So I promised to share the story of the proposal, the ring, and my Hokkaido snowboarding trip… here it is!

Since we are both avid snowboarders and ramen fiends, Hokkaido made the perfect sense for our winter getaway. The day was February 21, in Sapporo city, Hokkaido, Japan. The night before we had just arrived at this sub-zero land of snow for this snowboarding trip. We got up early at 5 AM due to jet lag, took our time to enjoy the breakfast buffet (omg so yum, and soup curry is to die for!), and then headed out to see Sapporo city!

I get this question a lot about the next part of this day trip…”Were you expecting it?”  We had gone engagement ring shopping about a month prior to the trip, so yes, I had some idea. Yet, I didn’t allow myself to indulge in the imagination of how he would propose because I still wanted to be surprised! And, surprised I TOTALLY was…

A 15 minute walk through Odori Park, 2 subway stations later, we were in Maruyama Park. Every corner of this park was covered in snow, and every surface was sparkling white. It’s hard not to feel spellbound by the sense of wonder when surrounded by nature’s beauty like this..

So we walked around the park, checked out a few shrines, saw where the tourists were (not super interesting, all the shrines, to be honest) and took a lot of pictures… And then we were on our way back to the quieter part of the park.

So for a while, we were just walking, taking in the beautiful scenario, playing with snow, taking pictures… at least I was. We saw this untouched part of the park where all the snow was fresh, and thought of exploring it.  As I stepped onto the fresh snow, I was really focused on not tripping over, or not stepping into a hole underneath all the snow. And Victor goes, “Jessica…”

I turned around. He was on one knee, with a ring box in his hand! He then said, slowly, with trembling hands and face, “You know I take a lot of time to make important decisions in life, big or small. But this decision was easy, and I always knew I was going to do this. Would you marry me?”

And of course, I said yes!

The entire proposal of course went by like a blur. I had to check with him again afterwards on what exactly he said… since I was in such a daze. The rest of the trip felt like a honeymoon. We had such great fun snowboarding, eating all sorts of Japanese food, figuring out our way around Hirafu Village, and even things like grocery shopping was so much fun.

I caught myself staring at my beautiful ring multiple times a day, feeling like the luckiest girl in the world!

I can’t tell you how excited I am to embark on this next journey in our life… with the best partner I could ask for by my side. Wedding planning is already underway, so far we’ve looked at a few San Diego wedding venues, interviewed a few wedding planners, and just started to look into florists… Can I just say WEDDING PLANNING IS SO MUCH FUN!!

For all of you San Diego readers out there who has gone through wedding planning, let me know if you have any recommendations for me!

Until next time..
Jessica