so now it's time to share the BIG NEWS!!

As you could probably tell, I'm engaged now! :) And by engaged, I mean I am officially ecstatic in the fact that the most wonderful man in my life (outside of my dad) has made a commitment with me to continue the next 8 months in full-throttle preparation for sharing our lives together forever. I'm not going to lie, we have everything prepared for the wedding... our venue, DJ, photographer - we've chosen what he and his groomsmen are going to wear and my bridesmaids' attire also... oh yea, and I bought my dress last Friday. We like being untraditional and well, him proposing to me AFTER we have made most of the plans only adds to that characteristic of us both.

---> You're probably thinking - this crazy girl! But when ya know, ya know. He asked my dad about 6 weeks ago if he could marry me (my dad thinks he's awesome!) and well, we've pretty much been planning since then. Most people have 1 to 2 years to plan their weddings... but we wanted to get married in May so that we could make it to my brother's wedding in June and then leave to go overseas on missions work in July. So we had to get the ball rolling... Anyways, with knowing that he was going to propose, you would think I would be expecting it - that it wouldn't be a surprise...

So far from it. He blew me away! ...and my 200 sorority sisters that were there to be a part of the experience.

*Disclaimer: Before I begin into this beautiful fairytale-type love story, I need to explain a few parts of the process of a sorority "candlelight" before I begin the story so.... A candlelight is a special ceremony for a sister that has been engaged. Normally only the president and the girl who is engaged know about the specifics of it - who it is, when the candlelight will be held, etc. We all stand in a circle and sing a ritual song. During the song, we pass around a bouquet with a lit candle in the middle of it that the engaged girl picked out from a florist before the ceremony. The bouquet is passed around the circle 3 times. On the third time, the girl who is engaged blows out the candle and then we all gather around and listen to the story of how her new fiancee proposed.

BUT my candlelight story was quite different. I thought it would be really cool to pull in both of our stories instead of just mine. I will write mine in the next post and then he'll have a post of his own - exclusively from JD - on the next post! It'll be fun! I hope you enjoy our story and our adventures as much as we do!

this was our trip to orlando...

As I said in the last post, we wanted to make sure we met each other's closest friends and family members before we completely decided - yes. this is it. So I drove down to Mobile to meet his sister and parents (who are phenomenal and I can't wait to be a part of their family), as well as his best friend Chris Colvin. For my closest friends who are reading this now - i.e. Katelyn Bridges - don't feel left out. I still consider you, Lauren Cook and Emmy as my best friends so don't be sad that none of yall got to meet him before we made this decision. haha! So then we drove from Mobile to Orlando to meet his other great friend Trey and his wife Kristen who work for Disney. We also went to my 1st cousin's, 1st cousin's (I know, confusing) house to have dinner one night. This girl - Nicole - is pretty much my soul sister. We didn't meet until this past December but were pretty much best friends instantly. :)

So we went to the Larson's home the second night we were in Orlando - and Nicole fixed us a divine, home-cooked dinner! She made red velvet chocolate cupcakes... so delicious!

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THE LARSON'S

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I think I failed to mention already that this was JD's FIRST trip to Disney World - can you believe it!? It was so magical! Plus he got a "1st Visit" pin... can it get any better?? We went to Universal Studios and rode the Tower of Terror, then Epcot (so Chris could see Canada - the place it rained for an hour and a half) and finally to the Magic Kingdom.

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TOWER OF TERROR

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EPCOT

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MAGIC KINGDOM!!

before last night...

Hello beautiful world of bloggers!

I am dreadfully sorry that I haven't written in the past few months... but I kind of wanted to wait until a special event happened. As you may remember in May, I had a special cooking night with my manager Sarah in preparation for a "date night" with a special guy in my life. The guy that I called five of my closest friends after seeing him for the first time and said, "OMG. I just saw the most attractive guy I've ever seen in my life...." So I hooked him, reeled him in, and four months later, we're engaged.

---> WAIT. STOP THERE! How did this happen so quickly, you ask?

Well, we decided that if we were to date, that would be it. So we prayed intensely about it (I mean, I've been praying nine years for this man) and decided - ok, we'll meet each other's closest friends and family members and if we love them, we're definitely getting married.

---> So what's the hurry? Is it just because you're graduating in May and want to have security?

Oh, my friends... far from it! JD actually wasn't even sure if he wanted to date me in the first place. You see, he had made this commitment to God that he would go to Mobile, Ala., for the summer (2 months) to do inner-city missions work and then dedicate two years after he graduated (also in May) to missions work. He was undecided if it would be overseas or in America. ...And then he met me. :) He told me he wasn't sure if he wanted to date me because he knew he wouldn't be able to dedicate a lot of his time to me (because he would be in Mobile the entire summer), that he desired to pursue my heart with a steadfast fervency, but knew he couldn't over the summer. So we decided, ok - we'll just see how it goes over the summer, we probably won't talk every night but we'll evaluate how things are going in August and take it from there. I wrote him letters of encouragement every week and his pursuit of my heart was still relentless, even if he was in Mobile. Needless to say, he called every night, drove to our 4th of July party to meet my family (about a 10 hr drive altogether so I met him half-way), and we fell in love real quick. It was that weekend that he told me, "Whitney, I'm going overseas for two years when I graduate but I want you to be by my side and go with me." The weekend before his last week in Mobile, he drove down to St. George Island just to spend ONE day with me (also a 5 hr drive on the way there, 5 hrs back... but this one he drove solo). That was the day of our first kiss. It was beautiful and romantic. We pretty much decided that weekend, ok... we're getting married. I wouldn't rather spend the rest of my life with any other person than this man who rocked my world from the moment I saw him, to each 5-hr conversation we had in the coffee house, to every time he makes me laugh and smile - just by thinking about him. I have never had a man in my life that has pursued my heart in such a pure and fervent way. It's more than I could've asked for...

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*FOURTH OF JULY*

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COOKING TOGETHER

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HIS BEACH TRIP TO SGI

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MORE UPDATES LATER TODAY!!