Brianne and Garett

This weekend I discovered that Garett is very, very sneaky-the good kind of sneaky. On Saturday evening Garett said we could get up on Sunday and have a nice breakfast at a restaurant down the street from his apartment called Victor’s. So, at around 8:00 on Sunday morning I got all showered and ready to go eat. Little did I know, the entire time I was in the shower Garett was frantically running around his apartment gathering my things and shoving them into a suitcase with all of his stuff. When I got out of the shower, I got ready as usual, blow drying my hair and putting on my makeup. When it was time to start curling my hair I couldn’t find my tools anywhere. Garett silently stood there while I searched the cabinet for my curling iron, not realizing of course that it was already shoved in the suit case with the rest of my things. How rude of him to be so sneaky.

We left for “breakfast,” a little after 9:00. About 2 minutes into the drive Garett got on the freeway. After about 10 minutes traveling in the wrong direction to a restaurant that is 5 minutes away from his apartment, I knew something was fishy. Finally, he confessed that he was taking me on an overnight get away to celebrate our anniversary. I completely bought it, what a fool! Once we got to San Antonio, Garett checked us into the Omni Mansion hotel, which is right on the Riverwalk. For those who don’t know, the Riverwalk is “a network of walkways around the San Antonio River, linking several major attractions one story beneath downtown San Antonio, Texas. Today the River Walk is an enormously successful special-case pedestrian street, one level down from the automobile street. The River Walk winds and loops under bridges as two parallel sidewalks lined with restaurants and shops, connecting the major tourist draws from Alamo Plaza to Rivercenter.”

It is a very beautiful and interesting place and I have been telling Garett how much I want to go back there for the past few months. Once we arrived we took a short walk along the river and then we checked into the Omni Hotel Spa, where Garett had arranged for us to get full body massages. These massages were absolutely amazing! I didn’t ever want to get off the table afterwards! Next, we got ready for dinner.

This is when I discovered that Garett had already packed my pretty black dress and my favorite dressy shoes. He is so good! We left for our dinner reservations on the Riverwalk at a few minutes past 7:00 for our 7:30 reservation at Boudros. The restaurant Garett picked out was really romantic and I ate the most delicious crab and shrimp enchiladas I have ever tasted!

After a fantastic dinner and yummy desert, Garett invited me for a stroll along the Riverwalk. We walked arm and arm along the stony sidewalk as the sun went down, just enjoying each other’s company and looking at the night life start to heat up along the banks of the underground river.

Soon we arrived at a beautiful little alter on our side of the bank with two little benches and a tall tree. We walked up to the alter to take a closer look and someone came along and offered to take our picture.

As the person handed us the camera and walked off, a tour boat come along and pulled up just a few feet away from us. The tour guide explained that Garett and I were standing on “Marriage Island.” As the tour guide explained, the San Antonio legend says that anyone married on this Island will have a long and happy marriage. Once we were alone again (or so we thought), Garett hugged me and then looked at me and told me that he wanted to plan a special day for me to show me how much he loves me. He also told me how happy I make him feel and how he wants to spend the rest of his life with me. Then he reached into his pocket, got down on one knee and asked me to marry him right there on Marriage Island. Through a sudden and completely unstoppable surge of tears, I said “yes!” and Garett slipped the most beautiful ring I’ve ever seen on my finger. I thanked him by soaking his nice blue stripped shirt in mascara and eye shadow, while hugging him until his tummy probably felt like it was going to burst. All of a sudden, about 10 yards away, a big group of people standing on a foot bridge started clapping and yelling. Through all of the hollering, one of the girls yelled “wait, did she say yes?!” Garett gave them a thumbs up and they all started clapping again and yelling “congratulations!” Then, seconds later, a tour bus pulled up again and the tour guide gave his audience the same spiel about the fact that they were looking at Marriage Island. I turned around and said “we just got engaged” and showed them all my sparkly ring. Everyone on the boat started a new wave of clapping and congratulations. It was amazing. I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with the most wonderful man and my perfect match.

PS- On a side note, I must say that I was a little shocked to find out that Garett had already called my mom and dad, told them his plan, and asked them each for their blessing. My mom knew about this for a few days and she never said a word to me, how rude!