The Proposal

Prologue:
Friday, January 18, 2013
Still sleepy, with only a cup of coffee in Jan's tummy, she left home and faced the US embassy. Afraid, she prayed that whatever the results will be, she'll accept it cheerfully. At around 7:30am, she left the US embassy smiling and giddy with the thoughts "I'm getting engaged this year!"
It has always been JR's words to tell Jan "you better get that Visa or the proposal will happen over FaceTime" #pressure.

What, When, How, Who:
Friday, February 22, 2013
Tired from the previous day's island hopping and just recovering from food poisoning (JR) and fever (Jan), the "Palawan Crew" decided to just enjoy El Nido and roam around the island doing their own. That day, we skipped island hopping. We had breakfast at a nearby native restaurant with the gang sharing what's the plan for the day.
At around 2pm, when power was on at the whole town of El Nido, we decided to get all prepped up for our romantic dinner at a nearby island. Since we weren't able to do such during our first year anniversary in Puerto Princesa, we asked help from our friends Veronica and KZ to set up what I thought was just a dinner.
4pm sharp, the Palawan Crew headed to Aplaya Restaurant where a boat will pick them up while JR and I did our final touches - me on my make up and JR on his outfit. 5pm sharp, we then left the hotel and headed to the same restaurant. The moment we got there, the "ate" who was waiting for us said "Ay Ma'am kayo po ba yung pupunta sa island" with all smiles that left me wondering. I ignored the happy and seemingly overly excited Ate and just said "ay opo". We waited by the shore til our boat and bangkeros arrived.
Since we planned our outfit for that dinner, I didn't want my dress to get wet right away. (Kase may photoshoot pa kami, haha!). I was surprised that the Manongs were extra concerned about my concerns. When we got to the island, I was like "wow guys, thanks!" We were the only ones in the island. :)

JR and I kept dancing. Seriously, I got a bit conscious coz I knew our friends Alan and Veronica were "documenting" our moments. By the 3rd time JR asked me to dance, I realized he wasn't swaying that much, I thought maybe he just wanted to enjoy the view. 

Yes, and I thought it was just a romantic dinner. I went along with everything. The food was great, but I couldn't remember how good it was because after he knelt down in front of me and said how much he would love to spend the rest of his life with me I traveled to a different world. I thought I was just hearing things in a dream! I couldn't say yes right away because I was just speechless. I was in tears. I was feeling so much joy and love that a guy proposed to me. It took me a while before I said yes, not because I didn't wanna say yes, but because I WANNA SAY YES that I thought a simple utter of that word is an understatement.

There was a whole lot more that happened after this day. We had a few more weeks left in our vacation, but this was something that has always been fresh in my memory. It's been months since it happened but it seemed like it happened just a few minutes ago.

The Palawan Crew

Alan (photographer friend), Karen and Aileen (cousins and assistant to Alan), Andrew (ring bearer), Veronica (videographer and co-mastermind)

"always and forever"

picture taken day after the proposal

And I thought proposal was gonna happen in LA! Little did I know, it was on May 2012 when JR started communicating with Veronica about "the plan" which didn't need a US visa at all.
- Jan

//Update
Sharing with you the official proposal video! :)