Hello Everyone! Below is the story of Cody and my trip to Vegas this Christmas....
Where we got engaged on December 23rd 2013 at 6:20 pm!!! :) I know this because the Bellagio fountains go off every 30 minutes and right before he proposed our waiter said "We've got about... uh... 10 minutes until the fountains go off..." but I'll get to that part later on in the blog.
During our trip we stayed at the Cosmopolitan hotel. Which in my opinion is one of the nicest hotels on the strip. It is relatively new and it's gorgeous. It's also the only hotel on the strip that has balcony's. Cody and I have been wanting to stay there since our first trip to Vegas. It is located in the center of the strip right next to the Bellagio.
Originally we were supposed to have a balcony room on the 15th floor facing the Bellagio fountains. Cody kept trying to talk me into getting a wrap around balcony suite, but it was super expensive and I didn't think it was worth it. Cody had heard online that if you slipped the check in clerk $20 sometimes they would comp you and give you really good upgrades. So we were like what the heck... we'll try it. When we got to check in there was a long line so I stayed to the side to watch our bags and Cody waited in line to check in. He was up there for a SUPER long time, and I was watching him and he was nodding his head a whole lot, so I was hoping that was a good sign. Turns out... it was!!! He came back to me with a poker face and I was like uh oh... maybe not, but then he said "well got good news we aren't staying in the room we were originally supposed to be in. They upgraded us to a wrap around balcony suite on the 44th floor!!!" WOOHOO!
I couldn't believe it! It was the most gorgeous room that I've ever been in, and the view was unbelievable! I walked in and I literally squealed looking around the room. We ran out onto the balcony and enjoyed the view first and then I snapped a bunch of pictures of the room!
This was the view of the strip and fountains from our balcony! I was so amazed by Cody. I kept asking him... how'd you talk them into giving us this room??? And he said that the guy that checked us in had friends from Shaker Heights and that they were chatting about sports and Cleveland and that it was our first time staying at the hotel and that we always wanted to stay there, and that we really wanted a wrap around balcony suite but didn't want to pay $400 + a night for a room... so the guy said let me see what I can do and got us upgraded for an extra $25 a night which was a no brainer! I was so impressed by his sweet talking skills I even took a picture of the view and put it on Facebook talking about how awesome he was for getting us this room...
What I found out later was that the guy also asked if we were celebrating anything during our trip, and Cody said "Well.... actually... we are going to get engaged tomorrow night too!" So the guy got his manager and they made the deal for us!!! It was unbelievable. I think I'm ruined for hotels rooms forever. They had plush towels, slippers, and robes.... the room itself was 1,300 sq feet and we had two bathrooms! Not to mention the million dollar view.
Here we are on the balcony.
Here is one side of our wrap around balcony...
And here is the other side...
Even though we were in Vegas it still gets pretty cold in the desert at night. We had a bunch of blankets outside so that we could enjoy the pod/bed outside.
Here was our full kitchen and bar! They gave us a completely brand new, never opened pot and pan set with full utensils and spatulas and what not.
Here was our dining room/living room.
Here was our bed. You can't see the view of the strip from the window in this picture, but trust me the view was awesome. Even better was that it was sound and light proof. You can't believe how loud and bright the strip is at night! But once we shut the door and closed the blinds you'd never know where we were. I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face after we turned off the lights. I was in heaven! The bed was super comfortable too! I don't think I've ever slept so much on a vacation before!
Here was our massive bathroom. I think this bathroom was bigger than some hotel rooms I've stayed in before!
Not to mention it had a private toilet area.
Ahh I loved sitting here and finishing up my book while looking out onto the strip. :)
Cody loved laying on the comfy bed....
The strip from our bedroom view at night...
The other side of the strip...
Long shot of our living area.
The hallway leading into our living area/the door to get out.
Other view. Here I am standing at the entrance door.
Our second bathroom. Sadly this "small" bathroom was still bigger than the bathrooms of the other hotels we stayed at in California.
