DP
Rough_Rock
- Joined
- Jun 16, 2003
- Messages
- 30
Well it’s been a long time in the planning and I did wonder if it would all come crashing around my ears for a while, but I am finally engaged to a wonderful girl and got the story to go with it! Apologies in advance, it’s long – but I’ve been waiting for so long to get it right I just want to spout off!!
To get the full picture a bit of background. I’ve been with my g/f for 3 years since I met her while on holiday in New Brunswick (I’m English). She is a French Canadian with fantastic English and we kept in touch for over a year by phone and email, seeing each other every 4 months or when we couldn’t stand not to see each other any longer. She’s a nurse and was quite taken with the idea of experiencing Europe, with all its rain, so eventually moved in with me about 22 months ago, after which things just got better.
The plan began to form when we went to stay with her parents in February. I’m a bit of a traditionalist so wanted to ask her father permission in person. They were coming over here to visit in May, and I finally plucked up the courage just before they went home. He was not used to the tradition and I had to spend a few minutes reassuring him that he wasn’t selling his daughter off and it would still be her decision!! He did give his blessing though. 2 weeks later my g/f had a right good rant at me about whether I was going to give any indication about where I thought this relationship was going so obviously he hadn’t let on, and it gave me some good vibes about what reaction I would finally get.
So, to find the diamond. Not satisfied with the usual dross offered in a lot of British jewellers I did a bit of research and lo! came upon this site. What a revelation! Can’t thank all the regulars here (Cut Nut, Rhino, Mara to name but a few) enough for their insight and it was a tough choice who to buy from, but it eventually came down to GOG or Whiteflash and it just so happened that the current inventories fell down to Whiteflash. Leslie H was superb even when I had to change my diamond at the last minute and she thought nothing of calling cross-Atlantic to make sure I was happy with my selection. I ended up going for a .632 carat ‘A Cut Above’ H&A G VS2. The best reaction when I opened the package at work came from a confirmed ‘single and proud of it’ female colleague who suddenly got very upset that she didn’t even have a boyfriend (hee hee, in your FACE!). This was July now and I really wanted to get a ring set in time for the summer, or at the very least for a trip to France we had booked in September.
My g/f didn’t have any idea yet so I was halfway there. But how to find ring size and setting ideas? I packed her off to London for a weekend with a couple of her girlfriends and one of them just happened to want to look at upgrading her e-ring. Not only did she want ideas on settings but also though it would be a good idea for all of them to see what their finger sizes were. She just happened to be the best friend of the work colleague mentioned above. Job done!
So the setting – it had to be a low setting without prongs so could fit under surgical gloves at work. Possibly a bezel setting but not all the way round. Some of the s-shaped settings took her fancy. Pricescope to the rescue again! Scorpion posted a beautiful ring in the Eye Candy thread so I got a local goldsmith in Winchester to see what they could design. Big shock – it would be an 8-10 week wait! They had a backlog of work. But I didn’t trust anybody else nearby to do it so kissed goodbye to a summer proposal (as it turned out one of the hottest we’ve ever had here. Typical!) Finally the ring came back mid September and was well worth the wait. But I had to find another idea for the big day.
If any of you have ever seen The Prisoner series from the 60s you’ll know the place but there’s an enchanting Italianate village in North Wales called Portmeirion. All the cottages in it are rooms of the hotel that owns the place. I’d been there before and fell in love with the place, but it is suitably popular on a Saturday night so the first booking I could get was just over a week ago.
So Saturday morning arrived and after breakfast in bed I gave her 1 ½ hours to pack before we left. All I said was ‘pack something nice for dinner’. She’s a curious girl at the best of times so for the 5 hour drive we had maps all over the car while she tried to work out where we were going. We finally pulled up at the top of the village under the trees and when she realised that we had arrived I got the first ferocious hug. This happened again after checking in and finding that our room was on the clifftop overlooking the whole estuary. So we took a stroll around the village, which was as beautiful as I remembered it. The other point of the afternoon was for me to get a recce done for where to pop the question. I had thought of the beach but it was far too muddy (glad I found that out early on!) but there was a path leading round the corner from the main hotel building. Possibilities, so we got back to our room to relax and get ready for dinner at 7 in the dining room next to the beach. It was a semi-formal dining room so we had to change for it.
