Engagment Story

After Josh returned from sea during the summer of 2020, the couple started talking more seriously about marriage, and Josh started his hunt for the perfect engagement ring. When he found it—white gold with a round, brilliant cut diamond—he ordered it right away. What he didn’t expect, though, was that the shipping on the ring would be delayed again and again, causing him to continually change his plan. Not only was this frustrating, but Josh was also working on a tight deadline: he was set to ship out again on December 29. Christmas came and went and the ring still hadn’t arrived. Bethany began getting antsy. She didn’t know Josh had ordered the ring, that it was stuck in transit somewhere, so the proposal she was expecting started looking less and less likely.

Finally, on the afternoon of December 28, 2020, the day before he was set to leave for four months, the ring arrived.

“Now that I finally had it, I then was worried that I wasn’t able to plan or set up anything special for a proposal,” Josh said. “I had come up with a lot of ideas, but each plan was squashed when the delivery continued to remain unclear.”

That afternoon, Josh asked Bethany to meet him at the storage unit where he’d be keeping his car while he was away before taking her to dinner. Josh had bought a bottle of champagne earlier in the day and kept the ring in his pocket the whole time, but the moment just didn’t feel right. Annoyed that the proposal still hadn’t happened, when they got home that evening, Bethany went straight to their room.

“Josh yelled to me that he was going to make a drink before bed and asked if I wanted one,” Bethany explained. “Again, in my grumpy state, I yelled back to him that he knew I didn’t drink during the week since I had to get up early for work.”

Regardless, Bethany went out to their living room to see what Josh was up to, and the rest, well, it’s history.

“She asked why in the world I was drinking Champagne, and I said ‘To celebrate!’ I then pulled out the ring and got down on one knee,” Josh said. “So even though no grand plans were able to be made, I think the end result being more simple and personal was fitting to us.”

-Written by Kelly Stewart