John and I had been together for four years when we first decided to take our first "real" vacation together. John had surprised me on our first anniversary with a trip to "Brigadoons for Pizza" (we went to Mystic, CT and stayed at a very nice B&B called Brigadoons) for a long weekend. But after that, we hadn't really gone anywhere together on vacation. On our fourth anniversary, which fell a week after my 21st birthday, we went to Marblehead, Cape Ann, and Hampton Beach for a few nights. It was fun and relaxing, and made us both realize that we wanted to really go on vacation... for more than a week.

And so, naturally, we chose Walt Disney World.

And so the planning began... I love to plan, especially vacations, and had a lot of fun researching and planning our vacation the six months before we actually went. We were staying for 11 nights at Disney World, staying at four different resorts and planning for the time of our lives!

Now, the subject of Wedding and Marriage had come up between John and I before. But John had made it clear to me that marriage wasn't in the picture yet. We both knew it would happen eventually between the two of us, but after many discussions on the matter, John had made it perfectly clear that there was no way he was asking any time soon - he wanted to be financially secure, have a career, and everything before the question was popped. And so, though I secretly longed for it, and secretly felt that Disney would be the perfect place for him to ask, I didn't really expect it.

And so, on November 6, 1997, we departed Boston on a morning flight to Orlando, Florida. We took a towncar - it cost us about $10 more than the shuttle service - to our first resort, the Caribbean Beach. We were giddy with joy, to say the least.

Of course, it didn't really hit home until we saw the sign for the entrance to the Magic Kingdom... and then it was like being a child all over again. This was my Christmas Morning, and though we were both tired from the early flight, we couldn't wait to hit the parks and to lay eyes on Cinderella's Castle... a sight neither of us had seen since we were both nine years old.

We quickly checked in to our resort, and then headed out to the Magic Kingdom. The Magic Kingdom was celebrating its 25th Birthday during our stay (though the actual 25th Birthday was in 1996), and Cinderella's Castle was decorated as a giant birthday cake. I know a lot of people hated that cake, but we thought it was cute and fun... though we were glad when the old castle came back.

We spent a very fun day running through the park, enjoying the rides and remembering when we were kids and came for our first time. The day seemed to fly by, and when evening came we went back to the Castle, where we had dinner inside the castle at Cinderella's Royal Table (which was called King Stefan's Table back then). The fireworks began just as we were finishing dinner... a truly wonderous ending to what had been a magical day.

As we were leaving the park, we stopped again at the Walt and Mickey statue to look upon the castle, lit up at night. A couple was there taking pictures, and John asked them if they would take our picture. I gave the wife my camera, and then looked at John. "How do you want to take this?" I asked him

He told me to stand up on the end of the wall around the statues. I got up there and turned around to face him, only to find him dropping to one knee before me, a ring in his hand as he grabbed my hand.

To this day, I cannot remember exactly what it was John said. All I remember is that it was the sweetest thing I had ever heard. My chin must have been hitting the ground... I felt as if I were in a dream. Was he really proposing? Was that really a ring in his hand?

And then suddenly it hit me all at once, and I found myself so overwhelmed with joy that all I could yell was "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!" as I jumped into his arms, and we stood there embracing and kissing.

John then looked at the wife over my shoulder and said, "Please tell me you got that!" I felt so bad for the woman as I looked over at her. She was practically in tears as she held up the camera with shaking hands and said, "I can't get it to work!"

My camera requires the flash to charge at night, so when you take a picture, you have to hold down the button. You can't just quickly press it. She didn't realize it, and so the picture was never taken.

So we quickly assured her it was okay. After all, this would make the story more memorable, and more fun to tell! So we showed her how to take the picture, and we reenacted the moment... though my look of surprise and joy is replaced by this utterly goofy grin.

So that is the story of our engagement, though it is certainly not the end of the tale of our vacation. We spent the rest of that evening at Downtown Disney, where we went in search of champagne to toast and celebrate, and then returned to our room to call our parents back home and give them the good news. We even bought ourselves a little stuffed monkey to commemorate the occasion (mainly because we thought he was too cute!) and nicknamed him "Ring" in honor of that night.

We spent a total of 11 nights at Disney during that vacation, and certainly had the time of our lives. If you want to see some pictures, feel free to check out our photo albums.

Our engagement was, to our minds at least, at one of the most magical places on earth, and only furthered our belief in the wonder that is Disney. We even looked at the wedding pavilion during our stay there, and dreamed of a Disney wedding. But it wasn't feasible at the time, and little did we know that life would eventually lead us back to that path... to a Wedding at Disney.