I’m taking a break from my usual style of writing to share with you a fun date night suggestion. Last year I wrote an article entitled “52 Original Date Ideas” which ran on the Unveiled Wife website.
Today I’m adding a 53rd:
Celebrating your engage-a-versary!
Last Monday, June 26th, Jason and I celebrated our 13th engage-a-versary. In case you aren’t familiar, an engage-a-versary is the anniversary of the day you got engaged (click here to read our proposal story). I am a celebrator who loves to commemorate any and everything. So, every year we acknowledge June 26th in some way or another.In 2014, on our 10th engage-a-versary, we went to the same restaurant as we did on the night Jason proposed. I made our reservations knowing that place was a special part of our story. As we were eating dinner, Jason looked around and said, “I don’t think we’ve ever eaten here before.” Clearly, details are more my thing than his. Ha.
This year I asked Jason if we could celebrate by recreating his proposal. But I didn’t just want to go through the motions of the night; I wanted documentation. I love archiving and scrapbooking photos so much that sometimes it is sad for me to think we don’t have pictures of this special occasion.
This date night was going to change that.
Jason thought my request was strange but still agreed to participate. I wore the same dress as thirteen years earlier, and after a romantic dinner by the river, we made our way to church. Jason proposed in the parking lot, which sounds strange, but at the beginning of our dating relationship, he always referred to it as, “our parking lot,” because that is where we first met and would always meet there before walking into church together.
Deep belly laughs erupted as we reenacted our special night.
We started at the beginning with us doing our quiet time.Then Jason pulled out his guitar (which didn’t even have strings), and we acted out his song proposal.
At one point I realized Jason was still wearing his wedding ring. My first thought was that we would need to reshoot everything. Jason, however, shrugged his shoulders and said, “It’s not like we are going to pass these around as actual proposal photos.” Yet, that was my hope. I daydreamed of framing and sharing these pictures as if they were from our real engagement. But doing that would be lying.
My thoughts leading up to this date spun out of control, and I was a slave to comparisons. Whenever I see other people’s engagement photos, I struggle with jealousy. I love everything about the extravagant proposal Jason planned… except that he didn’t capture it on film. Apparently, I have lessons to learn about contentment.
Taking control of my thoughts, I changed my plans and embraced the moment.
Within minutes, our chalkboard signs reflected the reality of the day.
The evening was a blast and meant a lot to me personally! I certainly recommend recreating your proposal as a creative date night idea! You might be like me and want to take pictures, or you could keep it just the two of you. Either way, focus on the significance of the engagement, and not wishing a detail was different. The anniversary of your engagement is the perfect time to reflect on the Lord’s work in your relationship and honor the love He is continuing to foster in each of you.
The LORD has done great things for us; We are glad. ~ Psalm 126:3
Do you celebrate your engage-a-versary?
darby dugger
Lisa Preuett says
This was such a cool idea! We got engaged in Gatlinburg on a singles trip together. It’s become one of our favorite places to travel and we go back every year at the same time in November. For the first several years we would go back to the same restaurant we ate at the night we got engaged. But sadly, that restaurant was torn down later and turned into a liquor outlet!!! Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us on celebrating your engagement.
Darby Dugger says
I love that you did that… so sad that it is now a liquor store now. What a special place to get engaged.