Last week my best friend returned from England engaged! My best friend since childhood, she met her fiancé on a cruise in the Mediterranean. He is English, and they dated long distance for more than two years.

Her fiancé had called me a month ago to show me her ring and how he planned to propose, so it was a tough month keeping it a secret from her. It was totally worth it, however, for when she FaceTimed me showing her beautiful ring, her joy and excitement were contagious.

He proposed to her in Budapest on a quick trip from England, with the sunrise in the background against the historic buildings. This meant, of course, that when she returned, a few of us wanted to plan a little surprise welcome home to celebrate her engagement. We knew she would be happy to be home.

So my other friend and I came to her house and set up a small table of cake, chips and dip, wine, flowers and a gift. My friend put together a lovely floral arrangement and purchased a custom wedding planner as a gift, as she is also engaged and raved about her own wedding planner to ease the planning stress. I baked a lemon raspberry cake with lemon buttercream.

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We knew she’d be jet-lagged, but we also knew she wanted to revel in her news, so we didn’t tell her we were at her house. When she came through the door, we popped up from behind her kitchen island. I got the whole thing on video.

It was a lovely, relaxed evening hearing about her time in England and Hungary, and I cannot wait for her wedding (and my other friend’s wedding, too!)

— Aoife O’Riordan, associate editor