I’m ENGAGED: Our Engagement Story!

ICYMI – I’m engaged! I’m sure a majority of you have heard about our getting engaged through my Instagram post, but I wanted to give a bit more depth to the story as well – tell you abut how we met, my top tips for a good/healthy relationship, as well as our Engagement Story of course! Let’s dive in..

How It All Began

Let’s start from the beginning and transport to GREECE! Yes, Nick and I met in Greece on a little thing called The Yacht Week. But, it’s not where we fell in love ;)..I was into Nick when I met him the first night, on a rooftop in Athens called A For Athens. It was the evening before our TYW departure and Nick and his bestie snuck their way into mine and my girlfriends convo.

After that first night, I decided that I didn’t want to waste any time on a guy who lived in NYC when I lived in Chicago and quite frankly – I just wanted to hang with my girlfriends! I was freshly 27 and we were having the time of our lives!

However, Nick was insanely persistent throughout the week – and I did everything I could to block every advance, LOL. Love you Nick! But, about mid-way through the week I started to see how good of a guy and genuine that Nick was. After our week of sailing paradise was over, he was constantly texting me, saying sweet things, etc. and my best friend actually called it and said ‘you love Nick!’ LOL well, she was right. 

After TYW concluded, Nick put ALL of his effort into winning me over. Texting, FaceTiming, sending post cards, care packages, etc. to my girlfriends and I in Chicago. About 2 weeks following TYW, Nick and his best friend came to Chicago to visit us girls. However, my mom was visiting, so my time with Nick was limited. BUT guess what – my mom met Nick and she said “Nick’s a great guy – how come no one likes him?” and I responded with “well he likes me..” LOL. And that’s when I opened my eyes!!

After he left Chicago, I had my last date with a guy I was casually seeing in Chicago. The entire date I was thinking about Nick, going to the bathroom to text him and that’s when I knew that he was special, it was unlike any guy I’ve ever dated before. From there, I broke it off with that guy and then started initiating convos with Nick. I booked a ticket to NYC 3 weeks later and the rest was history! Who knew that 3 years later we would be engaged?!

Side note: At the time I met Nick, I was the most confident in myself that I’d ever been. I was leading from a place of love for MYSELF first and not needing outside affection, which is exactly why I think we worked out so well. More on that in my eBook, Leading with Love!

 

Top Relationship Tips

• Have your own things!
  • I can’t stress enough how important this is! A lot of times when couples get into relationships, you do everything together. You have the same hobbies, friends, interests, etc. While all of that is OK, it’s also really healthy to actually MISS each other. Do things separately, have your own passions, be your own person. Stay interesting for YOU and your partner.
• Have Each Other’s Backs!
  • Obviously disagreements will come and you won’t always be on the same page, but have those be behind closed doors. The second you don’t have your S/O’s back in pubic, or in front of other people, it’s no good. Have each others backs, be each other’s biggest cheerleaders, but also challenge each other to grow and be better- just do it between the two of you. 
• Talk It Out!
  • Nick has made me so much better at this. Or rather, he’s always the initiator of our chats about emotions, after fights, etc. I’m not good at talking about my emotions, it’s just not something I enjoy too much, lol, but this is really important! If your S/O is driving you CRAZY leaving their toothbrush out daily, say something! Otherwise you will let it boil up and then blow up. This obviously applies to bigger issues as well, but you get the point.
• Discuss the Big Stuff!
  • When Nick and I started dating, we did long distance. That being said, I was also 27 and didn’t want to waste time dating anyone who I didn’t think I would potentially marry some day. We discussed all of the important things first to make sure the relationship would be feasible. Everything from how many kids we would want, where we would raise a family some day, religion, finances, the works! You don’t want to get in deep with someone and a year later find out they want kids and you don’t.

ENGAGED! Our Engagement Story

As many of you may know, we live in LA, but Nick’s family lives outside of Philly, while my parents are in Naples, my brother and his family are in the Midwest and my other brother and his family are in Southern California with us. We’re all over! But I’m born and bred from Chicago and a Midwest gal at heart!

Nick and I began looking at engagement rings around Thanksgiving and continued to shop around until we found the one, which happened in January. And yes, I picked out and designed the whole ring – every detail! From there though, I told Nick I was out and he was on his own.

Turns out, he really killed it with the first ‘supposed to be’ proposal, where we would’ve been engaged in Palm Springs. It was really important to both of us that our families and friends would be there with us to celebrate this special moment for us. Because my family is all over, we have a family trip one time a year, and this year it was due to be in Palm Springs mid-April. This was where Nick has originally planned for the proposal to take place – his whole family was flying in, as well as all of our closest friends (I had no idea!) But, this all had to get postponed due to COVID-19.

Fast forward, we decided to come to Naples, FL, where my parents live, to quarantine here for a while towards the end of May, which also happens to be around my birthday. For my 30th birthday dinner, my mom mad reservations at Baleen at LaPlaya Hotel, which is my favorite spot in Naples!

On the car ride there, both my mom and Nick were INSANELY obvious! LOL. Like, I definitely knew what was going down (I was getting engaged!) Luckily, the thunderstorm that was happening on our drive to dinner ended and made for the most beautiful sunset. When we got there, we had some cocktails and eventually my mom convinced Nick and I to take some pictures on the beach (like I need convincing, LOL!)

As we were walking, Nick asked me if I knew what was about to happen, and I of course was sarcastic and said I had “no idea!” After turning me every which way (Nick is big on lighting for photos, IG hubby all the way, LOL), he eventually said “I think you’ve known this for a long time, but I love you and will you marry me?” It was so cute and amazing and there was a great photographer capturing every moment. 

It was a fairytale and we enjoyed lots of champagne and a delicious dinner after getting engaged! Myself being an event planner, I cannot WAIT to get planning for the wedding! More on that soon! xo 

xoxo!Alysia (Purely) Pope