The Engagement Part 1: The Story

There are still so many of you that asked for our story and haven't heard it yet and so I figured why not blog?

If you are a girl, this is it... The full story, from beginning to end, unabridged! If you are a boy and you heard that Mike Howell is the guy to get romantic proposal tips from, well then maybe you'd want to skip to the end ;)

So, as any story being told by a girl goes, it starts about two weeks before the actual proposal.

One evening we were invited to Iain and Lara Kruger's house for dinner. They were heading to Mauritius with the Minters (Lara's family) and so they asked if we could please hang out on the Saturday after they arrived back from Maurish. We haven't hung out with you guys in aaaaages - They said. We can do something fun - They said. We'll hang out all day!

SO, in the week after they arrived back from Mauritius we started making a plan. Which, for the four of us is rather unusual. Normally our time together consists of Lara making food for the boys and me helping and the boys killing aliens/ zombies/ soldiers/ playing fifa/ wanting nutella hot chocolate. Never the less we had a tentative plan to go to Cape Point Vineyard for lunch (I have been dying to picnic there for a few months now). Sadly, those plans fell through on the Thursday because of the venue being booked out for a wedding. 

We were plan-less until on Friday night Lara sent Mike a message saying that she was at a colleagues birthday party and someone there mentioned that you could apparently watch the sunset from the lighthouse in Kommetjie.

Mike had also asked if I would please come and watch the u16s play their first hockey match. I reluctantly agreed.

Obviously, I was keen and so our plan was set! And Mike and the Krugers rested easily that night knowing that at least I would get as far as the lighthouse ;)

Now onto Saturday, the day of the proposal.

Mike needed to be at school by 8am (for the hockey match) and so naturally my reluctance persisted and developed somewhat into a sort of grumpiness until I finally had some breakfast and coffee. After the game, Mike grabbed a second coffee at Vida Camps Bay because frankly, the man is addicted. While Mike drank his coffee and had his breakfast croissant we sat on the beach where we were approached by a number of hawkers. One of which was our now friend, Gift:

Gift and his brother are here from Zim. Gift used to be employed as a barman at Zulu Bar in town which has since closed down and so he has taken to hawking. Gift shared some of his story with us as well as his deep faith that The Lord will provide a sustainable income for him again.

We also met two Malawian refugees, Joe and his brother Dan. Joe sold us the very first painting that we bought together (Mike paid ;)). After meeting all these super cool guys we just had some time to reflect on how much God has given us and how easy our lives are in comparison. 

We then went to the Promenade for a skate. SO fun in theory: going downhill, with no wind, and not having to skate back 2,5kms uphill. I joke. We had an awesome time! 
The day was meant to model our first date which consisted of a walk along the prom followed by sushi at Beluga which has become a staple favourite for us!

Still feeling our friend Gift heavily on our hearts, we prayed for him and then we reminisced some about how far we had come since our first date.

After that we headed back to the car and made our way to... Yup! You've guessed, Beluga!

After our delicious lunch I was pretty keen to head to the beach early for a bit of a stroll before the sun set. Obviously, this would have ruined the surprise element of the proposal and so Mike managed to distract me with Allegiance one of the best series' I have watched. After that, Mike stalled even further with the longest shower ever.

Why are you putting on your fancy shirt? For the sunset pictures - said Mike

After that I felt the need to change too and so by the time we left for Kommetjie it was well after 6. The drive through was perfect. We tend to spend a lot of time in the car together. This time there was no traffic, no rush to get anywhere, just the two of us, our embarrassing sense of humour and the perfect soundtrack courtesy of The Digital Age one of our favourite Christian bands! I chattered on about an awesome restaurant I had once visited with Shannon and kept saying how exciting it was to potentially be watching sunset from a lighthouse. I say potentially because I had googled the place only to find that they were closed on weekends! Nevermind Mike said. Sunset will be just as beautiful from the rocks. Metaphorically, Mike has had to remind me of that concept over and over but more of that another time!

As we arrived in Kommetjie, Lara sent a message saying that they had arrived early and were already waiting for us at the top. 

We drove up to the lighthouse and there was a small parking lot and a fence and an automatic gate with a sign which read: CLOSED FOR MAINTENANCE. Which raised some suspicion as I had not yet seen Iain and Lara's car. But magically, as Mike drove up to the gate, it opened and parked next to the lighthouse was Lara's car. Suspicion then vanished.

Also, the door to the lighthouse was ACTUALLY open and so I could not contain my excitement! I LOVE lighthouses and had told Mike as much some months ago when Mike chose the design for his skateboard made by our very talented friend Daniel Domancie (of Kingdom Longboards and PromenadeMondays).

My 'excited selfie' - Sunset in a Lighthouse

Clearly I was excited because, HELLO, sunset in a L I G H T H O U S E. Come on!

Climbing up those 150 odd literally vertical stairs, I fully expected to see Iain and Lara at the top. 

I never expected to see this at the top:

Nor this:

At first, Mike said Oh dear, do you think maybe we've crashed someone else's vibe?

To which I responded Where's Lara? 

{As a quick side bar, let me just mention the fact that it was about fifty degrees Celsius in that completely glass room which only had the sun beating down on it all day}

Mike quickly mentioned that he had made me a present in the week. He handed over a stack of Polaroid sized photos and the top one said:

The following pictures were of special memories that we had shared over the past 20 months together with captions from the very beginning of our relationship right through to the present day. By the time I got to the last picture, Mike was on his knee and he asked if I would marry him. The whole moment was incredibly surreal and I could not believe my incredible boyfriend had planned the most perfect and romantic proposal. I would have said yes even if he'd just taken me out for coffee (don't tell him that now!)

We eventually called Iain and Lara to come and watch the sunset with us and take a few pics. They had helped Mike with the planning a lot and have really supported us both throughout our relationship. They had come through earlier to set up for us and so it was incredibly special to share that moment with them.

Next, we went to have dinner at The Woodstock Lounge who experienced load shedding but managed to maintain their awesome atmosphere and added to our night being even more memorable.

Mike let me know that we had one more surprise on the list. We went to Primi Piatti at the Waterfront where both of our families were waiting to congratulate us.

I don't think our day could have been more perfect, from the weather, to making some new friends on the beach. The Lord really had his hand on our whole day and we are just so excited that this marks a new beginning in our journey. Stay tuned for Part 2 of the Proposal: The Plan!

Thanks for reading!