For those of you who haven't seen pictures or haven't heard the story... this post is for you.
Bryan and I were at my annual family reunion at Shrine Mont in Orkney Springs, Virginia. It is a conference and retreat center for the Epsicopal Diocese of Virginia and my family has been visiting for over 15 years. There is a gorgeous outdoor chapel at the top of the hill that is made of stone.
On Saturday, my Aunt Monty, Uncle Gene, and sister Maddie walked with Bryan and me to the chapel to take some pictures. We spent about 10 minutes being goofy taking silly pictures and then we sat down at the altar. All of sudden, Bryan took out his bible and turned to Ephesians. He read from Chapter 5:25-29
"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church"
I could tell this was the moment when he took out the bible because his hands were shaking. I turned towards him and tried to stay in the moment so that I wouldn't ever forget it. While he was reading I could hear Aunt Monty crying and each of the three of them snapping away (they each had a camera). As he turned the page I could see that he had the ring tied to the ribbon that marked the page. When he finished reading, he asked me to marry him and everybody started crying. I was still in shock until I turned to stand up and realized that my Dad had been hiding behind us the whole time. The moment he hugged me, I started to cry.
The six of us stayed up at the chapel for a little while taking more pictures and letting it all sink in before we headed back down the hill to share the news with the 75 other family members who were waiting!
A couple of cool things to note:
- Bryan actually flew to my dad's house in SC earlier in the summer just for the day to ask his permission to marry me.
- Bryan had Uncle Gene carry the bible up the hill in his cargo pocket. During the photo shoot, Uncle Gene slyly passed it back to Bryan and I never had a clue.
- My little sisters, Mimi (13) and Grace (9 1/2) have known since Bryan flew to SC and were able to keep it a secret, despite staying in the same room as me for 2 days before he proposed!
- There are officially 408 photographs of our time up at the chapel.
It was a beautiful moment along a beautiful journey and I am so grateful to everyone who played a role in carrying out His plan!
More to come!
Maryel
