Kate's Engagement Story

As a lot of you probably know, me and my husband Brett got married years ago- but since we got engaged back before everyone posted every milestone of their lives on social media, I thought it would be fun to share our engagement story with you guys!

Another reason this is a timely story is that I just celebrated my birthday, and we happened to get engaged on my birthday- so it felt like a good time to share this much requested post.

Remember the thing I just said above about us getting engaged before insta-worthy everything? Well it’s pretty evident from these pics that phone cameras were slightly inferior in 2011, but I still love that we have a few good ones!

A little background: Brett and I met back in 2009 while I was touring, and we lived together for a little over two years before we got engaged (I actually wrote a post recently all about tips for moving in together). We knew we were each other’s “person” pretty much right away, so getting married someday was always on our radar, but we took our time and never quite knew how or when it would happen.

Fast forward to December of 2011, during my birthday week. We were celebrating my birthday down in Cabo San Lucas, and on the morning of my birthday Brett basically told me to pack my bags up at the hotel and that we were going somewhere else for the day. Naturally, this made me somewhat suspicious, but I went with it and jumped into a cab to see where we were headed.

We ended up being dropped off at what is probably still the most beautiful resort i’ve ever seen. It’s a hotel called the One and Only Palmilla in Cabo, and the gorgeous little chapel you see in the above pics is part of the hotel’s property.

We checked in and immediately went to lounge at the pool with margaritas, and at this point looking around at what a beautiful place he’d brought me to I was definitely thinking he might propose.

I pulled out my phone to text my Mom and tell her that Brett had surprised me with such a cool birthday gift, and Brett stopped me mid-text and literally said, “Oh man..don’t tell your Mom about this…you know what she’s gonna think…” - basically implying that my Mom would immediately think he was proposing.

So that was the end of that idea. Or so I thought!

After we came back from the pool and got ready to go to dinner, Brett suggested we go take a walk and meander around the resort a little bit. It’s a pretty big property with tons of beautiful villas and restaurants, and eventually we found ourselves winding up this beautiful path and heading toward a little chapel lit up in the distance.

By this time, it was already dark out and the whole vibe was that much more dreamy because all the trees throughout the resort had lanterns in them. I wasn’t really thinking about a possible proposal anymore at this point, because Brett had done a pretty good job of throwing me off with the Mom text.

The steps of the chapel were all lined with candles, and we were the only ones there at that point so it was extra magical. We walked up the steps and he told me he had another birthday gift for me- a necklace. It was beautiful and from one of my favorite designers, and immediately after he gave it to me he told me it would make it easier for me to play the guitar and help my fingers move faster.

I had absolutely ZERO idea what that meant until he dropped down and proposed in front of the chapel, totally catching me off guard. After I said yes (obviously lol) he explained that he got me the necklace so I could always wear the ring even when I had to take it off to play guitar. I love that nobody else was there and we got to have that moment just the two of us!

Above are a few photos from inside the chapel - it’s incredibly beautiful and was such a dreamy backdrop for such a big moment in our lives!

We took a few photos the next morning in front of the chapel since it was tough to get a good one at night. Honestly, if it hadn’t been such a tiny space we probably would have loved to get married inside of it!

One of my favorite things we did was that we didn’t tell anyone we got engaged until the next morning - we went to dinner right after the proposal and celebrated like crazy, and it was so much fun to keep the news to ourselves and celebrate together for that night. Of course, the next morning we had a ton of fun telling all of our fam and friends.

The above pic is from this past summer, which was the first time we’ve had a chance to go back to the chapel. It’ll always be a really special place for us, and I hope we can keep going back to visit it over the years! It’s definitely safe to say this was the best birthday gift I’ve ever gotten.

We ended up doing our engagement photos down in New Orleans, where we eventually got married, so I’ll share some photos from that session soon too!