Engagement stories.  Everybody who’s engaged or married has one of some sort.  And they run the gamut from the streetlights-twinkling-snow-sparkling-down-on-one-knee-said-yes-through-my-tears-of-joy classic, to the totally-wrong-moment-I-wasn’t-sure-took-me-a-week-to-answer reality check and everything in between.

I love hearing people’s stories and it’s what I love best about my work as a celebrant.  The gem of any custom wedding ceremony I create is when I tell the couple’s story.  Some couples don’t think they have a story, or that it’s not interesting enough.  But it always is.  Each is as unique as a snowflake.

While how you got engaged is just one small part of your story together, it’s an experience that people want to hear about.  So I include it in the wedding ceremony, and family and friends love being taken back to that moment with you, to have a window into that intimate experience that changed your life trajectory.

Wondering how your engagement story can fit into your wedding ceremony?  Here’s the twinkling snow story from a fun, sweet couple I worked with this year:

And so the winter before last, in the midst of all those blizzards, T and J took a trip to Boston on a cold and snowy weekend. They stayed in their favorite hotel, the Charlesmark, and J knew this would be his moment to propose. He had the ring with him, and while T got ready for their evening out, J was fidgeting nervously – taking the ring out of the box and then putting it back in the box, taking it out then putting it back again. He practiced getting down on one knee. Up and down he went. He checked yet again to make sure the ring was still there.

They went out to walk around Quincy Market before dinner and J waited for the perfect moment. He found it when they left the market and found themselves in an empty square, the snow fluttering down and twinkling in the light of the street lamps. J knew this was the time and he got down on one knee and asked T to marry him. First she yelled “Shut up, no way!” and then, of course, she said yes. Remembers T, “It was the best moment of my life.”

As the winter holidays approach, engagement season is upon us.  What will your story be?