Love

Fly me to the moon - Engagement story

I bet you have already read Joy's side of the story. On my end, I’d been a bit nervous(to put it very mildly) about how to propose and when to do it in a memorable manner, in keeping with my self-imposed standards. I couldn’t accept doing something remotely similar to what anyone else had done. I have been told I've set the bar high. Well, now it's up in the air, literally. :)

I knew that I’d propose during our trip to the US but I had hoped it could be while we were on the cruise, as we had several ports of call; from Mexico to the Bahamas. I didn’t know exactly how I was going to do it but I kept an open mind for it and said that I’d know it when I saw it. I also knew that my love wanted an intimate experience, without people present in that moment to take off any pressure and have a memory just for the two of us.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, I’d resolved to do it in the Bahamas with some dolphins ( based on her reaction when we saw some dolphins in the Cayman Islands; she was like a kid in a candy store) and have them trained to present her a ring but as I was forming up that plan, our captain on the cruise ship announced that due to a terrible storm, we would not dock in the Bahamas. I was mildly distressed. I now had to pivot again and hatch another plan, without telling my best friend and love, who I could tell was starting to get low-key anxious as she was “anticipating” the proposal anytime soon.

The one day I thought I’d just do it in a simple way was a night she was in a beautiful red dress and we were taking photos on the concourse, just the two of us. I’d rationalised that since we were onboard a cruise ship, sailing in the middle of Cuba, Bahamas and Jamaica, that this would be a unique location and it would be okay! Thank God it didn’t happen that way, for dramatic reasons too. 😂

I’d resolved that I was going to pop the question that day, but but but, I’d left the ring in our room. I then coaxed my dear beloved into going back to the room (to do something I can’t remember) and that’s when I picked the ring up stealthily and we were on our way out. As fate would have it, as we approached the concourse, we got into a bit of an argument. Don't ask why she got mad at me, hehe, but just know my plan was ruined, AGAIN! I then started to get anxious about the proposal as we seemed to be up against so many odds. Interestingly, before the trip, I’d “jokingly” told my dear not to be mad at me at any point during the trip because she may get pissed at me on the day I was to propose and ruin the plans 😂 Prophetic much!

Anyways, with that plan out of the window, the cruise angle was gone and now my only hope was in Miami, where we would have a few days stay before travelling back home.  We had other activities planned for the rest of the week and this left us with Friday, the last day of the trip (according to our planned itinerary), to pop the question.

Curious Joy kept asking me if I had any special plans, wink wink, and I had to keep calm as I told her to trust me. I'm sure she was smelling a rat as she anticipated the proposal on this trip and had protected her nails from any damage the entire trip for 'any surprise'. Sadly, she broke one nail on the last leg of the trip, on her right hand, and God knows how she walked me through Mexico (once we docked there) , looking for nail glue. Our women are quite something!

I knew that I had to do it before the week's end and I had been praying to God all through the trip to give me wisdom on how to do it. I asked Him to reveal to me a way that would be memorable. Around then, I came up with the idea of proposing on a hot air balloon over Miami, so I looked for where to get one but couldn’t quite find it. Luckily, what I did find were helicopter and private plane tours of Miami. I didn’t want to even think of a helicopter, even though it’s the most Miami Vice thing ever, because of the memory of Kobe, so I chose to do it via private plane.

I did the logistics and confirmed all this on Monday while at Miami Beach where I was seeing the flights going over Miami. At least I’d finally figured it out, this was a massive weight off of my shoulders. During the week, I didn’t even bother looking out for other ideas as I’d settled on the most memorable way I’d do it.

Fast forward to Friday! The Uber ride to the airport was 30 minutes as of the Thursday night when I’d checked so I had timed ourselves, knowing we had to be at the airport by 4:30pm when we would be given a briefing and start the flight at 5pm, which would be their last flight of the day.

When I ordered the Uber and put in the location at 4pm after shopping, it was saying 1 and a half hours to our destination!!!!! By the time we would reach, it would be the time our flight was to end!! And as if that wasn’t enough pressure, I’d kept it till the very end and if we had not been able to do it then, we wouldn’t do it because we were to leave Miami the following morning. There would be no other time to pivot and find a new idea as we would be on a long flight back home the next morning.

