How He Asked

October 11, 2018. The day I got engaged.

I woke up that morning not having to go into work because my boss told me a few weeks ago to work from home that Thursday and Friday due to some excuse I can’t even remember. All I remember was thinking “omg am I getting fired?” LOL. So I woke up that morning, went to cycle, came back home, showered & worked. Around noon I went to my friend Wendy’s house who is also a makeup artist and always does my makeup for special occasions. She also had texted me a few weeks ago asking if she could use my face for a tutorial she had been wanting to do. I, of course, said yes without any hesitation. I had asked her when she wanted to do this tutorial and she gave me two dates to choose from. I told her I’d get back to her because I was waiting on my boss to let me know the dates I was working from home. Once my boss gave me those dates, I gave them to Wendy and we both were available on this special day. I show up to Wendy’s and she tells me she “forgot her camera”, I just so happen to have mine so we used it for the “tutorial”. She finishes with my makeup and does a flawless job as always. After getting my makeup done, I stop by my house to pick up a few things, chatted with my brother then I head back to Henry’s house. As I’m on my way back to Henry’s, I pick up Chick-fil-a (Thank God I ate then because I didn’t eat the rest of the day!!) and as I’m driving, Henry texts me telling me he’s going to get off of work early to go get a haircut with my brother and he would be home a little early. He also asks me if I want to go take pictures for the blog before the sun goes down. I told him, yes but I didn’t really have any new outfits to shoot. He tells me to shoot this jumpsuit I wore in Vegas last month. I was like “omg smart!! Why didn’t I think of that?” So I change, eat my lunch, he gets home from “his haircut” and we’re off to take OOTD pics. While driving to our shooting location, my best friend’s boyfriend texts him asking if he wants to hang out later. Well, a few months ago my grandma told me she wanted to start going to the Spanish service at my church and asked if I could start taking her. I, of course, said yes so about a month ago Henry & I have been taking my grandma to our church every Thursday. That Thursday my grandma had already told me, my two aunts, cousin & mom would be joining us. So it worked out perfectly that my best friend’s boyfriend wanted to hang out with Henry that night because I guess it would’ve been a bit weird for him to be the only guy joining us at church that night. We finish taking pictures, we go back to Henry’s house so I can get my car but before leaving, I keep asking Henry if it’s okay to wear that jumpsuit to church or should I change? He’s telling me the jumpsuit is fine but I feel weird because I never dress up thaaat much unless its a Sunday morning. So I put on my denim jacket to casual it up a bit and I leave to go pick up my grandma. We get to church & meet up my family. Before service, my aunts express how hungry they are and how they want to go out to eat after. We enjoy service but it’s now over and I’m the type where once service ends, I’m ready to get out. My cousin was sitting at the end of the aisle and I notice we’re not moving so I’m thinking to myself “why the heck aren’t we going anywhere?” I’m trying to not be annoying and scream “HELLOO LET’S GO, PEOPLE!!” So I don’t say a thing, we’re all just standing in the aisle not moving LOL to the point to where people in our aisle were like “uhm.. can we pass by?” so we let them out but we stay there.  Yeah, I was confused also. My aunts totally play it off by asking if we’ve picked a restaurant yet. I tell them I’m looking (I wasn’t), I’m just standing there confused as ever as to why we haven’t left. Next thing you know I see one of my aunts taking a picture of someone at church and I literally think to myself “Wow I didn’t know my aunt knew someone here. Or maybe she’s just being nice and taking a picture of someone, idk”. Then I see this older man walking up to us waving, I look around & behind me as I’m questioning who this man I’ve never seen before is waving to but then I see my grandma waving back??? I didn’t even think it was weird because my grandma is SO social. So my mom says “oh my gosh, that’s your grandma’s friend!” & I literally say “Wow, really? Aw how cute. She probably knows him from when she used to work at Luby’s. She probably served him or something haha” LOOLL (yall my family didn’t know any of these people!!! I’ll get into that later). So now my grandma and this older man are talking and my aunt says “girl, you know how your grandma is. Once she starts talking, there’s no stopping her. We’re gonna be here a while” Silly me is not catching on to the fact that they’re trying to buy time so I say “omg you’re so right. I’m gonna sit down and yelp where we can go later.” So I sit down & I start looking up where to go on Yelp. Next thing you know, the sanctuary goes pitch black and I say “Ummmm guys… I think that’s our cue to go.” No one moves. A split second later I hear Henry’s voice on the speakers. I immediately stand up and tell my mom “omg what’s happening, wait I’m so confused what’s happening” my mom is laughing and she’s telling me to give her my denim jacket, phone & purse. I kinda black out at this moment because I’m overwhelmed with emotions LOL but I give my mom my stuff, I look up & I see a video of Henry talking about our love story. Y’all, I lost it. I was bawling in tears. The video ends and “Can’t Stop The Feeling” by Justin Timberlake comes on. I see some of my closest friends running up to the stage and it’s my very own flashmob happening right in front of my eyes. It was the best thing ever. One of my best friend’s Jessica runs off stage & pulls me up with her. I have no idea what’s happening, all I remember telling her is “omg please don’t make me dance. Idk the dance!!” she’s just laughing but not saying a word. She tells me to give her my hands so I do & she squirts something? I’m so lost at this point that I thought it was like glitter dust or something that I was going to throw when the dance was ending HAHAHA my imagination. It wasn’t until she told me to rub my hands together when I finally realized it was lotion! Which was one of my many requests I told my best friend’s I needed when getting engaged because I needed those cuticles to look right!  So at this time, the flash mob is getting off stage and there I see Henry walking towards me to one of our many songs, “Better Together” by Us The Duo. We see each other and immediately give each other a hug and a kiss. He tells me nothing but sweet words then gets on his knee, opens the ring box and asks, “Will you marry me?” I said, “Of course, yes!” Both with tears in our eyes, we hug and kiss. It was all oh so perfect. One of those, you had to be there kind of moments to truly feel the love in the room. We walked off stage to meet all of our closest family and friends who are in the audience and witnessed it all. After telling everyone hi, they leave, we leave and Henry has one last surprise for me. My eyes are closed but we show up to a four-story townhome with a rooftop viewing Houston’s skyline where again all of our friends & family surprised us. It was our engagement party where my mom decorated, food was catered, a lot of wine was drunk and a ton of celebration happened. Truly one of the best days of my life. 