Relax. Yeah, right! I had spent the previous 4 weeks trying to learn Elizabeth Barratt Browning’s poem ‘How Do I Love Thee, Let Me Count the Ways’ and was petrified I was going to muck it up. Also I wanted to propose in French (my g/f’s native language), and was trying to keep that bit in my head too.
So we left the room but I was still desperately trying to keep the box out of touching distance. At the last minute I transferred it to my right outside pocket and made sure I kept the young lady firmly on the left. Am I glad I did, because she confessed to me later that she was beginning to suspect something and ‘casually’ ran her hand over the left side pockets of my jacket. 1-0!!
We found the path I had noticed earlier and it led out to a beautifully peaceful set of steps to a little beach. The estuary was dead calm and looked like a reflecting pool for the hills the other side. The light was beginning to fade (it would have been sunset if it hadn’t got cloudy) and there was just enough of a mist of rain to dampen any other sound. So I stepped down a step so I was level with her face and asked her if she loved me, thinking if she replies with something like ‘of course you idiot’ then how do I turn the conversation the way I want to? But she looked me straight in the eye and said ‘Very, very much’. Stage set, here goes nothing then… and I started reciting the poem. It was truly amazing how once I was ‘on stage’ it all came back – phew! She couldn’t speak after I finished, so I went on to tell her that words were all very well but didn’t mean much unless you’re prepared to prove it. I told her how I would never forget the commitment she had shown me by moving countries for me (and kebabs. Don’t ask me why but she loves real Greek or Turkish doner kebabs!) and how it was time for me to make my commitment, if she’d let me. So I shuffled her back a couple of paces (going ar** over t*t down the steps wouldn’t have been the best ending) I got down on one knee (big gasp and one hand over her face as she realised what was happening) and I asked ‘Est-ce que tu veux m’epouser?’
She said Oui immediately (or was it ‘Sob’? I don’t know. It was positive anyway) so I got up again and said ‘Well there’s more’. I hadn’t brought the ring out yet on the basis that I wanted her to say yes to me and not to a ring. So out came the ring and that was it, I was officially the best thing since sliced bread. A couple of tissues later and we were all set to go to the dining room without her looking like Alice Cooper.
The evening just carried on like that. Dinner was superb – there was even a harpist plucking away in the next room – and we got free champagne once one of the waitresses twigged what was going on – and I FINALLY got to tell my new fiancée all about the saga of the ring. She didn’t even mind when I woke her up at 6 the next morning to watch the Japanese Grand Prix! Please don’t ask where we’re going to get married though…..
To get the full picture a bit of background. I’ve been with my g/f for 3 years since I met her while on holiday in New Brunswick (I’m English). She is a French Canadian with fantastic English and we kept in touch for over a year by phone and email, seeing each other every 4 months or when we couldn’t stand not to see each other any longer. She’s a nurse and was quite taken with the idea of experiencing Europe, with all its rain, so eventually moved in with me about 22 months ago, after which things just got better.
The plan began to form when we went to stay with her parents in February. I’m a bit of a traditionalist so wanted to ask her father permission in person. They were coming over here to visit in May, and I finally plucked up the courage just before they went home. He was not used to the tradition and I had to spend a few minutes reassuring him that he wasn’t selling his daughter off and it would still be her decision!! He did give his blessing though. 2 weeks later my g/f had a right good rant at me about whether I was going to give any indication about where I thought this relationship was going so obviously he hadn’t let on, and it gave me some good vibes about what reaction I would finally get.
So, to find the diamond. Not satisfied with the usual dross offered in a lot of British jewellers I did a bit of research and lo! came upon this site. What a revelation! Can’t thank all the regulars here (Cut Nut, Rhino, Mara to name but a few) enough for their insight and it was a tough choice who to buy from, but it eventually came down to GOG or Whiteflash and it just so happened that the current inventories fell down to Whiteflash. Leslie H was superb even when I had to change my diamond at the last minute and she thought nothing of calling cross-Atlantic to make sure I was happy with my selection. I ended up going for a .632 carat ‘A Cut Above’ H&A G VS2. The best reaction when I opened the package at work came from a confirmed ‘single and proud of it’ female colleague who suddenly got very upset that she didn’t even have a boyfriend (hee hee, in your FACE!). This was July now and I really wanted to get a ring set in time for the summer, or at the very least for a trip to France we had booked in September.
My g/f didn’t have any idea yet so I was halfway there. But how to find ring size and setting ideas? I packed her off to London for a weekend with a couple of her girlfriends and one of them just happened to want to look at upgrading her e-ring. Not only did she want ideas on settings but also though it would be a good idea for all of them to see what their finger sizes were. She just happened to be the best friend of the work colleague mentioned above. Job done!