I texted Renata, who was our service provider, and informed her about our delay and unfortunate traffic situation, which she totally understood, being a Miami resident. She was totally cool and calm about it and reassured me saying, “We are here for you, don’t worry.” Those words were like the words of an angel at that moment because I knew I’d messed up with my timing, having not anticipated Friday evening traffic that is universal.

Also, I’d purposely thrown my dear off my scent, by acting as if I’d unintentionally said something about my plans for that day when I said we’d be on something like a boat that passed us by as we roamed the streets of Downtown Miami, later that day... which obviously was not true. But I didn’t want her to even think she knew what I was up to! It worked beautifully.

Also, the way God works, had we been on time, we wouldn’t have had the pleasure of viewing the most beautiful sunset. But because of our delay, we were perfectly poised to see the most beautiful and most memorable sunset of our lives. Of course, God showed out on that day because He too knew how big a deal it was!

In keeping with the special nature of that day, before we took off, the plane was retrofitted with a GoPro to record the flight and the special moment. This was really cool and thoughtful, helping us to have that moment captured for eternity. Imagine such favour... that it was done for the first time on that flight for us! And the beautiful video thereafter was evidence of how loved we are.

As we took off, I knew that when we would land back at the airport, I’d be an engaged man. We took off smoothly and my mind was working overtime trying to find the perfect spot.

As we flew over downtown Miami, I remembered that I’d gotten the idea for this proposal while we were down at Miami Beach and so I knew that I’d propose while we were flying over the beach. I somehow figured that I’d get Joy to help me take a video of her side of the view, since she was facing the beach and I was facing the open ocean. So, as she stretched to get the perfect video, I pulled out the ring from my jacket pocket and waited for her to look back at me.

She exclaimed and did a little shocked jump, which was a sign that I’d properly surprised her and she hadn’t seen it coming. That in itself was a win for me, if nothing else, because I pride myself on being the only person capable of surprising my bestie.

Even as I knew that I’d be proposing on this trip, I sadly didn’t have a prepared speech to give her when the moment arrived, a testament to my planning prowess or lack thereof, where I focused on the how to propose but not on what to say as I propose, yikes 😬 Anyhoo, I spoke from the heart and all I remember is asking my bestie to marry me and for us to spend all our days together, to grow old and toothless together, to which she promptly and enthusiastically said yes, with a caveat that I’d be the only one getting toothless.

The weight of the world was finally off of my shoulders and our pilot Valentina was the first to congratulate us, having listened in to everything 😬 which made me a bit shy but oh well. To be honest, I don’t remember what happened next on the tour as we were just looking at the ring and taking photos together to celebrate the moment, just the 2 of us.

Upon landing, the tour guide/ organiser came and congratulated us, encouraging us to just take the quintessential kneeling down proposal photo outside the plane for posterity.

I knew I’d pulled it off when I heard her narrating the story to her friends and family, hearing how she was so proud of it all and that’s when I could let out a relieved sigh. Now, on to the next chapter of our never-ending love story; MARRIAGE! I’m so excited for this, to say the least... but more on that to follow, in due time!

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“The man who sanctifies his wife understands that this is his divinely ordained responsibility… Is my wife more like Christ because she is married to me? Or is she like Christ in spite of me? Has she shrunk from His likeness because of me? Do I sanctify her or hold her back? Is she a better woman because she is married to me?” — R. Kent Hughes  

by Mueni Muli

Our engagement story!

“You find people in your life who love you. And what those people do is, because they love all of you, even your flaws, is they give you permission even to love yourself.” Viola Davis

I resonate with this quote as I am glad that I found the one I love, and that we will be tying the knot soon. Here’s the story of how he popped THE question. (This is my version of the story as I muse here on the blog [after being away for a while]. Stay tuned to the next blog post where he will share his side of the story. )

Let’s start from way back. As a young girl, I don’t think I had ever built castles in the air about what my engagement day would look like. I didn’t know if I’d wanted a grand ceremony with family and friends around, or maybe an intimate session with my beloved. However, as I watched several engagement videos on social media over time, I figured that I would like it intimate and thoughtful. Memorable too. Being the planner that I am, I also had a Pinterest board with an idea of the ring I wanted. In rose gold. Not too flashy though. Classy and minimalist. Not a tall order huh? I know my fiancé is quite the statement-maker. His grand ideas never cease to amaze me. But I surely didn’t see this coming.

