This is the place in a park in the middle of Hungary, about an hour outside of her dad’s home town of Budpest, where K and I got engaged. Amazing isn’t it?
For those who want all the details, here’s the rub:
We were over in Hungary on my first ever visit and K’s first for over 20 years, for the wedding of her cousin, Àgi, to the lovely and wonderful Tibi. In truth, K and Àgi are more like sisters when they’re together, slotting back in wherever they left off and having a ridiculously good time. So it was wonderful to be invited over to share in their big day with them, loving them as much as we do.
Having been with K for over 4 years now, I think it’s fair to say I’d been thinking about proposing for a while now, but wanted it to be right. I’d found a ring I really liked, but the band was in yellow gold, which K doesn’t really care for, with a white gold design on top. Having met her mum’s jewellery-designer cousin a few weeks ago, I realised the perfect thing to do would be to get him to make a white gold version of it with a few tweaks here and there. All of which meant, of course, that I didn’t have a ring for Hungary.
The lack of ring, however, couldn’t take away from the perfection of the timing or the location of the wedding and as soon as we arrived with her parents in Budapest, I realised that I couldn’t pass the opportunity up. Like the old romantic I am, I took K’s dad to one side and asked his permission on Friday night, which he gladly (I think…) gave.
On Saturday we arrived at the stunning location for the wedding, which was in the chapel – the last standing part – of an enormous castle that had been razed to the ground by the Soviets during the revolution. The grounds where the castle stood are now what we in the UK would call a country park and Àgi and Tibi encouraged all of their guests to get out and explore the space, which is what we did.
On a wander around the grounds we found the nice quiet spot you saw above. Like all good romantics, I then stole K’s existing ring from her right hand, got down on one knee and asked her to marry me. And she burst into tears. Luckily, it turns out they were happy tears and, with the refrain of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” being sung by Tibi’s sister in the marquee across the gardens, she said yes! It seemed like one of those elusive perfect moments we all plan for, but that only ever happen with a swirl of serendipity.
And that, as they say, is that. It’s not 100% how I planned it or expected it to be, but I couldn’t have found a better place or time to do it. And just to prove it, here’s K’s hand with her non-engagement ring sitting on her ring finger. It’s official! And we couldn’t be happier.
