The Emerald (Diamond) Isle (Aisle)

a short recollection storytelling + tiny love letter to my fiancé

Jun 20, 2025

Inis Fáil is an ancient name for Ireland meaning "Island of Destiny". haha, it must be then.

OH so there is currently a really crazy diamond ring that this kid placed on my ring finger! ??? GAH!

i’m floating, dreaming, scheming, smiling, kissing, tearing, embracing, wondering how we got here? and just where time has gone? and aren’t we still just seniors in high school sneaking love letters into each other’s lockers? what?

and thinking: have I been prepping to marry Jake since 2016? why, yes! and i’m pretty sure he has been too

by prepping I mean daydreaming of flowers and trees and oysters and colors and him at the end of the aisle

not calling churches and pulling linens and cake-considering and just staring at the shining thing on my finger 23 times an hour

but here we are, 3,227 days into our un-ignorable pull of love &

5 days into our engagement

and we are!

I must say – my dreams couldn’t even touch this if they tried.

✷ 　　　　 ·

　 ˚ * .

the view I won’t forget,

the one i’ll take with me when I poof into the clouds:

(they say you can’t take it with you but I know i’ll be allowed just this)

[his hand is clutching the ring in his right pocket like he previously had been for an hour while waiting for my family and I to show up on some randomly stunning Ireland beach that none of us had heard of until a day prior]

that’s called magic? right? ⋆⁺₊✧

let’s go over jake’s personal chunk of June 13-18, 2025 just for fun.

Friday, June 13 - drive Scranton to Philadelphia

Saturday, June 14 - drive Philadelphia to Washington, DC,

attend a friend’s wedding (the reason why I did NOT think his proposing to me in The freaking Emerald Isle was a possibility)

Sunday, June 15 - drive DC to Scranton, Scranton to Newark

Monday, June 16 - fly Newark to Ireland, train Dublin to Killiney Beach, wait for an hour on the beach, throw rocks at rocks while crisping in the bizarrely sunny Irish day, wait for his girlfriend to naively arrive with her family for a beach wander-venture

allow her to stumble into the perfect place in the perfect moment (happened flawlessly, naturally)

casually walk over, shock the SHIT out of her, get down on a knee to propose to his girlfriend of 9 years (who is screaming “NO!!!! NO WAY!!!!!”, then;

gf: “what are you doing??!?!?!?!”

bf: “what do you think i’m doing?”)

[and then she says yes]

freak out, group cry + jump + hug, smile so high it hurts,

celebrate with a family beach walk while his now-fiancé is trying to process what just happened and tame her lazily air-dried hair that was most definitely not engagement-prepped… and neither were her black baggy Levis… but that’s what makes her her and he loves her),

cheers a few pub Guinnesses,

clink backyard garden champagne and slice into Irish pizza with peppers into the night

Tuesday, June 17 - revel in it for a quick second,

have a latte on the Sandymount Beach with his fiancé of one day,

then Guinness & Atlantic seafood chowder -hop,

swirl and sleep in the not-yet-jetlagged-whimsy of it all

Wednesday, June 18 - fly Dublin to Reykjavík, Reykjavík to Newburgh (with his travel buddy; my father-in-law-to-be / one of my favorite men on this earth), drive Newburgh to Scranton

finally revel in it alone with his two-day fiancé, experiencing smiling cheek cramps together

(I kind of want to get the word revel tattooed on me now after having been so lucky to also experience that same exact June 16th)