It was our last day of a family trip and we were busy trying to gather all the things up and pack for the long journey back home. I had plans to go to the grocery store and buy spices we don’t have back home (you can see where my priorities were, in the kitchen 😂) Anyway, he told me to keep my afternoon open and I had a gut feeling to dress well, coz you know, anything could happen. Wink wink!

While walking around the streets of downtown Miami, we came across a bridge over a mainstream river before it joined the ocean. A yatch was passing by and we stood by looking at it.

Hosea quipped, "that’s like the one we’re going to be in later today.”

"Oh really!" I thought..."must be nice!"

I kept quiet incase I betrayed my excitement. I could picture the ocean breeze blowing through my hair as we rode through the sea, into the sunset. Haha jokes on me, it was all a decoy! We finished the shopping and got into an Uber that took us to a destination. It was supposed to be a 40 minute ride.

“Eh...where are we going?" I asked, my curiosity rising.

“Calm down. Don't worry! You’ll just see.” He said.

“Okay Joy," I told myself, “you need to be patient and not ruin the surprise.”

I sat quietly and later dozed off during the journey, waking up about 30 minutes later. Hosea kept texting someone saying we were going to be late. I could see him breaking a cold sweat as we made our way through traffic. I felt for him as indeed, the traffic was terrible that Friday afternoon, yet here we were working on American time. Where 5 pm is 5 pm sharp. Africans must have truly thrown their clocks ⏰ out somewhere. Hehe, no shade…but my fellow Africans, we need to work on our timeliness. Myself included.

I could see on the Uber driver's maps that we were inching closer to the location. Although, it didn’t have any water body around. You can imagine what was running through my mind. “But didn’t he say earlier that…”

Anyway, I complied and sat pretty. We got to the location, Miami Executive Airport.

“Wow, okay, what are we doing here? What’s this man up to? Interesting! “

“Welcome my love, “ Hosea said, as he stretched his hand out to help me out of the car and into the main office. The manager welcomed us and told us that she understood our tardiness, Friday traffic was usually bad. She then went on to introduce us to their company dealing with private chartered flights, of which we were going to get our own, to look at the sunset view.

It then dawned on me. On the first day in Miami, Hosea had looked up at the setting sun, painted in wonderful hues of orange and pink, and mentioned that he would love to watch a sunset up close and personal before he left. Now here we were fulfilling that dream. I should have seen this coming!

We signed a few forms and were introduced to our very young pilot, Valentina. I was blown away by her youth and that she was a woman! Girl power activated! We took a few pictures and then boarded the plane after safety instructions. The plane took off and up and away we went. It was surreal. The Miami skyline was beautiful, although there was cloud cover that day. We passed over the busy Miami downtown, Millionaire’s Row with massive homes for the wealthy, the Miami Beach ...all breathtaking.

Hosea asked me to take a video of the skies on my side of the window and as I turned back to hand the phone back to him, there I saw a ring. He had a whole speech, which to be honest, I can’t remember! Except where he asked me to be his wife, and where he said we’d grow old and toothless together to which I responded..."you'll be toothless alone! I will have a full set of teeth!" Haha... and of course I said yes! 😃

We got back to land and did the quintessential picture of him on his knees, and thereafter, took a few moments to take it all in. The views. The moment in the skies. Wow! Isn't God good! We got back home and told family the great news and also called friends to share the news! It really was magical and I’m glad we have some pictures to share.

The journey to the altar has been quite something so far, and all in all, we look forward to the goal of being together forever. To my love, Hosea. Ni we mtima wange, nakupenda sana.

Engagement shoot credits:

Photography & Creative Direction: @samorashoots and @michajsr

Location: Naishola Gardens, Limuru. ( It is such a dreamy and serene place to be, amidst tea farms and the chilly Tigoni weather.)

Shoutout to my amazing dear friend, Samora who did these engagement photos, with her able assistant, my brother Michael. You can check out their pages and engage them for photography/videography work...I highly endorse! They made the photoshoot so much fun and I thank God that we had the honor of them doing the shoot for us.

Should I say styling by me? Yes. Styling by Mueni Muli. Fashion enthusiast. But for real, thanks to Hosea who was a darling during our video calls planning outfits for the shoot. I'm starting to see us in those matching couples outfits because tell me why we had so many complementary colours in our closets? Its the earth tones for me!

Stay tuned for Hosea's version of the story on the next blogpost.

Until next time,

Sola gratia (Grace alone) 

by Mueni Muli