Today marks a week of being engaged and I am still on cloud 9. I cannot believe that I’m so lucky and blessed to be able to marry not just one of the best guys to walk this planet but the love of my life, someone who was my best friend before all of this & who is and has been my favorite person for years now. There were so many people behind the scenes who made this happen. So many months of planning to make sure it was perfect. Everything was planned from working from home, the makeup tutorial, my grandma all of a sudden wanting to come to my church, the two people at service who kept my aunt & grandma distracted and more. You guys, it is not every day that someone gets engaged at my church. My sweet sweet best friend Ingrid who works there is one of the many people who made my dream proposal happen and I’m forever thankful for her. Along with the camera, lights and audio crew at my church who went above and beyond to make that night special. My best friend Jessica and her boyfriend Andrew who met up with Henry at 6 am or were fake hanging out with him just to get him away from me so he could plan, my mom who decorated and made the engagement party what it was, my boss who asked me to work from home those two days, my makeup artist and friend Wendy who “wanted to do a tutorial”, my very talented friend Natalie who made the video, our friends Loryn, Gerardo & Kevin who took photos & video of that night and will give us memories to last, Faith and all the dancers who made the flashmob what it was. I’m just still so overwhelmed with happiness. Henry & I are so blessed and lucky to call our friends and family OUR friends and family.
And last but not least, my Fiance. He truly would move mountains if he could just to put a smile on my face. There are not enough words or time to fully express how happy and in love I am with my soon to be husband. I’m so grateful that God chose us to become one. We do not believe that our paths were crossed by accident, we know what we have is something that was orchestrated by God. This proposal is something we’ve been looking forward to for a while now and now that it’s here, we’re soaking in all of it. Our love story is truly my favorite. From meeting at church to getting engaged at church, it’s all just so special. I can’t wait to share more pictures and the video from this day + all the planning that’s going to come. Let me know in the comments down below what you want me to share with you guys while I’m in this season of being engaged!
Thank you so much for reading! I know it was long but I had to add so many details for you to fully understand how the day went.
Xx, Es <3
#HowBoutThemCastros

VENDORS:
Event Planner/Decor: Events By JME
Makeup: Trendy Wendy
1st Photographer: Kevin Ventura
1st Videographer: Natalie Amaya 
2nd Photographer & Videographer: Glo Fotografia
Location: Lakewood Church

On Esmeralda:
Jumpsuit: Forever 21
Earrings: Target, similar
Ring: Diamonds Direct
Watch: MK
Heels: Target, similar