So the setting – it had to be a low setting without prongs so could fit under surgical gloves at work. Possibly a bezel setting but not all the way round. Some of the s-shaped settings took her fancy. Pricescope to the rescue again! Scorpion posted a beautiful ring in the Eye Candy thread so I got a local goldsmith in Winchester to see what they could design. Big shock – it would be an 8-10 week wait! They had a backlog of work. But I didn’t trust anybody else nearby to do it so kissed goodbye to a summer proposal (as it turned out one of the hottest we’ve ever had here. Typical!) Finally the ring came back mid September and was well worth the wait. But I had to find another idea for the big day.
If any of you have ever seen The Prisoner series from the 60s you’ll know the place but there’s an enchanting Italianate village in North Wales called Portmeirion. All the cottages in it are rooms of the hotel that owns the place. I’d been there before and fell in love with the place, but it is suitably popular on a Saturday night so the first booking I could get was just over a week ago.
So Saturday morning arrived and after breakfast in bed I gave her 1 ½ hours to pack before we left. All I said was ‘pack something nice for dinner’. She’s a curious girl at the best of times so for the 5 hour drive we had maps all over the car while she tried to work out where we were going. We finally pulled up at the top of the village under the trees and when she realised that we had arrived I got the first ferocious hug. This happened again after checking in and finding that our room was on the clifftop overlooking the whole estuary. So we took a stroll around the village, which was as beautiful as I remembered it. The other point of the afternoon was for me to get a recce done for where to pop the question. I had thought of the beach but it was far too muddy (glad I found that out early on!) but there was a path leading round the corner from the main hotel building. Possibilities, so we got back to our room to relax and get ready for dinner at 7 in the dining room next to the beach. It was a semi-formal dining room so we had to change for it.
Relax. Yeah, right! I had spent the previous 4 weeks trying to learn Elizabeth Barratt Browning’s poem ‘How Do I Love Thee, Let Me Count the Ways’ and was petrified I was going to muck it up. Also I wanted to propose in French (my g/f’s native language), and was trying to keep that bit in my head too.
So we left the room but I was still desperately trying to keep the box out of touching distance. At the last minute I transferred it to my right outside pocket and made sure I kept the young lady firmly on the left. Am I glad I did, because she confessed to me later that she was beginning to suspect something and ‘casually’ ran her hand over the left side pockets of my jacket. 1-0!!
We found the path I had noticed earlier and it led out to a beautifully peaceful set of steps to a little beach. The estuary was dead calm and looked like a reflecting pool for the hills the other side. The light was beginning to fade (it would have been sunset if it hadn’t got cloudy) and there was just enough of a mist of rain to dampen any other sound. So I stepped down a step so I was level with her face and asked her if she loved me, thinking if she replies with something like ‘of course you idiot’ then how do I turn the conversation the way I want to? But she looked me straight in the eye and said ‘Very, very much’. Stage set, here goes nothing then… and I started reciting the poem. It was truly amazing how once I was ‘on stage’ it all came back – phew! She couldn’t speak after I finished, so I went on to tell her that words were all very well but didn’t mean much unless you’re prepared to prove it. I told her how I would never forget the commitment she had shown me by moving countries for me (and kebabs. Don’t ask me why but she loves real Greek or Turkish doner kebabs!) and how it was time for me to make my commitment, if she’d let me. So I shuffled her back a couple of paces (going ar** over t*t down the steps wouldn’t have been the best ending) I got down on one knee (big gasp and one hand over her face as she realised what was happening) and I asked ‘Est-ce que tu veux m’epouser?’
She said Oui immediately (or was it ‘Sob’? I don’t know. It was positive anyway) so I got up again and said ‘Well there’s more’. I hadn’t brought the ring out yet on the basis that I wanted her to say yes to me and not to a ring. So out came the ring and that was it, I was officially the best thing since sliced bread. A couple of tissues later and we were all set to go to the dining room without her looking like Alice Cooper.
The evening just carried on like that. Dinner was superb – there was even a harpist plucking away in the next room – and we got free champagne once one of the waitresses twigged what was going on – and I FINALLY got to tell my new fiancée all about the saga of the ring. She didn’t even mind when I woke her up at 6 the next morning to watch the Japanese Grand Prix! Please don’t ask where we’re going to get married though…..
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