A N T I G U A ,  G U A T E M A L A

Last night Nick popped the question – we will be getting married!  Wedding plans are not quite in the works – we plan to finish the trip (sometime around December or January), and work on wedding plans in 2010.  I am beside myself and have been sobbing all night (happy tears).

We are staying at a beautiful house this week with Nick’s mom, and his cousin will be visiting too.  Nick and his mom have apparently been scheming for weeks now: Nick left me at the house last night to settle in and prepare for his mom’s arrival.  When he came back, he informed me that her flight was delayed and she would arrive the next morning.  But in reality, his mom, who transported the ring for him, was in a hotel in central Antigua, drinking margaritas with her soon-to-be-engaged son.

The ring is a one-of-a-kind piece of artwork, made by David Vrooman of Asheville, NC.  I saw a pair of silver earrings by Vrooman a couple years ago in an Asheville gallery, and Nick secretly bought them as a Valentine’s gift for the following year.  After loosing Vrooman’s card and help from a friend to locate Vrooman, Nick finally found him at the gallery while we were visiting Asheville at the beginning of our trip.  The ring has three pea pods, and is made of platinum and gold.  The pods, however, secretly hide antique diamonds passed down from Nick’s great-grandmother, that are only revealed from the inside of the ring (I have always insisted on a wedding ring sans diamonds… hey, a girl can drop hints!).

I’ll have more information up about Antigua in days to come, but as for today, I’ll be sipping on margaritas with Mezcal and fresh lime juice!

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For more information about renting a beautiful house in Guatemala, visit www.Antigua-Rentals.com.

For more information about Vrooman Designs, visit www.vroomandesigns.com.