THE EVOKE COMPANY
The Back Story.
So this is how it all went down – our engagement story! The day I asked my gorgeous girlfriend Casey to spend the rest of her life with me, and not to forget my two loving and crazy little kids.
I couldn’t have been more excited to ask Casey to be my wife. I had been planning the proposal for weeks and if you know me, you know I’m a massive over-thinker. I thought it over a million times in my head trying to plan every little detail. I had so many ideas! But I wasn’t sure which to roll with.
Firstly I thought about hiring a beautiful little cottage in Kangaroo Valley, setting it up with hundreds of candles and hiring a photographer as a surprise photoshoot. I was hoping the idea of the session would throw Case off and that she won’t suspect a thing. About halfway through the shoot – B A M!!! – I would drop to one knee and ask Casey to marry me. I liked my chances of her saying yes so wanted a photographer to capture the moment of us likely crying our eyes out! I loved this idea! However, I procrastinated for too long and when it come time to actually booking it in, the dates I wanted were gone.
So I had to put this idea on the back-burner. A few weeks earlier we had a mini getaway planned. We were off to the Whitsunday’s! I probably would have proposed if it wasn’t for one thing. I mean come on! A seaplane ride over the Great Barrier Reef and Heart Reef, followed by a water landing on Whitehaven Beach and drinking Champagne in the sun. That is seriously one amazing one to get engaged! But I held out. Only because I didn’t have a ring. I hadn’t found one that I loved. Even-though Case would have said YES with out one. I knew that deep down I wanted Case to have something to be able to show off and stake claim that she was going to be Mrs Sac with a ring on her finger.
The Start.
So with a few ideas tossed out the window because the circumstances didn’t quite fit. It was back to the start.
Which leads us to our anniversary weekend. One year on of us being girlfriend and boyfriend. I know some people will think holy shit that’s crazy! You have only known each other for one year. But when you have what we do. You just know! When everything is easy and the relationship just comes so natural you will understand. Hopefully you have that same relationship.
We knew after the first two weeks. We talked about getting married and spending every minute together for the rest of our lives, and it didn’t scare us one bit. We have screenshots of dresses and wedding ideas. We talked about it for weeks. So I knew this was the perfect opportunity.
I told Case not to ask me about anything that I had planned for the weekend ahead, as I had plenty of surprises organised. She might have been a little suss, but I’m such a good bullshitter she would have believed whatever story I made up to make her think this was just a weekend away.
Rewind to 11 months earlier. Were we had only been together for just over a month. It was Case’s birthday and I wanted it to be amazing! We dined at some amazing restaurants and I probably spent a ridiculous amount on presents and surprises. I’m pretty sure I didn’t want to look at my credit card after that weekend. But it was one of the best weekends we have had to date. So I wanted to do the same thing and visit our favourite restaurants and re-live that amazing weekend!
First Stop –
Blackwood Pantry,
Cronulla.
Well, we actually stopped off at our local The Hungry Monkey for a coffee on the way. But then headed directly to the Blackwood Pantry in Cronulla for breakfast. It is amazing! I love the interior and the food is visually stunning and also taste great. Last time we were here I got some sourdough with ricotta, strawberries and topped with honey and almonds, it was so good. But being a seasonal menu that changes from time to time. I got a passionfruit pancake this time round with all the goodies on top! And check out that little cold brew bottle. I wanted to steal it but they re-use them so thought it was best left with them for a refill and onto the next customer. A photo of it was good enough!
Next Stop –
The Old Clare Hotel,
Chippendale.
Once we had finished at Blackwood Pantry we made our way to Sydney, where I had booked our accomodation for the weekend. You can see a common theme for me. I love interior design and pretty things. So after hours trawling through the web and booking sites. This stunning property stood out heads and shoulders above the rest. The Old Clare Hotel in Chippendale. At first I thought the location wasn’t the best. But after spending the weekend found it to be pretty bang on and central to everything. Its super hip and located on Kensington Street which has a great foodie scene too. Originally I booked the Abercrombie Room. Go check it out – EPIC! But on arrival we we’re upgrade to the Clare Room. At first I wasn’t 100% sure but after walking into our room I could see the difference. This room knocks its socks off! I can’t rave enough about how good this hotel is. Everytime we go to Sydney now, this will be where we stay. Do yourself a favour and book a night.
↑ CASE KICKING HER FEET UP / THE KILLER ROOM WE STAYED IN! ↓
SOME STANDARD PRE-GAME NIGHT OUT SELFIES ↓
Night One –
Heanry Deane + Macchiato’s.
Okay before you get into it. This is not the night I proposed. Shit aint going down tonight! This was just a warm up to the main event so you can breathe and relax! First on the agenda after a relaxing afternoon in the room, was to get across town to Hotel Palisade and Henry Deane, the cocktail bar upstairs with amazing views of the harbour. Let’s say my attempts to wave down a taxi didn’t go to plan but I persisted and everything was on track. We made it to catch the last of the sunset over Sydney with a cocktail in hand. Case had a pretty good feeling of where I had planned to take her for dinner after. And she was right! One of our favourite Pizza places. We have a select few we love and this is up there in our top 3!
It’s called Macchiato’s and bang smack in the centre of Sydney. We originally stumbled onto this when we came for Casey’s birthday weekend, and have since been back a number of times for the pepperoni pizza and espresso martini’s. The customer service has been magic every time and the food to die for. I don’t have the emoji for the Italian Fingers, but you know what I’m talking about. Of course we got our fav and knocked back a few moscato’s to finish off the night. I think we may have even tried the gnocchi too but not 100% sure.
