When you get engaged in a sorority (or at least in my sorority!) there is an event called a candlelight that the entire house of 110 girls gets excited for... here is how it works and my experience at my candlelight:
After getting engaged on February 14th (a Wednesday) I was unable to share it with any of my best friends and sisters because i wanted to keep it a surprise for my candlelight. I spent Wednesday night celebrating with Josh and his mom and Betsy of course!. On Thursday I avoided everyone, i'm known for wearing my emotions on my sleeve, and my best friends can see right through me. In order to set up the candlelight we have a girl in charge of the rituals at our house and i had to get ahold of her. Luckily she was one of my good friends in the house but i also knew that she would know my voice if i called her. SO in an effort to be super sneaky I had a girlfriend from another sorority call her and inform her that the Zeta house would be having a candlelight Thursday night after Greys.
After my classes were done, and i worked out, and did everything i could think of to stay out of the house I had to return to watch Greys Anatomy with the girls. While still holding my fancy clutch from the night before that had the ring in it i sat in our TV lounge and watched our weekly show together. The show was a very emotional episode and had everyone in the room in tears... except me:) Cheesy Caroline sat there holding her clutch with the ring with a big smile across her face. Although my friends did notice the difference in my actions they did not think anything of it.
Once the house got the email that there was a candlelight, instant chatter went up with who was the next engaged girl. Considering the 7+ seniors that are currently in long term relationships and very close to their own candlelight they were the main runners. My name did get brought up and i denied it of course. As the day went on I made numerous announcements to groups of girls that "It is me that is engaged and it is my candlelight" which by then my friends replied to me "Stop it Caroline we know it is not you"! My plan worked and I was currently out of the running for the candlelight.
After Greys ended we all stood up and walked down. After hours and hours trying to figure out who the lucky girl was everyone had concluded that it must be a senior that no one really knows and no one was excited to attend the candlelight (except me of course). So while some girls stayed upstairs to finish getting ready for the evening, some grumbled about having to even go down to the candlelight, while i quickly ran down there full of excitement and nerves!!
The way the candlelight works is we all sit in a circle while we pass a candle around the circle and sing a special song called "My Zeta Man" the first time the candle makes it way around the circle it is for "friendship". The second time it makes it around the circle it is for if a guy lavaliers his girlfriend ( saying he puts her on the same level as his brothers in his house). Once the candle starts its third trip around the circle all of the girls get really excited because they know that the girl who blows out the candle is the one that is engaged and no one knows who to expect!! So with everyone in the circles eyes glued on the seniors area the candle starts its third trip around the circle. I was 1/3 of the way around the circle and when they candle got to me i did what i had to do and blew it out.
The reactions at first were funny... my best friend next to me told me to light it again and that it was a mean joke. The rest of the house took about 5 seconds to just sit and stare trying to put the picture together. After they realized that i was the one engage a loud uproar went up across the girls. Instantly everyone was on their phone making those girls who stayed upstairs come down, some were calling pi kapps (Josh wasnt allowed to tell anyone until after the candlelight), some were calling their families who knew me. My best friends burst out in tears and could not believe that i kept it a secret from them. They realize that the surprise was worth it but they were shocked and excited.
After everyone knew it was me, i could finally pull out the BEAUTIFUL ring that i had been carrying around with me and i stood up on a chair to tell the engagement story with my sisters. I could honestly not imagine not being able to share this experience with all of my sisters. Their excitement made my engagment so much better!! Everyone wanted to see the ring and after all of the jumping around and story telling everyone went upstairs and declared we were all going out to celebrate!!
By this time everyone had been called at Pi Kapps and all of the guys were running into Josh's room congratulating him! Once we were all ready at Zeta our first stop ofcourse was at Pi Kapps. The girls ran in singing "Going to the Chapel" and made quite a bit of noise throughout the pi kapp hallways! We celebrated there for awhile and then headed out in Bloomington to tell the town of my engagement:) It was by far the best experience of my life and i am blessed to have the best fiancee and most wonderful friends in my life!
Looking back my friends admitted that i was acting weird all day considering i was wearing my sweatpants all day and still carrying my dressy clutch purse from the night before. During Greys i sat with the clutch in my hand clicking it compulsively open and shut out of my nerves where they all told me numerous times to stop doing!! They knew i was avoiding them and im glad i did, i dont think i would be able to keep it a secret from them. The next night my best friends Lindsey and Kendall went out and bought me my first Bridal magazines and sat in watching the movie My Best Friends Wedding (corny .. i know.. but it was fun!)
