It’s been a year since Armando proposed to me, but I haven’t had a chance to share on the blog how it all happened. It all started with a purse, Kate Spade purse to be precise.
Armando and I stopped by the Kate Spade outlet store in Gilroy on our way to visit our families in Salinas for the weekend. I was browsing the store when I stumbled upon a hot air balloon purse. I had the coin purse in my collection but decided I needed the purse in my life. I sold the idea to Armando that it would make a great prop if we ever were to do a photo shoot near a hot air balloon festival. We looked up upcoming festivals in the area when we arrived at my parents’ house. We saw a date for the Sonoma Hot Air Balloon Festival, but we never looked into buying tickets or attending a similar festival.
A couple of months go by, and I start asking Armando what he would like to do for his 27th birthday. He suggests going on a hot air balloon ride in Napa. He starts doing the research, comparing different companies, and leaves me in charge of finding a place to spend the night since we would be required to be in Napa around 6:00 AM. I found a spot and kept asking what the total was for the balloon reservation so I could reimburse him since it was going to be his birthday present, but he would say, we’ll take care of that after.
A week after his birthday, we stayed at an inn down the street from the Napa Valley Marriott Hotel. We would be flying at sunrise with Balloons Above the Valley. I remember struggling to wake up and Armando insisting I get ready because we could not miss our flight. We arrived at the Marriott hotel, with coffee in hand, to check in. Once we signed our waivers, we were told we would have a balloon all to ourselves. It struck me as odd we would be that lucky, but I didn’t think much of it when Armando also commented on how crazy it was we lucked out. After enjoying a few pastries, we were shuttled to the fields where 3 balloons were waiting. Ours had a small basket, while the other 2 had large baskets ready to carry over 16 passengers. We had our photos taken before boarding the balloon by the attendants and then, we were off!
And that’s our engagement story.