P.S. Look at us looking all cute above with the menu’s ↑ The goods →
Day Two –
The Proposal.
Now this is the day it’s about to go down! So of course we had a little sleep in. A little too much wine the night before and a comfy AF bed ensured we snoozed until mid morning. We then took some photos of us pretending to read magazines after seeing someone else do it on Instagram. Classic! Once we decided to roll out of bed and actually want to do something I had a few other surprises up my sleeve for this day.
Surprise
No.1
Head over to Surry Hills to another favourite of ours for breakfast. Paramount Coffee Project. We always go for the coffee shake and fried chicken waffles. I was a little adventurous this weekend with food and trying new things, so choose this. Image to the right. Don’t ask me what it was or what was in it, but it was seriously tasty. However, I don’t think it could knock off the old faithful – chicken and waffles. After we stuffed our face again we decided to walk back through the streets of Surry Hills to work off breakfast. I had a little bit of running around to do after breakfast so had to plan my attacked to make sure Case was unaware of what was really happening.
↑ STREET PHOTOGRAPHY OF COOL BUILDING / DETAILS OF THE OLD CLARE HOTEL ↓
The
Secret
Mission
Okay. Now this is where things start to get interesting. As previously mentioned I didn’t have a ring, and at this stage I also didn’t have the ring. I had organised to pick it up from across town via a stockist of Aristides Fine Jewels called Watson X Watson in Paddington. The girls had it ready to go and all I had to do was scoot across town to pick it up. This was going to be fun as Sydney traffic is a nightmare. Not only this, but how the hell was I going to do this without Casey wondering what was going on. Luckily enough I already told her not to ask me about anything that weekend and that I was going to pick her up a surprise! She also decided she was going to have a bath and a little snooze around midday once we got back to the hotel as well. WINNING!!!
So off I went to tackle the crazy traffic and parking. It actually wasn’t too bad on the way and managed to snag a park not far either from the store. So far so good. After having a little chat and getting nervous and excited. We went to check out the rings. There were quite a few she had for me to view. We opened half a dozen boxes and I couldn’t see the one I was after. OMG! Everything I had planned was now up in the air if I didn’t have the ring! Thankfully after a few calls and some investigating it was another set of boxes that we didn’t check and I could breathe easy. We found it! Hooray. Happy dance. The ring was gorgeous and exactly what I was after. Something smaller, petite, rose gold and unique. I was super happy with my choice.
Job done. Ring acquired. Now onto stage B of this plan, to get an actual surprise so that she believed it was a surprise that I was picking up. So I headed to the other side of town to Mr Cook Flowers. Terrible idea, only because the traffic was ridiculous. What was suppose to be an hour trip to collect everything turned into nearly 3 hours. I’m just lucky Case managed to snooze her little head off the entire time. It was only on the way back from picking up the gorgeous flowers that Case called to check in. Perfect! Everything worked to plan and I surprised Case with flowers. Disguise mission accomplished!
↑ CASE LOOKING GORGEOUS AS ALWAYS / SO PUNCHING!!! ↓
Night Two –
Ventuno,
Walsh Bay.
Case was originally going to not dress up tonight and go more casual. But I had to twist her arm without looking like I was up to something. I told her to put something nice on as the restaurant was a little fancy. We then caught a cab across the city to Walsh Bay to Ventuno where we had a table overlooking this amazing view. The setting was absolutely perfect! We finished up a little earlier than planned for dinner catching sunset but it wasn’t quite dark enough as there was still people running around being all fit and shit. Go home people! I needed some privacy. So we stayed for another wine and maybe for me to get a little extra courage. It was at this point I went to the bathroom to hide the rings in my pocket. You heard right. I bought 3 rings. Why? Because I can. We wrapped up and I asked Case to come for a little walk along the piers to check out the view and the harbour bridge.
CASE ACTUALLY WANTED TO TAKE THE SHORT CUT AND MISS OUT THIS PART. AGAIN I HAD TO CONVINCE HER IT WILL BE WORTH IT ↓
Everything I had planned was leading up to this moment. I was excited more than anything. I wasn’t scared or nervous. I was just so pumped to ask Casey to marry me! We stood there for a bit overlooking the harbour and how pretty it was whilst cuddling into each other. Just before we decided it was to time go! I told Case I had one more surprise. At first she thought it was a helicopter ride like on Fifty Shades of Grey. No seriously! She really did. But I got down on one knee and asked Case to be my wife! I told her I loved her and that I wanted to spend everyday for the rest of my life together. She said are you serious, followed by a yes!!! To which be both cried our eyes out hugging one another. It wasn’t until 5 minutes later that we stopped crying that she asked about the ring. It was dark and she couldn’t see it. So we walked over into the light to check it out. There was a surveillance camera above as we were checking it out and we got a little silly pretending to show off the ring. Once we finished mucking around we took a few photos to mark the day I asked Case to be Mrs Sac.
OMG!
She said YES!
Oh yeah!
Happy Dance!
Yeah The Sacs!
↑ STOKED TO SAY THE LEAST / CELEBRATORY ENGAGED SELFIES! ↓
WAKING UP ENGAGED. YAY! ↓
SHOWING OFF THE BLING ↓
And that’s how it all went down people.
Our Engagement Story!
