So You're EnGAYged, a LGBT wedding blog

Yes…this is really long without clicking the more tag but it was so sweet and amazing I couldn’t imagine breaking up the story. I have watched the video…mmm…a dozen times?

Rebecca and I met five years ago, phonebanking with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) to protect marriage equality in Massachusetts (we won, by the way!). Our love story has been long and winding – and at some point this year, we realized we wanted to be married to eachother. By late spring of this year, Rebecca pretty much knew a proposal was on the way.

Rebecca’s family is very tight knit, and they take marriage pretty seriously. Taking that under consideration, we decided I should ask for her parents’ blessing before proposing. This proved to be even more difficult than the proposal itself. Sitting in a room alone with her parents, shaking like a leaf, saying the words, “I’d like to ask for your blessing in marrying your daughter” was tough. But I survived, and her mom and dad both hugged me and gave us their support.

With that, it was onto the proposal. The trick was to completely surprise Rebecca, so I set up an elaborate ruse about a Sunday night work dinner that I needed her to attend. The dinner would take place at the house of my organization’s president (which she has never seen), but the actual house belonged to a friend of a friend in an upscale DC neighborhood. Rebecca loathes being dragged to my work events, so I knew she’d be focused on the annoyance of this dinner and not on what was actually taking place.

Friends helped me every step of the way. My friend Kevin cooked an amazing dinner that would be waiting for us in the oven. Another friend lit luminaries all over the backyard. And Kevin and our friend Jax coordinated the surprise party crew.

When Rebecca and I arrived at the house, I pretended like I had just remembered it was a backyard dinner and we walked around to the back. Seeing no one, I asked Rebecca if we were at the wrong house, then told her to wait while I looked inside the screened-in patio for my coworkers. We planned it so that when you opened the patio door, music could be heard inside. I called for her to come over and I knelt down on one knee right inside the doorway. It’s there that I proposed, and she said “yesss!” and began crying, and then asked where my coworkers were. I explained the whole ruse – except the surprise party. For the next hour we enjoyed a nice romantic dinner on the screened-in porch.

At 8pm, the doorbell rang. Rebecca went to the door thinking it was a neighbor. Instead, she found a huge group of friends & family outside with bottles of champagne and homemade desserts. Now, I expected everyone to yell “surprise!” and then to come inside for a party. What I didn’t know is that our friends had planned to sing a song – “Wouldn’t it be Nice?” by the Beach Boys – and had been rehearsing it two blocks down the street so we wouldn’t hear it inside. The song brought Rebecca and I both to tears. It was such a great way to cap off the moment.

After that, we had an awesome party inside. We drank champagne, danced and retold the proposal story until 1am in the morning. It was a wonderful evening that couldn’t have been possible without the support and participation of our amazing community here in DC. Marriage, I think, is as much about the community surrounding a couple as it is about the romance and commitment of the couple itself. In that sense, we are truly blessed.

Wouldn’t It Be Nice – Jess and Rebecca’s engagement surprise!! from Jaime Lopez on Vimeo.

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