Friday, January 9, 2009

The Engagement


When I set out to write this blog Thursday night it turned into a 5 page documentary about Lauren and Brad. It is a very sweet piece of work if I should say so myself, however I can’t imagine that the average blog reader would want to read that much about our lives. I mean I can name a few people that would (my parents, Brittany Kay, etc) , but I know you have lives of your own too. So instead of “Brad and Lauren: uncut and unplugged” (which may be available upon request) I bring you…

Brad and Lauren: The proposal of a lifetime (The abridged version)

So here goes…..

Brad’s extended family takes a trip about once a year and for Christmas break all 17 of us went to Aruba. Yes, I know. 17? Yeah. Isn’t it cool how a family that big goes on vacas together and wants to be together. It’s a cool deal. They’re a neat family. So anyway, Monday, Dec 29 we flew out to Aruba. Our flight left Austin at 5 am. Yeah, I’m pretty sure that we slept like 3 hours. That and a few other factors made me a grouchy little Lauren, but I’ll spare you the ugly details. So, we got there, had dinner and just hung out around the hotel. We were exhausted and Brad and I talked on the beach until late that night. While we were walking back to our room Brad said “you’re going to hate me, but I made sunrise breakfast reservations. Do you still want to go?” Of course I said yes. Three of my fave things: Sunrises, breakfast, and Brad. So even though I hadn’t slept, I wanted to get up and besides about a week before I had told Brad that I wanted to do this. Little did I know that he had already planned it. :) So we get up at 5:30 and our reservations were at 6 am at the Bucuti Resort. We walked up and the hostess says “are you here for a romantic breakfast on the beach?” Brad said yes. Wow, I thought. So we got taken to this private hut on the beach. It was dark and no one was there and there were rose pedals on the floor. Well done, Brad, well done I thought. And even then I didn’t know he was proposing. He does sweet things like that. I mean, just this morning he had flowers delivered to my classroom for my birthday. He had a janitor sign off on them and place them on my desk. He’s sweet like that. So back to the story…we sit down, they bring us menus. It’s very romantic. We take pictures and look at everything and at one point I turn around and there’s Mr. Wayne Snead (Brad’s dad) trying to get behind a bush. I turn to Brad and say “Uhhh is that you’re dad” I don’t know how Brad did it but somehow I still wasn’t convinced that he was going to propose. I really thought he hadn’t been ring shopping and I knew he wouldn’t do it without my parents. So then we just had small talk and he tries to tell me all these sweet things. And then at one point he says “ I know my dad is in the bush, but I’m going to do it anyway” and he pulls a ring out of his pocket. Bradley Wayne has a ring! I couldn’t believe it. So he says other things…like I love your family and you and I want to give you a home and …Lauren Elise Oropeza, will you marry me? I cried some more and said yes and cried some more. We talked some more and hugged. Then he said I could turn around and as I did my parents were walking towards me. I couldn’t believe it. Hello…we are in Aruba….another country! I cried a lot more. Have you ever seen Hope Floats?There’s a part in there where she’s really happy and she says “My cup overfloweth” That’s how I felt. My cup overfloweth. I couldn’t begin to express how I felt and how grateful I was that my parents were there. That meant the world to me. My parents, his parents and Brad and I all had breakfast together and celebrated. And then both families vacationed together for the rest of the week.

And that’s how Lauren and Brad became engaged. I tried to make it as abridged as possible, but you know how I am.

Here are some pictures. Wear glasses when you see the ring. It’s a bright shiny beauty.