My Official Engagement Story.......grab some coffee and get comfy>>>>>>

Well it finally happened this past weekend....I popped the question and she accepted.

First I want to sincerely thank Denise from Whiteflash.com who took some of the pain away from the process and had my girl said no, I would be proposing to . She definetely ranks at the top of my list of all people that I have ever dealt with as far as customer service goes. I am going to tell my engagement story first, then post my buying experience when I get the stone set in its permanent setting in a few weeks. It is now set in a plain platinum solitaire ring.

I rented a cabin for Valentines day weekend in the Rickets Glen State Park area of the Pocono's http//www.rickettsglencabins.com. My now fiancee didn't get done work until 60PM on Friday, she works about a half hour away from my house which is in Philadelphia. We left promptly at 6:30, the ride was 144 miles and was supposed to take about 2 1/2 hours to get there. Well, we had pretty good directions and were making great time. We actually got to within 1/4 mile from the cabin in that time and then it took 45 minutes to get the rest of the way. We turned up the wrong dirt road which was totally snow covered, we finally realized that it was the wrong road and tried to back out of it and got stuck. We spent the next haf hour pushing and trying to turn the car out without any success. She, at first was all paranoid and thinking that we were going to get killed because we were in the middle of nowhere....yeah she watches too many movies. Well she suggested that since we were supposed to be so close to the cabin that we walk there to get help from the cabin owner who was waiting for us. I was at first being stuborn, but then agreed after she shot dirt and snow all over me by hitting the gas too hard. We lock up the car and start walking in the direction the cabin was supposed to be. I like an idiot, leave my coat in the car. It was 5 degrees out. There were 18 wheelers flying by which wasn't pleasant. About 1/4 mile down the road, we come to the sign we were looking for. The road to the cabin was about 40 or 50 yards away on a snowy incline road. She's falling all over the place because she's wearing shoes and not boots, go figure. Anyway we finally get there and I ride with the owner back to the car and are able to get it out. My first priority now was a cold beer. The cabin is brand new and very nice....perfect for the occasion. After the owner and his girlfriend leave, she goes upstairs and tells me she has a surprise. I am thinking she is coming down with some lingerie or something. Ten minutes goes by and I am yelling "what the hell are you doing" she tells me to shut up. She eventually comes down, with the same clothes on I might add. I asked what that was all about. I go upstairs to find the bedroom decorated with lots of candles and the bed covered with rose pedals. How sweet I am thinking. She tells me "I wanted to out do you for once on Valentines day" I said "good job, it's very nice"

We head back downstairs and start relaxing on the futon with more beer and wine. I am very relaxed at this point....go figure. I tell her that I have a little something for her too. I go upstairs and set the diamond, table side down on the H&A viewer. I walk over to her and tell her "I bought this for you thinking it fits with the day, but be careful, I dropped it and it broke so you have to hold it from bottom" she starts looking through the top as I get on my knee and pull out the setting in the box. I wait for her to lift her head, but she keeps looking at it. I finally have to start to pull it away from her. She then starts lowering and lifting the bottom and says "what is it, a diamond?" I am thinking "she really has no idea". I tell her "I decided to get you Hearts for Valentines day" When she finally looks up, I move the top of the viewer to show her the diamond and hold out the setting and ask her to marry me. For the next ten minutes she keeps repeating with a bright red face with her jaw shaking "you're lying!!" "you're joking, right?" while I keep saying "no I'm serious". I then ask "well, is that a yes". She says "of course".

Man, you wanna talk about a shock, she usually finds out about any surprise one way or another, but this one totally came from nowhere. I kept telling her that I planned on buying a ring sometime between June and November. I even think she had a blackout, when she was later talking to her mom, she didn't remember everything that happened.

That was the good part, the bad part was that we were forced to leave a lot earlier than planned on Sunday because of the blizzard hitting home. We ended up sitting in a parking lot on the Turnpike for two hours because of an accident. I never thought the day would come where I'd be making ham and cheese sandwiches on a major highway....LOL

Man, you wanna talk about memories....we'll have plenty to tell our kids someday.

I want to sincerely tahnk everyone on this board for helping make one of the biggest decisions I've had to in my life. It helped me tremendously. I also want to give a special thanks to Denise from Whiteflash who helped me pick the most beautiful diamond that I have ever seen with my own eyes.

Now, I have to finish getting the permanent setting straight. Thanks again people!!