[engaged in the D] Agnes and Ken – Engaged in Corktown

I was so excited to hear from Agnes, the photographer from the LoveintheD + Peacock Room vintage wedding photoshoot, recently! She and Ken recently became engaged.

Below is the proposal story, as told by Ken:

From the beginning of our relationship, Agnes has been showing me around the city. I’ve lived in and around Detroit most of my life, but I never fully appreciated it. On top of that, she’s an artist (a photographer); she sees the world through a different lens. And, through her lens, I’ve seen things I’ve never seen before. There’s beauty all around Detroit, and I’ve been missing out. I’m grateful to her for opening my eyes.

One of her great loves is for the graffiti around the city (something we now share). So, when thinking of a way to propose to her, her love for the city and her love of graffiti led to the grand idea of “tagging” my proposal to her somewhere downtown. There was, however, one minor problem: I have NO artistic ability. None. Whatsoever. So, to approach this seemingly insurmountable problem, I did what any left-brain person would do: I researched, organized and planned my way through it. After all of that, one cold Fall night, after the bars had closed, I went downtown and sacrificed a night of sleep to try to impress my girlfriend enough to say “yes”. She would NOT have been impressed with how ridiculous I looked (ski mask, thermal gear, miner’s light, the whole nine yards).

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The result of all of this work can be found in a 40-foot strip in the parking lot just south of Mercury Burger Bar in Corktown. Corktown was where we had our second date, and many dates since. Good restaurants, good vibe, up and coming. It’s a microcosm of all of the good that’s going on in the city. If we’re not in our home towns, that’s likely where you’ll find us. Now, my heart was in the right place, but I did vandalize that parking lot.

So, in trying to make things right, I reached out to the owner of the lot, who is also the owner of Slows Bar-B-Q and told him what I had done. I expected a harsh reprimand, but what I got was graciousness. He was more concerned about Agnes’s answer to my proposal than he was about his lot. Needless to say, through that act of kindness, Slows Bar-B-Q has won itself two patrons for life.

By the way, she said yes.
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Meet Dana & Joe – Engaged in the D

I am excited to introduce a new guest LoveintheD blogger – Dana! She and Joe were engaged on June 8 and have started to plan their Detroit wedding. Dana is also a Detroit blogger: check out the Miss Detroit blog!

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Dana shares the engagement story:

For months, I had been pestering Joe about getting engaged, or at least getting a hint for when he was planning to do it. He kept putting me off, telling me he couldn’t afford it now and it would happen when the time was right. Even our friends kept telling me that he was trying hard to save his money and that I needed to be patient. They did such a great job at convincing me that it wouldn’t happen for another year or two, so I began to settle down. Little did I know, they were all in on the planning…

The week leading up to Saturday, June 8th, Joe kept asking if I would go for a walk with him on the Dequindre Cut when I got off of work at my weekend retail job, where I was schedule to work Saturday afternoon. Since I knew I would be on my feet for six straight hours, I was not committing to this walk he had been trying to plan.

The day of June 8th, Joe begged me to call into work and take the afternoon off to spend with him, but I insisted on going.  When I arrived home that evening, Joe asked again if I wanted to go for a walk on the Dequindre Cut, and I finally relented. We began a nice stroll where Joe kept mentioning the murals along our walk. We approached one that he said was his favorite, and knowing that I was brainstorming for blog posts on Miss Detroit, asked if he could take my photo in front of this mural.

Once I was standing in front of the mural and had turned around to face him, I saw Joe with his phone out, as though he was going to take my picture, but there was a white box in his hand. I realized he was recording the moment, when he kept his phone up and got down on one knee. I was shocked as I heard the words I’d been longing to hear exit his mouth: “Will you marry me?”

Of course, I said yes! Afterward, he instructed me to call my parents, who were waiting to hear from me and planning to have dinner with us. Joe also mentioned that after dinner we would be meeting our friends for drinks at the Old Miami. It still puts a big smile on my face to think about this amazing evening he surprised me with!

We are still in the process of setting a date; because we love Detroit so much, location rather than date is more important to us. We want to provide our guests with a uniquely Detroit wedding experience that will exemplify our love for the city and each other.

Readers: Share your Detroit engagement stories in the comments section!

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