JimDiamond
Shiny_Rock
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2004
- Messages
- 131
She said yes!!! Everything went according to plan. I concentrated on creating a romantic and memorable event without overcomplication and it worked out great. One surprise came the night before when she used my cell phone to call for food and she started to look through my call history. At first I thought nothing of it, but then I realized the caller ID might say so and so Jewelers (where I had the diamond set). I panicked a bit and she noticed. If she didn't trust me so much she might have thought I was having an affair. Her mom made just that joke to her she admitted later. I told her I had a surprise for her on the 17th (the anniversary of our first date) and I didn't want her to find out. She accepted that, but she is not patient with surprises and kept asking, "What is it?" I wouldn't tell her, which is also normal.
On Saturday I picked her up at 4:00 p.m. and we drove over to Pasadena. We were both hungry so we went to a nice, not fancy restaurant in Pasadena. Then we went over to the Huntington Gardens a little after 6:00 p.m. She had never been there. We walked around enjoying the Shakespeare Garden, then the rose garden and then on through the Japanese and Zen gardens. The beautiful scenery and being together put us in exactly the romantic mood I had hoped for. She suspected nothing.
After roughly an hour I suggested that we sit to look at the album I had brought along. (I had told her that I had developed a bunch of pictures we had taken over the last few months and had put them in an album.) We sat on a bench overlooking the beautiful Japanese gardens with the Japanese arched bridge. It was so incredible and because it was an evening for members only there were not too many people anywhere around. She still suspected nothing.
I didn't carry the ring box in my pocket because I felt it made too obvious a bulge, so I carried it in my camera case inside the bag with the album in it. At one point she took a picture of me and she wanted to hold the bag for me and she was puzzled by how reluctant I was to give it up. She still didn't suspect a thing.
So we went through the album which starts out with pictures and then moves on to 3 pages of "Reasons Why I Love You" and then on the final page has a simple poem (that I got here) culminating in the words: "It is you that I will love for the rest of my life." Now she still doesn't suspect at thing because she didn't think I had time to plan it and to get a ring. So I asked her later if she thought the album and poem were a little over the top (not realizing it was the prelude to a proposal--and of course she did think that, until a few seconds later when the proposal came.)
So a moment after she read the last line of the poem. I dropped to one knee, opened the ring box and said "[her full name] will you marry me? At first she repeated several times "You're kidding?!?" and various variants of that. She was caught completely off guard so her mind just couldn't process it. Followed by "Oh my God!" Then she was overcome by emotion and started to cry. Finally she put the ring on and started to hug and kiss me and alternately looked at the ring disbelieving. This went on for a minute after which I finally asked, "You didn't say yes?" She then said, "I didn't? Oh, yes, yes."
We sat there for a little bit and looked at the album again in this new context. Then I wanted to make sure she saw how brilliant the diamond was in sunlight so we went over to an area where the sun was still shining through the trees. It was after 7:00 p.m. and the sun was very low on the horizon.
I made no plans for after since I really didn't know whether she'd want to race home and tell her parents and/or friends, or have me talk to her parents, or just spend time alone or what, and that turned out to be the right decision. We went to Jamba Juice, one of her favorites, then we went home and just held each other and talked and softly kissed for hours.
We'll be going to church later this afternoon and today we'll have on extra thing to thank God for.
Thanks to everyone here for helping me formulate my ideas and I wish everyone else proposing soon the best of luck.
On Saturday I picked her up at 4:00 p.m. and we drove over to Pasadena. We were both hungry so we went to a nice, not fancy restaurant in Pasadena. Then we went over to the Huntington Gardens a little after 6:00 p.m. She had never been there. We walked around enjoying the Shakespeare Garden, then the rose garden and then on through the Japanese and Zen gardens. The beautiful scenery and being together put us in exactly the romantic mood I had hoped for. She suspected nothing.
After roughly an hour I suggested that we sit to look at the album I had brought along. (I had told her that I had developed a bunch of pictures we had taken over the last few months and had put them in an album.) We sat on a bench overlooking the beautiful Japanese gardens with the Japanese arched bridge. It was so incredible and because it was an evening for members only there were not too many people anywhere around. She still suspected nothing.
I didn't carry the ring box in my pocket because I felt it made too obvious a bulge, so I carried it in my camera case inside the bag with the album in it. At one point she took a picture of me and she wanted to hold the bag for me and she was puzzled by how reluctant I was to give it up. She still didn't suspect a thing.
So we went through the album which starts out with pictures and then moves on to 3 pages of "Reasons Why I Love You" and then on the final page has a simple poem (that I got here) culminating in the words: "It is you that I will love for the rest of my life." Now she still doesn't suspect at thing because she didn't think I had time to plan it and to get a ring. So I asked her later if she thought the album and poem were a little over the top (not realizing it was the prelude to a proposal--and of course she did think that, until a few seconds later when the proposal came.)
So a moment after she read the last line of the poem. I dropped to one knee, opened the ring box and said "[her full name] will you marry me? At first she repeated several times "You're kidding?!?" and various variants of that. She was caught completely off guard so her mind just couldn't process it. Followed by "Oh my God!" Then she was overcome by emotion and started to cry. Finally she put the ring on and started to hug and kiss me and alternately looked at the ring disbelieving. This went on for a minute after which I finally asked, "You didn't say yes?" She then said, "I didn't? Oh, yes, yes."
We sat there for a little bit and looked at the album again in this new context. Then I wanted to make sure she saw how brilliant the diamond was in sunlight so we went over to an area where the sun was still shining through the trees. It was after 7:00 p.m. and the sun was very low on the horizon.
I made no plans for after since I really didn't know whether she'd want to race home and tell her parents and/or friends, or have me talk to her parents, or just spend time alone or what, and that turned out to be the right decision. We went to Jamba Juice, one of her favorites, then we went home and just held each other and talked and softly kissed for hours.
We'll be going to church later this afternoon and today we'll have on extra thing to thank God for.
Thanks to everyone here for helping me formulate my ideas and I wish everyone else proposing soon the best of luck.
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