Phuong & Austin

Q: When did you first meet and how?

A: Phuong - We met (very briefly) at a local hangout called "Hole in the Wall," -- I was there with a few of my girlfriends, one was in town from Washington and that's where she wanted to go. I had ran into an old friend Nick, who I hadn't seen in almost a year and Austin was with him and Nick just quickly introduced us. It was a hi, nice to meet you and bye kind of thing. I honestly didn't remember what he looked like. I just remember his bright green bicep. LOL. My sister and her friends ended up meeting us at the bar and she met Austin also and she knew right then and there that Austin and I needed to hang out. She was so adamant. She took it into her own hands for it to happen. She told Nick to give Austin my number and Austin asked to see my Instagram first. He approved and messaged me that same night asking when we would be able to hang out.

Austin - We met at a local bar. It was just a quick hello, nice to meet you. Luckily, our friends were adamant about us going on a date with one another. They had us exchange numbers and we reacquainted with one another later that week over some ice cream.

Q: What about the design made you choose this ring to be the one?

A: Phuong -This is my DREAM ring. Everything about it says PJ. I had been back and forth in what I wanted my engagement ring to be but I decided a simple, classic, timeless look was it. I love the oval cut. The double claw prong captures my eyes. I don't see much of that everywhere. The rose gold band looks great on my skin tone :)

Austin - The design was all her--I used her sister to be my ring design spy.

Q: In each your own words, can you describe what the days leading up to the proposal were like? Can you tell us about the proposal? 

A: Phuong - We were getting ready for our Utah vacation with my family. Things were as normal. We packed our things, caught our flights. Talked about what we were going to do each day we were there. We had made plans to go zip lining at Sundance. I was really excited to do that but it wasn't what we ended up doing. We decided to take the gondola up to the top of Sundance mountain resort (I'm obsessed with mountains. Mountains over beaches any day! :)). My sister, her fiance Dom, Austin and I finally reached the top. We were taking in how beautiful the view was, snapping photos, laughing. We all walked over to a spot where there were less people and we could get our photos taken.

Austin wanted us to get ours and he stood behind me and wrapped his arms around me and asked "Do you know how long I've been planning this?" I replied with "Umm.. we've been planning this trip for months." and he said " No...do you know how long I've been planning this?" and he proceeds to turn me around and I see him getting down on one knee and I yell "SHUT UP." I can feel my eyes begin to well up and he pulls this ring out of his fanny pack and asks "Will you marry me?" I'm crying at this point, KIM K ugly crying, and I ask " Is this for real???" and of course I said,"Yes!!" He puts the ring on my finger and after I'm done crying a little bit, I examine the ring and say "This is the ring I wanted!" This was all in slow motion too I might add. LOL

Austin - For me, the days leading up to the proposal made me really nervous. I had been planning in for about 6 months, making sure that her family would all be there, figuring out the location and trying to distract her from thinking I was going to propose. I decided to take us to Sundance, UT and knew I wanted to do it on a mountain top. PJ loves the mountains and I knew that this would be a great spot to do it. We decided to take the gondolas up the mountain, she was trying really hard for us to do the ziplines. However, I wanted to do the proposal first and leave the ziplines to a different time. On our way up the mountain, I could feel the nerves really settling in. My heart was racing, I started to get quiet, which is odd for me. I am normally a very talkative person. We made it up the mountain and the spot where I wanted to do it was full of people. However, there was a different spot to which I actually liked more and was much more intimate.

I gave her sister and brother-in-law the cue to start taking pictures of us and filming. I stood behind her and began to whisper in her ear -- I told her I have been planning this for a long time, to which she responded, "We have been planning this vacation together, what are you talking about?" I found it funny, so I chuckled and asked her, if she knows how long I have been planning to have everyone here in this one spot? When she didn't know what to say, I turned her around and got on one knee. She immediately told me to "Shut up!" in shock and asked if this was real. I replied, "Yes" and asked her to marry me. She cried and in her tears of joy, she shook her head yes as I stood up to hug and kiss my future wife.

Q: How was your overall experience with Fire & Brilliance? How did you first hear about us?

A: Phuong - I had not heard of F&B prior to being engaged. My sister is the one who told me all the details about your company. Austin said you guys were great throughout the whole process.

Austin - The experience was awesome. Customer service was perfect and I would definitely recommend them to others.

Lastly, we wanted to ask something of each our clients (for yourself or for both of you to answer) to be featured a question that is unique to their story.

Q: If you could describe your partner as an astrological element, which would it be and why (fire, earth, air, water)?

A: Phuong - I would say Earth. He is grounded, real and reliable. He keeps me down to earth and level headed when I can't seem to get myself grounded.

Austin - Fire, because she warms my soul and heats my heart. She brings light into the darkest of my days, and illuminates my mind on things I could not see before.