The Proposal

Disney truly is the place where dreams come true.

Family Photo at the Castle

Somewhere around April Tim and I decided that we should take a vacation over the 4th of July week. I already got the Monday and Tuesday of that week off of work so I figured I could take a fairly long vacation by only taking a few days off. We decided to go to Orlando because Tim’s family company owns a condo in Orlando so it was a decently cheap way to go on vacation and still have an amazing time! My sister had been wanting to take Peyton to Disney so it worked out well for them to come with us as well so that little Peanut could enjoy Disney and enjoy the most magical place on earth! So Tim and I scheduled this long vacation where we would leave on the Friday before the 4th of July and head to Orlando… by car. Our first stop was in Charlotte to visit Tim’s friend Mary. We had an amazing time in Charlotte. Mary loves to blog about food so we got to check out a ton of really cool places to eat. It was an amazing weekend filled with friends, food, and fun.

Enjoying a dinner in Charlotte

So Charlotte was great for the weekend and then we made the rest of our journey to Orlando. We picked up my sister and her family at the airport and then the family vacation started! We went to the pool the first day, the beach the second, and then had to stay inside and suffer for the next day because my sunburn was so bad I could barely move. Then the next day of vacation was DISNEY!

Dinner night before Disney

Girls Enjoying Dinner

Tim and I being Sharks at Margaritaville

We arrived at Disney early in the morning and it wasn’t too crowded yet so we made our way into the building where the Disney Princesses are! We got to meet Cinderella, Belle, and Sleeping Beauty. Talk about a great way to start the day. First off, Peyton LOVED the princesses (almost as much as I did) so that was so fun to watch. Secondly, these girls never got out of character. Belle even told Tim and I that she hoped our “tale was as old as time” as we walked away.

Tim and I w/ Cinderella (before the ring!)

Esser family with Belle

Our Princess w/ The Princess

After that we made a quick trip to the girls room and decided to go to the castle to get some pictures taken! We attempted to take a family pic of my sister, Nick, and Pey but Pey just was not in the mood for a photo so Tim and I went to go take our turn. We got our picture taken and I went to walk away as Tim said “wait let’s just do one more” so I was like okay sure! As I turned out he got down on one knee and I thought he was kidding haha. But NO he reached into his pocket and out came this beautifully wrapped gold box. I stood there and just held the box which I thought felt like forever but I have been assured it was only a few seconds. In any case I just started crying and laughing and pretty much just couldn’t speak because I was just so excited nothing would come out! Finally YES cam spilling out and I opened the box to find the most beautiful ring.

Pic at the castle RIGHT before it happened

Tim had picked out the ring all by himself and honestly I couldn’t have picked it out better if I would have done it myself. I believe his mom gave him a final approval but it was all him! It is just gorgeous with some twist in the band and I just thought it was perfect. The ring was perfect, the proposal was perfect, and he is just perfect. We were lucky enough to have my sister and Nick there taking pictures as the entire thing went down… so these are LIVE pictures not a reenactment.

Just happening…

Just some laughing because I was crying so hard

Crying because it was so special

The next hour was just a blur. I hugged and kissed my sister that was there and then called my mom immediately. She had NO idea this was happening so at first she just laughed and said yea right J and I was like MOM REALLY and then she of course started crying! We squealed and I was jumping up and down – I think she was too. I called my dad (who of course knew but still acted surprised) and then called a bunch of my best friends! Casey, Rose, Kara- they were all shocked! It’s funny because Casey had thought this may be happening so she was sitting right by her phone waiting for it to happen! She had even asked Tim if he ignored a call from the jeweler one day when this mysterious phone call came through. She was RIGHT. Kara also had no idea and was at a client that day for work so called back later to yell and scream ha. Rose knew- Tim had gone to visit her a few weeks before so she just was relieved that she didn’t have to hide something from me anymore. Ha… so it was a fun day of texting friends and family then finally making the big announcement on Facebook. You can see I was pretty excited to show it off.

Showing the new “bling” and riding in the tea cups

Shooting it up Buzz style

One of my favorite moments afterwards was when we had the chance to meet the wicked step sisters from Cinderella. The one girl was just so in character and said to Tim right before we got our picture taken “When you see this picture you can see what you have and what you could have had” so that was so funny. When the proposal happened an employee (or cast member as they call them) came up and gave me a button that said “JUST ENGAGED” so all of the characters saw the button and were so great about making this day special.

Check out the sister on the left… putting the moves on Tim

We even met Snow White

The rest of the day was us just being in love and being annoying haha. We were that couple walking around Disney who thought the world revolved around us. It was probably sick to watch but hey we loved it. We spent the rest of the evening hanging out at Disney riding rides, watching the electric light parade, fireworks, and finally back home to bed!

Electrical Light Parade!

The next day we woke up equally excited and headed to Universal Studios where we went to Harry Potter World. If there is such a thing as a honeymoon after an engagement we did it haha. I LOVE Harry Potter and Tim is a good sport so we spent the day just being together and having a ton of fun.

It is like being inside the books

No matter which way you choose- it is fun!

Tim enjoying some frozen Butter Beer

Oh and we enjoyed seeing Dr. Seuss world too!

I like to take weird pictures

And Tim takes pretty normal pictures

I think I can honestly say my trip to Disney was the best vacation I have EVER been on!

Best Trip Ever!!!

Even better we ended our vacation to Orlando by stopping in Charlotte to visit with some of our friends Katie and Pat. Katie and Pat had just gotten engaged and well so we were ready to get some newly engaged advise from them! They were ridiculously good to us and even had a bottle of champagne chilled for us to celebrate. We went out to an amazing restaurant called Press which we were able to go pick our own bottle of wine from the wall. The wine was amazing and the sushi was delicious. It did take a while for us to get our food but we didn’t mind because it had been forever since the four of us had the chance to catch up so we loved the time!

The 4 of us enjoying Press

After Press we headed over to this place called Crave Dessert Bar. I had been wanting to go there since we took a trip to Charlotte last year but it was closed then so the four of us headed over. I was under the impression that this was strictly a dessert bar but turns out it is actually a Hookah Bar as well… which was completely new to me! So we enjoyed a good time and some dessert as well! We decided on S’mores which were soooo good and so fun to assemble. It was pretty much the perfect end to an awesome trip. If Katie and Pat will have us we will definitely be back

Hookah Bar Fun

S’mores Dessert

Leave a reply below and tell me about your proposal/engagement story!