Love Story: How We Met & Got Engaged
I literally can’t believe I’m typing this right now… we’re ENGAGED! It’s been a long time coming as most of you know.
It’s taken me a few weeks to share this because we’ve been so insanely busy. I also felt like it was really important to keep it between us. Just so we could really enjoy the first moments and soak it all in. So much of our lives are shared in real time on the internet that it was really nice just being able to celebrate on our own and spend time together creating mental pictures (Jim & Pam reference).
Words literally cannot explain how happy, excited and emotional I am. I’ve always know that Tony & I would get married some day and grow old together. But had zero expectations on when it would happen and was totally in shock when it all happened.
I’m so excited to share some of the details on our vacation and how he proposed. Plus our engagement plans & more about what made the trip so special to us.
I also realized I’ve never really given you guys the punk-rock fairytale of how we met & the story of our relationship. So it seems like the perfect time!
Tony & Erin’s Love Story
As you guys know, I don’t share a ton about Tony on the blog or my socials. Not only do I try not to spam your feed with pics of us making out all the time, we’re both really private people.
As much as I love sharing my life and milestones, it’s always been important to me to keep the most important of my life protected. But getting engaged is such an exciting milestone, I can’t wait to share all of the details.
So let’s rewind and start this story from the beginning…
6 years ago to be exact.
For those of you who don’t know, I used to work in the music industry. I’m originally from Northern California & worked in the Bay Area / San Francisco. I was good friends with Tony’s then guitar tech Matt (now TM and Best Man). I stopped by to say hi for one of their shows – when the infamous confetti debacle occurred – there was no confetti for the show. If you’ve never been to one of their shows, they have confetti cannons that blast confetti & streamers into the audience at the end of the show.
What seemed like a stressful moment actually turned into one of my favorite memories. I ended up staying and helping Matt & the band cut up tissue paper by hand to use in the confetti canons. It’s pretty funny looking back because had they remembered to order confetti, I probably wouldn’t have stayed. And we wouldn’t get to the second part of our meet cute.
A month later, they were in San Francisco and I hung out with everyone again. I walked a few of them (including Tony) to the mall. Took some people to Pier 39 and watched the show. We didn’t talk a lot, which made it even more surprising when I got a text message a few days later…
I got a random text from Matt. Tony and I were basically set up to go on a vacation to Mexico together. Matt and a group friends were planning a vacation to Mexico. Cabo to be exact. See where this is getting interesting… Tony didn’t have a date, so Matt (being the masterful matchmaker that he is), suggested Tony start talking to me because he thought we might get along.
After months of group texts (Matt literally chaperoned our texts), which consisted mainly of goofy photos of them on tour. We hung out a few times and had our first real date.
We went to the Cheesecake Factory and I’ll never forget how happy I was that he wanted to order a bunch of appetizers. Because who doesn’t love nachos and corn dogs!? Then we went to a movie (This Is the End). I will never forget this moment…Tony asked me if I wanted any candy or a drink. I said sure but didn’t specify what I wanted. A few minutes later, Tony walked in with EVERY SINGLE TYPE OF DESSERT, popcorn and drinks. I’m talking cake, candy, cider, water. In that moment, I knew Tony was a keeper. Not because he bought me a bunch of stuff. But because he’s the most thoughtful, considerate and kind person I’ve ever met.
A month or so later, I decided to go to Mexico and the rest is history! 6 years ago in July, I flew to Cabo & made the best decision of my life!
The rest is basically history!
Since then, we spend every July celebrating in Mexico! On July 8th, Tony & I flew to Cabo for the best trip yet…
The Proposal Story
Brb… grabbing my box of Kleenex.
I’ve always known I was going to marry Tony. We’ve talked about it hundreds of times. I’ve just never been the type of person to put deadlines on things. As many of you know, I hated when people would ask us when we were getting engaged. Especially on the internet.
