On October 16, 2010 Alex proposed! It was amazing. I still can’t believe it. Since my wedding website won’t last forever, the following is what I wrote for the “our story” section (while I was supposed to be studying for comps, but I don’t regret it one bit!)

We met in the first weeks of our freshman year at UCF in 2005. It didn’t take long for us to declare ourselves an official couple on Sep. 5, 2005. Since then we have become each other’s best friend. We’ve been through a lot together and cannot wait to make it official!

We love Disney (if you couldn’t tell). Alex proposed at the Magic Kingdom during the big Watson-Family-Reunion-Disney-Trip. He called Shannon’s parents earlier that week and asked for their permission. He wanted to ask them in person, but he figured he would call so he could propose that weekend and make it as special as possible.

The “cover story” for the proposal was that we were going to take the Watson family Christmas photo by the castle. Shannon’s mom decided the side of the castle would be less crowded than Main Street (where it had been taken before). We had to wait, for what seemed like an agonizing eternity to Alex, for the entire Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It! Street Party to pass before we could make our way to the photo spot.

When we got there, Shannon’s mom whispered into the photographer’s ear, “this is going to be a proposal, so take LOTS of photos” while the rest of us were yelling at her to come join the group for the photo. Only Shannon’s parents knew what was about to happen.

Then, as the photographer started taking pictures, Alex knelt down on one knee and proposed! The music from the street party was still playing so the rest of Shannon’s family couldn’t really hear and were still smiling at the cameras. We joked about this later, and we think it’s cool because we had a soundtrack for our proposal. Shannon was so surprised!

Side note: Alex went to guest services at the park entrance while I was in the bathroom to get special “Just Engaged” Disney pins for us to wear after he proposed. Again, it was perfect.