Here we are on engagement night! We had reservations to a fancy steak house called Prime at 5:00 pm. I will admit when we were at home and Cody was looking at fancy places to eat at the Bellagio I was suspicious. For those that don't know, the Bellagio has always been our favorite part of Vegas. We have spent many a night sitting out in front of the Bellagio fountains and admiring them. That was one of the main reasons why we wanted our hotel room to over look them this time. Cody pitched the idea that we'd never really gone to a super fancy dinner in Vegas before and that since this was probably going to be our last time in Vegas we should go out somewhere really nice. I remember thinking when he showed me on the prices on the menu... I was like hrmm... if he's taking me to that fancy of a dinner he better be proposing! And I even thought that on the way there, I even casually tapped his pocket to see if I felt a ring box on the way walking to the restaurant. I didn't feel it... and I won't lie... I was a little disappointed at the time, but I figured oh well... at least it'll be a nice dinner.
So we went into the restaurant and to my surprise we had a wonderful seat. Perfect view of the fountains going off. Looking back at this picture, I feel like I can sense he was a little bit nervous here. Later on he told me that he was nervous all throughout dinner.
It was super pretty in the restaurant, and the waiters were all wearing tuxes and I think there were enough of them for every table there.
All throughout dinner Cody kept saying that he wanted to go outside onto the patio to take pictures after dinner. Only problem was that the patio was closed for the winter. He kept saying that it would be cool to get pictures from the opposite view than what we normally get of the fountains, and of course... you know me... I love pictures... so I was into it. We asked the guy giving us our bread and refilling our waters (not our waiter) if we could go out there. The guy said he'd ask, and he came back and said "No sorry, I asked the manager and he said it's closed for the season." At this point, Cody was getting really agitated and I wasn't really sure why. He kept saying well... I'm just going to go find the manager and ask him myself. And I was like honey... it's only a picture... it's not that big of a deal...
All throughout dinner, he kept saying how he wanted to ask. And I told him that we'd ask our waiter before we gave him his tip that way he'd have a vested interest in getting us out there. Well, Cody left me sitting at the table and ran up to our waiter and talked to him for a while... Then he came back and said great news! They are letting us go out! I was like see... I knew all you had to do was ask our waiter. Little did I know, that when Cody made his reservations he mentioned that he was going to do a proposal there, and our waiter was expecting him to talk to him about it. So we went outside onto the patio, just us and our waiter and he was taking some pictures of us.
He took a couple and I was like ok.. that was nice... let's go. And the waiter goes "Well we've got about... uh... 10 minutes until the fountains go off, why don't you sit down for a picture?" And I'm thinking... wow this guy is great most people you ask to take a picture for you only take one or two and this guy is giving me poses to do...
So I sat down onto the chair, and Cody bent down next to me on one knee... and at first I wasn't sure if he was bending down for the picture or not, but then he said "Why don't we make this night really special," and he pulled out the ring and said "Will you marry me?" I was shocked but not shocked at the same time. I guess he knew that if he carried the ring box that I'd feel it so he had just had the ring in his pocket all night.
Everything happened so fast that it was hard for us to recall every single detail even right after it happened... but here is what I'm sure of... I know that I squealed and that I quickly leaned in to kiss him.
I put the ring right onto my finger... even before I looked at it. I kind of recall either saying "No way or Oh my god" Or maybe I even quickly said both phrases... I'm not 100% sure.
Here we are right after he proposed! I was so excited and happy! He proposed the exact way that I wanted him to. The fancy dinner, at the Bellagio fountains, and even better he got someone to get pictures of the whole thing so that I can write this blog!! :) Yay! You all know how much I love blogging and now scrapbooking!
