The Full Story

As many of you will remember, I was very busy this spring with making a Regency suit of clothes for Brian the Engineer.  My fiendish plan was to ensure he can no longer use the excuse "But I have nothing to wear!" when I drag him along to future RSV events.  Little did I know that all the while I was sewing his waistcoat and tailcoat, he was planning a romantic surprise for me for when I completed his ensemble!

He was very systematic about it, too.  He casually mentioned back in February that we should get his friend Tammy to take some photos of the two of us sometime.  Then in April he scheduled the photo shoot for May 31 at Jamestowne, after he was favorably impressed by the scenery when we were there for the Pocahontas wedding.  Somewhere along the way he floated the idea that we both wear our Regency costumes for the shoot, which I was more than happy to go along with.

So on the appointed day we traveled to Jamestowne Island with Brian's son Jordan and of course our awesome photographer Tammy.  All photos in this post are by Tammy Bruce, unless otherwise noted.

First, after our journey, we had to primp a bit.

I fastened Brian's cuffs (which don't have buttons yet - shhhhh!) for him (with safety pins)

And he kindly held a mirror for me to fix my hair

Then we started off on a leisurely stroll around the island.

Stopping wherever we felt would be particularly photogenic:

Tammy clearly had fun editing her favorite photos from the day.  I rather love this one, too.  :)  

We paused for some individual shots:

And some silliness:

And wound up at the Jamestowne Memorial Church, where we pretended to be ghosts:

Re-enacting is serious business.

Once inside the church, I was greeted by my first surprise of the day.  (There are no pictures of this part, sorry.)  My friend Stacy from the RSV was there with her son William, and seemed quite as surprised to see me as I was to see her.  I chatted with her a bit about Brian's costume and how well it turned out (Stacy was the one who lent me the patterns to make it, for which I am profoundly grateful!) and how good he looked in it.

Doesn't he look good?  Very pleased with himself, too.  That's because he knew what was coming.  

Then Tammy suggested we take some photos at the front of the church, so I said bye to Stacy and started getting ready for the next round of pictures.

But then Stacy came back.

She asked me if I'd been to this church before.

I said I had, as we had peeked inside briefly when we were there back in April.

Stacy said that William had found a letter, and it was addressed to me.

She gave me the letter.

I was very confused.

It was sealed with wax and addressed to me in flowing handwriting.  I turned to Brian and asked "Did you do this?"  He said nothing.  (Brian never says nothing.)

My heart pounding now, I opened the letter and began to read.

At the words "My Dearest Chelsea" I recognized Brian's handwriting.

I found out later that he had gotten together with Stacy the previous weekend - while I was in Iowa for my sister's college graduation - to use Stacy's dip pen, ink, paper, sealing wax, and seal to create a beautiful and elegant love letter for me to read.

At the end he wrote "Will you please be my wife?"

And when I looked up he was on his knee:

I said yes.  Obviously.  :p

I was a little emotional.

My beautiful aquamarine ring

The newly engaged couple

Tammy got a group shot of everyone outside the church:

William, Stacy, Brian, Jordan, and me

Then I had Stacy take one of us with Tammy, for proof that she was there.

Photo by Stacy Weissner

Then for some reason we felt the need to take more couple shots.  Maybe it was the goofy, giddy look on my face:

The End.




...Or the beginning.  

7/5/14 Edit:  I forgot to mention that I used Laughing Moon Mercantile pattern 122, and dark blue linen and half-bleached linen canvas (for interfacing) from Burnley & Trowbridge Company to make Brian's tailcoat, and Kannik's Korner pattern 4202 for his waistcoat. The top hat is an antique my dad bought at a flea market years ago, and the spectacles are from Colonial Williamsburg. Brian's boots are from ebay, and mine are from American Duchess, of course! The cummerbund is borrowed from Brian's dress uniform to disguise the fact that he's wearing modern pants, and everything else was made by me!