Not only did I feel like it wasn’t anyones business, I just never felt like it should be the most important part of a relationship. Tony & I have been together for 6 years! We have a house together, a dog together, love each other, are each others best friends & have never doubted whether or not we wanted to be together. I think marriage is HUGE and so important. But I also don’t think it should be something people look at that will change a relationship.
For the most part, nothing will really change when we get married. It will definitely solidify our commitment. But the real reason we want to marry each other is because we are happy with how things are and know we want it to stay the same.
A Cabo Engagement
A couple months ago, I started planning our annual Mexico trip. I was so excited when I found out that the Grand Velas Los Cabos wanted to work with me and invited Tony & I to stay with them. I’ve heard so many amazing things about Grand Velas resorts and couldn’t wait to start our vacation! The idea that we might get engaged never even crossed my mind though!
Our flight to Cabo was at 7 AM. No joke, way too early. But I wanted to get to the resort early so we could enjoy a full day. I’ll be honest I was tired. We got to the airport and went straight to the lounge. If you were following my stories, you might remember my “vodka soup” Instagram story. Yes, I was drinking at 6 am. I hate flying. And Bloody Mary’s are basically like soup, with a little vodka.
I want to backtrack a couple days first… I went to get my nails done, because I get them done before every vacation. And wanted them to look nice in all of the nacho and taco eating photos I planned on taking.
Before I went to the salon, I asked Tony what color he thought I should get. Something crazy and neon or fun glitter??? He said “get something classy”… and then covered for himself (very well I might add) by saying, “like Mr. Peanut”. I thought he was just joking with me. I said, like white or pink? He said, “yeah, I don’t think I remember you ever having white”… which is a lie.
But I didn’t think anything of it. So I got my nails painted white and literally joked with all of my friends about Tony’s comment. And joked about how they looked like nails for someone getting engaged, in the most sarcastic way possible. Because in no way, shape, or form did I think he was planning on proposing.
Back to the story… We landed in Cabo and went straight to the hotel.
Once we got to the hotel, they gave us an amazing welcome drink. They poured champagne and let us choose a fruit flavored caviar to put in. It sounds weird I know, but it was actually really good, it tasted kind of like boba. Our room wasn’t ready, so they asked if we wanted to have lunch or take a tour of the hotel. Tony intervened and said he wanted the tour. Looking back, I should have known – Tony never wants to go on tours of hotels.
After we got our room, we got ready to go down to the pool. Funny story – because I booked a photoshoot with Flytographer that week, I brought some of the most EXTRA vacation wear. Normally I just live in my jean shorts and a cover up. But because I was shooting content, I brought a massive suitcase filled with colorful, sequin adorned outfits.
The fact that I was wearing a long, flowing, bright pink wrap skirt; full hair and makeup, unscratched sunglasses & snakeskin swimsuit is literally so insane… normally I’m a hot mess express on vacation. Somehow, the glam gods were working in my favor that day and inspired me to look super extra before we walked to the pool.
We walked downstairs and went down to the beach. We walked for a bit and before I knew it, he was down on one knee and proposed!
The rest of the week was spent toasting tequila, talking & enjoying the best vacation we’ve ever been on. I cried a lot – and by a lot I mean I literally cried off and on for hours for 3 days. Happy tears, excited tears, love tears… all the tears. We called our family and friends to tell them the good news, but kept the official “engaged announcement” under wraps until the end of the trip.
I’ve literally never, ever been more emotional, happy and surprised in my life. It was literally the perfect proposal – back on the beach in the town that is so symbolic for our relationship. No one else was there, just us. Which made it even more special.
AND THAT’S THE STORY! I can’t wait to share all of our adventures while we’re engaged and wedding planning with you guys! Thank you for all of your kind words, thoughtful messages and support. I’m so grateful for all of the love and positivity we’ve felt over the past few weeks and can’t wait for what’s to come!
Want more “engaged life” content? Let me know what you want to read about! You can also check out the “ENGAGED” highlight reel of stories on my Instagram