It all happened so fast that it was really a blur. It wasn't until we were walking away from the restaurant that I turned back to him and I said... "Did I even say yes yet???" And he was like "well I sure hope so... " we both laughed and I was like "Well... YES!" Then as we were walking towards the Bellagio I said, "Wait you asked my dad permission first right?" and he said yeah that he went to see dad on a Monday. He said that he called him and asked if he was going to be around, and that he wanted his opinion on a Christmas present he was giving me. Then when he got there he showed dad the ring and said well I'm not really asking your opinion more like your permission, and dad gave him permission. :)
Here is a close up of the ring. We went over to the Bellagio afterwards to look at the Christmas decorations there and he was telling me all about the process he went through to get the ring. I guess he's been working on getting the ring made for the past three months! And he astounded me with all his knowledge about rings. He said that he knows so much that he could be a gemologist. He was telling me all about the properties of rings and all about diamond grades and all kinds of things. I think I was more impressed with how much effort he went into and how much he researched rings than even the ring itself. I only showed him a ring style that I liked one time in passing which was the three stone look, and at the time I didn't even think he was really paying attention to me. Every time that we talked about getting engaged he kept saying not to rush him and that he didn't want to be pressured by everyone. So I wasn't really sure when he was going to propose. We had a rough timeline of our "life plan" together so I knew that it was coming sooner or later. When I saw the ring I was impressed that he remembered and got me a ring that reflected what I liked. But I'm not too surprised, because we both have pretty similar tastes. I felt very loved with how much effort he put into it. He told me that he looked at 15 different jewelers before he found the diamond that he liked. The diamond itself is a full karat and from Belgium and on each side is a quarter karat diamond and then each side of the band has 5 smaller diamonds on it. You can't really see the diamonds on the band in this picture, but it's the best picture we could get of the ring. And trust me... we took NUMEROUS pictures of it once we got back to the hotel room so that we could send pictures out. My poor mom... I texted her and said "I just got back from a fancy dinner from the Bellagio and guess what!?!?!" Then I wanted to send her a picture of the ring to show her but I couldn't get a good one of it to send... she was texting and texting me... I'm shocked she didn't just call. She was like are you engaged?!?! Did you get married!?! Haha sorry mom! I guess I should have took the picture first and then sent her a text. But finally I got a good picture to send to her haha.
I couldn't stop looking at the ring for the longest time! I couldn't believe how pretty and shiny it is!! :)
Here we are at the Bellagio Christmas tree. See the ring proudly displayed :)
Here we are back in our room. Cody was like keep your fingers straight! I kept bending them funny and it made getting a picture of the ring harder haha. That was why we finally put it back in the box which was hidden in our spare bathroom. This was around the time where I started texting everyone and called my dad.
Love this picture! Our view right after we got engaged!
Of course we ran back to Prime to get some pictures. Here you can see the escalators leading down to the restaurant. Cody said he picked this place so that we can come back to it some day and tell our kids the story of where we got engaged. I guess the Bellagio has quite a few places to eat at but he thought this would be the best place to choose.
This is actually the same night about 2 hours after we ate dinner here. We had tickets for a comedy show later on in the night so we changed into less fancy clothes. This was in front of the Prime menu. I had a Prime rib and Cody had bison.
When we went to the comedy show apparently it was also a Burlesque show (half naked girls dancing)... they didn't advertise that part of it. And we get there and the first act was a girl coming out to dance wearing hardly anything, and of course we were sitting on the aisle and she comes up to Cody and starts petting his head! I was like hey lady that's my fiancé! (and no I didn't actually say it... but I was excited to be able to think it) haha
Here we are at the end of a perfect night. After he proposed he kept saying yes it all makes sense now doesn't it... the amazing room upgrade, the fancy dinner, my insisting that we go out onto the patio for pictures... he said on his day off every Monday for the past three months he's been looking into rings and setting this all up and I kept telling him how sneaky he was because I really didn't have a clue that he was going to propose. He was smart for leaving the ring box at the hotel, because I was trying to sniff out if he had any plans that night and he really surprised me. It was a wonderful engagement night and I am so excited to marry my best friend in the whole world. He is such a good guy and our proposal couldn't have been better. I think that it really fit us perfectly. Vegas is our favorite place in the world, and the fountains are our favorite part of Vegas and now it will forever be our spot. :) For those that are wondering we have not picked a date yet. We are thinking sometime in 2015 but other than that nothing is set yet. Congratulations to everyone else that got engaged over the Christmas time frame, including Cody's big brother Chance who got engaged the day after us. :) Looks like there are going to be some weddings in the Charles family in the next year or two!
