I am so excited to announce the engagement of Jon Vogel and Laura Knight, I personally know this couple and they are just so right for each other. Laura tells Secret Wedding Blog about their journey so far…

How they met

They have been together just over 4 and a half years and met through Facebook!

” Jon was in Afghanistan with Bill Wortley at the time, apparently they were looking at photos of me and Bill. Then Bill told Jon to add me on Facebook- we were talking for probably 5 months before we met, then started sending each other parcels and letters!”

The Proposal

Jon proposed 4 days before he was deployed again to Afghanistan. My dad had booked us a room at Dunstan hall so we could spend some time together before he went. We had a relaxing afternoon in the spa and then had a walk around the hotel, after eating chocolates and drinking wine in the hotel room we went for dinner.

During our meal I pointed to a man proposing to his girlfriend, so I started to tell Jon I didn’t want a quick up and down proposal and that I thought fireworks would be best!! Haha

After dinner we went back to the room where Jon persisted to ask me to come for a walk as it was cold and dark I said no! Probably about three times, in the end I stomped down the corridor after agreeing to go just to shut him up!

We walked up the terrace and we were talking and I turned around to find Jon on his knee with the most beautiful ring,  my response to “Will you marry me?” was….are you serious!!! Haha

He then told me how he had taken my mum and dad out separately to ask for my hand in marriage! Cute!

I was in shock as I had expected an engagement within the next 6 months or so but thought he would wait until after his tour of Afghan! I had to ask my mum if I was old enough to get married!

Jon’s story

Okay so I’ve told people face to face how it was proposing to my now - fiancée, but putting it in writing is very different. With a tour of Afghanistan looming, and knowing that I 100% wanted to propose, I had to find a good time in amongst all the training to do it. A time that didn’t feel bodged together and rushed. So when we decided to book a night at a hotel before I left, I thought that it would be perfect.

Turns out it was far from that, but that in itself made it perfect.

Choosing the ring and asking for permission

Picking the ring was easy, it was the first one I saw, but I still managed to get into a panic and compare it to at least 10 others, yet going back to the original. I had previously managed to get time off work to meet up with her parents on separate occasions, I wanted to do this right and make sure they were both as happy as I was with my decision, after an interesting conversation with her dad and brother, and a shock for her mum, I had everything I needed.

The night of the Proposal

So the night, well,  we were sitting at the table eating a lovely meal, had the ring in pocket, I was thinking about doing it there and then. Laura gets me to turn around only to witness a man down on one knee asking the question, to which she says “I don’t want my proposal to be like that, up and down in a second, I want a weekend of delights, I want fireworks!”

So now I’m panicking, she couldn’t have said anything worse, but, I knew that I had to do it before I left for 6 months, and on this night. So after much persuasion, I convinced her to come outside, hoping that all the gardens would be lit up, no such joy. Earlier in the day I had spied a balcony, and it was staring me in the face, it had to be the place. It was lit up, with views over a barely moonlit expanse of gardens, I gave an embarrassing, but brief speech and proceeded to get down on one knee. A short silence and a few tears followed, from Laura might I add, and the words I needed to hear! Since then I’ve firmly believed it was the best decision I’ve made and the imperfection of everything building up to it made it perfect for us both, well, that’s what she tells me.

A few fireworks might have topped it off nicely!

Something special

After their engagement, Laura went the little extra and had a personalised tattoo on her ring finger. It’s the end of jons service number as he is RAF regiment and is a corporal based at RAF Honington.

Save the date

Laura and Jon will be tying the knot on Saturday 6th September 2014 and I can’t wait to blog about their wedding, which will be nothing less than fabulous!