most amazing martini I think I've ever had. It was a Snicker Bar martini and it was divine.

Powered by Qumana