First day in Mexico and jetlag worked in my favour because naturally we woke up early, and Aimi suggested we go to watch the sunrise over the beach. This was awesome because today was the day and this would make the perfect moment.
On the beach, we arrived in the dark and, I spent some time faffing around with the camera to try and get photos of the sunrise. I set it on a timer to take a photo every 10 seconds so we could be silhouettes in front of the sun surrounded by Palm trees, sea and sand. When in position, we stood there, kissing and holding hands in the warm, shallow water, it was super romantic after all. I then knelt down in the sea, barely containing in my nervous shaking, and completely oblivious to my wet knee, and popped the question, “Will you marry me?”
She said “Yes!”
And now I’m a proud fiance to the most beautiful, funny and wonderful girl in the world.
It was the perfect setup, made even more so because I hadn’t had to awkwardly contrive any of it! I knew I wanted to ask early in the holiday, to enjoy the rest of it in romantic bliss, and that Aimi would have hated it being done in front of a jeering crowd. We had the whole beach to ourselves and when she put on the ring we were both crying with happiness! Yes yes, go vomit somewhere else, this is a sickeningly romantic blog post, get over it!
As the sun rose on our first day betrothed to be wed, we wandered along the beach, hands clasped, and explored the hotel complex. We spent some time being excited about our news with cocktails by one of the pools until Tui started their intro meeting. A few of the excursions sounded good and we tried to book them while eating lunch on the beach. A burger with big fat juicy shrimp for me and chicken enchiladas for Aimi which were so amazing I think we will be eating there often.
The week ending October and starting November contains Dia de los Muertos, Day of the Dead. By the beach grill we were eating at, there were lots of incredibly dressed up Mexicans doing face painting for the guests. There was also a large display and chairs set out for Tequila tasting. Unfortunately we arrived just too late for the face painting but got stuck into the Tequila tasting. Aimi was a pro (maybe its how she’s managed 4 years with me so far?) and knocked them back without squinting. I managed 2 and a bit and couldn’t do any more. I’ll have the odd tequila on a night out, but I prefer Rum.
Now, feeling quite sauced, we lounged by the beach and did a bit of snorkeling, before going back to the room to get ready for dinner. While we had been having lunch, a rep collared us and offered dinner on the beach in our own private tipi thingy. We had seen them on our wanderings and, being a special occasion, we took them up on the offer. It was a very romantic setting, right out on the beach so we dressed up and enjoyed the end of our engagement day together. Looking into each others eyes, under the moon and stars we enjoyed the romantic music and watched (what we thought) was Jupiter, Saturn and Venus work their way towards the horizon.
After dinner, the other end of jet lag was kicking in and while the Day of the Dead festivities were getting started, we were knackered. We stuck around to see the start of the show, wafting incense around in their skeletal costumes, but soon had to head home to bed.
Photo of nearly the moment of proposal.