Featured Proposal: Eduard & Renita

High school sweethearts Eduard and Renita dated for 7 years before Ed popped the question! Ed really kept Renita on her toes when he took her on an anniversary get-a-way. Even though Renita was sure he was going to propose, he still found a way to catch her off guard and surprise her. Renita tells us the whole story from how they met, how he surprised her, and how they decided on a wedding date. Ed and Renita will be getting married next weekend on 8/18/18 in Los Angeles. We're thrilled to share their romantic proposal story and can't wait to share their wedding day with you soon! 

Renita's Story:

Ed and I met during my Senior year in High School. I can clearly remember the night I ran into him at a friend's birthday. September 18, 2009 - that's when we really felt a connection and hit it off. After a few months of dating, he made it official and asked me to be his girlfriend on January 24, 2010. The timing was perfect, we attended Senior ditch days together, Senior Prom, and celebrated graduation together.

Deep inside I knew this relationship was going to mean more than your typical "boyfriend/girlfriend" relationship. Instead of just celebrating our official anniversary date (him asking me to be his girlfriend), we always celebrated the day we met. Fast forward to September 2016, he planned a weekend getaway to Marina Del Ray. As soon as we pulled up to the hotel and made our way to our room, I was like okay he's proposing prepare yourself! I saw the champagne, the rose petals and chocolate and knew it was at that moment... but I was wrong! The next morning after grabbing breakfast and spending the day together, I anticipated "the moment" but, yet again, it didn't happen.

On the last day of our stay, Sunday morning, Ed had booked a couple's massage and lunch so I figured it has to happen then. After the massage we went to lunch and I noticed he was not eating much and kept checking his phone. When I asked if everything was okay, he said, "Yeah." He just wanted to make sure we were back in time to check out and leave. At this point, I knew it was definitely not happening anymore because once we check out we're heading back home.

After lunch we made our way back to our hotel room. As I opened the door I noticed that the entire room was decorated and a photographer was snapping pictures of us right away. I was so surprised! The room was filled with candles, balloons and a huge heart on the floor shaped with red rose petals along with a playlist of love songs playing in the background. The photographer captured all of our reactions and snapped every second of it.

As we stood in the middle of the heart, we were both so emotional and it was so special it even took him a good minute to regroup and pop the question. THIS was the moment...YES YES YES!  I was engaged! The ring was everything I pictured and more. He went above and beyond to design it the way he wanted it to be based on my preference and pictures I had saved. We had never gone ring shopping before and to get the right size and style, completely stunned me. He took me to the balcony and as I looked down, our family and friends were impatiently waiting and cheered us on. He had arranged everything with them and the hotel to prep the room and set up before we got back. All the meetings he had prior with the jeweler, the hotel, and family was definitely kept on the low and I had no idea. I guess I can always trust him to keep a secret. Everything happened so fast, next thing I knew we were on the way to his house to celebrate our engagement. As we got to talking, I got a little glimpse of his planning process. The best part was seeing the recorded reactions from a few family members when he exclaimed to them he was going to propose.

Now the big question, the wedding date! Since he proposed towards the end of the year, it limited our preferred venue and vendors because they were already booked for 2017. We wanted our date to have significance and something that everyone will remember. We wanted to get married in the summer and looked for dates in June, July and August. As soon as we stumbled upon 08/18/18, we looked at each other and knew that would be our date. All the 8's resemble the infinity sign so we thought of our love story as "Infinite Love." We incorporated the symbol into our wedding invitations along with a few details for our wedding day. Our ceremony will be in a garden followed by the reception at our favorite banquet hall. The best part of having a year and 10 months to plan - it helped me figure out what I really wanted without rushing and stressing out. After you make the deposits and lock in the vendors, there is not much to do until you get closer to the date. Since we didn't do a big engagement at a hall, I decided to do a bridal shower in June so we can celebrate with both our families (at least with the women) before the big day. One of my favorite parts about being engaged is the bridal shower. You'd be surprised how fast time flies so I'll make sure to take advantage of every second of the wedding day. 

Thank you Renita for sharing your beautiful love story with us! We loved seeing the proposal unfold through the series of candid photos captured by the photographer, and the photo of the family waiting in the hotel grounds was just too much!

We can't wait to feature Eduard & Renita's Los Angeles wedding soon on Harsanik. If you have any specific questions you'd like us to ask Ed & Renita, leave us a comment or message us on Instagram or Instagram.