I cannot even put into words how happy and excited I am that Mark and I are engaged! Mark proposed last Saturday and it was really the best day ever… though to say it was a surprise would be a bit, well, not true… lol. So here is the whole story of Mark and Ashley getting engaged:

Mark and I had our first date last year on June 17th after meeting on match.com. Even now it seems like such a fluke to meet someone I actually love on match.com… but I did! I swear after two weeks of dating I knew I was going to marry him. We’ve been talking about getting married for a long time now and had been looking at rings together. I picked out my favorite setting and I knew that he was going to be buying it very soon.

Mark, being the sweetest guy ever, still made a great effort to surprise me. First, he tried to get my best friend (and future maid of honor!) Lauren to plan a night out with me so he could show up and surprise me. Unfortunately she was out of town all that week on vacation. Since he knew that I knew it was coming soon he didn’t want to push it back further. I’ll admit it, I was going a bit nuts with the anticipation 🙂

Then… I accidentally spoiled his planned surprise proposal. Oops! Mark’s plan was to have a friend of his that I didn’t know set up a perspective client meeting with me in the city while he was supposed to be at work, then would show up there to surprise me. When I got the email from his friend I totally believed it was an interested client just like any other new client… until I facebooked the girls name (to see what she looked like for the meeting) and realized we had 9 friends in common including Mark. I told Mark I got an interesting email from someone he knows and the expression on his face confirmed my suspicion – he has the worst poker face 🙂

At this point Mark had already requested the whole weekend off work (he’s a restaurant manager so this is very unusual) so we decided to just have a special date together anyway, and I knew it was going to happen sometime that day.

So last Saturday we took the train to the city for our big surprise date (he planned the whole day). Mark signed us up for a tour of the city. We brought my camera along and set it up on timer to take pictures of us together all around the city.

How cute is my fiance? (it is so weird to say that!) 🙂 At the train station before our big adventure. It’s a good thing he wasn’t trying to surprise me at this point because you can totally see the ring box in his pocket! haha

Some of the shots of us around the city.

And one Mark took of me:

At the top of the stairs at the Philadelphia Art Museum I set up my camera on timer and when I ran over to Mark he got on his knee and proposed! Even though it was expected, I was surprised at how overwhelmed with emotion I was. All I remember is hugging Mark and everyone around us cheered. I was crying like a baby and got mascara all over his white shirt! Mark kept telling me I had to answer, but I was literally speechless. And some point I finally got out a “yes” – as if he didn’t know 🙂

This is THE shot of Mark proposing… I’m mad at myself for not taking one step to the right so it’s not a shot of my butt… but still I love it <3

We were at the top right of the steps in this shot.

Our first picture as an engaged couple! I was still feeling totally overwhelmed at this point.

Mark pretending he’s Rocky…

Mark taking a picture of the ring… LOVE it 🙂

After the proposal I literally could not remember anything Mark said to me as he was proposing – I was so caught up in the moment. Mark later wrote down everything he said to me in a card so I could always remember. He is the sweetest!

Mark had planned a whole night out for us. After a quick stop at Macy’s to get him a new shirt (since I ruined his white one), we went to Old City for drinks before our dinner reservation. We had dinner at Ristorante Panorama which Mark choose because it’s supposed to have the best Italian food in the city, and it is the worlds largest wine bar! The food was AMAZING and we were able to try 6 different types of sparkling wines.

After Dinner we headed over to one of my favorite spots in the city Jolly’s Dueling Piano Bar. It was the perfect end to an amazing night.

In the 10 days we’ve been engaged I’ve already begun looking at dresses and locations, and I’m having a blast! This is truly the most exciting time in my life and I’m so, so happy to be sharing it with Mark!! We’re thinking the wedding will be sometime in September or October of next year. I’ll be doing some posts on wedding planning as well to share my excitement with the world!

Lastly, here is a shot of my gorgeous ring:

More to come!