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My plans... long!

naikii

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jan 2, 2012
Messages
20
Ok guys, I would love thoughts on my current proposal plans and, as does every guy, I want it to be memorable and interesting, but not tacky or over the top. I would love to hear everybodies thoughts, it is quite long and detailed, but for it to work, I think I will have to be pretty tight with my timings. I don’t want to leave too much to chance either.

Forgive my length, and for going into such detail, I am organising the timing in my own mind as well, to make sure everything seems to fit!


My plan so far is this.

In July we will be heading overseas to France (not Paris), July will also mark our 2 week anniversary. In fact we get into France on a Tuesday, and our anniversary will be the following Monday. We will be away for 3 months studying French intensively at a French school, first day of class falls on the anniversary date of our first meeting.

My girlfriend is a bit of a history fan, and I have booked us into an old monks abbey which has been converted into a 4 star hotel, but retaining the original architecture and feel of the building. There is also a very fancy restaurant attached to the abbey.

My girlfriend does not know that I have booked this accommodation yet, and believes we will be staying in town until the Monday when the school will find us accommodation for the remaining months. We get into town on the Friday and I will tell my girlfriend that the hotel we are staying in that night is booked for the whole weekend. I have arranged for a courier to move our bags from the first hotel to the abbey during the day.

As a part of the hotel package I have arranged a buffet breakfast at the abbey followed by a 3 hour hike, beginning at 9am. There is a bus service in town that can get us to the abbey by 7am, with enough time for breakfast before the hike. At this stage I will tell her that I have some activities booked for the day, and we have an early start. I will tell her to pack comfortable walking shoes, and also a change of clothes.

Over breakfast I will describe the abbey a little including its past, and how great it would have been to stay there, but because of its price I simply wanted to treat her to breakfast, and then tell her about the hike. After I will tell her that as part of the breakfast we are entitled to use the saunas and showers and we will clean ourselves from the hike, and then walk the grounds for a few hours and take some pictures.

This will start around 2 pm, having had time to finish the hike and return to the abbey. As soon as we are finished in the sauna and she has showered and changed, I will tell her that I actually had a surprise for her, and will tell her that because our anniversary is on Monday I thought it would be nice to treat you to some beauty treatments in the wellness centre. I will book a 2 hour treatment package of some sort including having her makeup done.

In the two hours I have to spare I will do a quick scout of the grounds for a suitable proposal location (I believe there is an outside bar overlooking a lake which seems perfect without seeing it), after determining a good spot I will have our bags moved to the room, and will lay a dress out for her.

**
We will backtrack for a second now to talk about the dress. In June we will be travelling to Melbourne in Australia for a family birthday. I have told her to set aside a day, she doesn’t yet know why. On this day I will tell her that I want to buy her a dress, something that would be suitable for a really nice dinner or semi-formal occasion, and that I want her to spend the day with me dress hunting until she finds something she loves… I will put aside 250-300 for this. I will caveat the dress purchase by saying that the dress will be kept by me, until an undisclosed time and reason. This will obviously get her mind ticking over, but I think I can spin it so she believes I have something really fancy booked for us later in the year once we return from overseas.
**

Back to the day.

After I have laid the dress out I will shower and semi-formally suit up. I will have obtained a rose or bunch of roses from somewhere and will pick her up from her beauty treatment, probably wondering why in the world I had her makeup done, and I will tell her that we will be eating at the very fancy hotel restaurant, and it is my anniversary gift to her.

I will then tell her I have one more surprise and take her up to the room, where she will see our bags and her dress laid out, and I will tell her to get ready for drinks by the lake, and then dinner later. Sitting next to her dress will also be a wrapped package, a photo album of our two years together, that I have been working on and is nearing completion. I will tell her that she can’t open it until we are outside having some drinks.

The details next are planned quite so well. I’m not quite sure the exact spot I will be proposing so it makes it a little difficult, but my idea is to give the ring box to the bar tender in advance (if in sight of the bar) and then as we are nearing the end of the album signal him to bring it over on a tray with 2 glasses of champagne.

OR

At the end of the photo album have a picture of her ring, which should surprise her, and kickstart proposal speech.

OR

And this is a new idea today, which I haven’t had a lot of time to think about just yet… Throughout the day I will carry a piece of paper, with a checklist on it, saying things like ‘Bus 630am, ‘Breakfast 7am’, ‘Hike 9am’ etc. then, as we achieve each item I will make a little show of pulling out the list and checking off the item, being overtly obvious to her that she is not allowed to look at the list. I know my girlfriend, and this will drive her curiosity a little insane, and I suspect she will make a few grabs for the list.

Just as we finish the album I will pull out the list again and make a check mark, and hopefully she makes a grab for it, and allow her to succeed. She will then open the list quickly and see the next point on the list would be ‘Propose’. Then dropping to a knee. If she doesn’t grab the list, I could say something like, ‘would you like to see what I’ve been hiding from you today, or something similar.

I would have two lists in case she actually managed to grab it during the hike or something, this list would stop at ‘sauna’ or something similar, so if she sees it the surprise wont be spoilt, in fact probably heightened as she would think I had no more major plans for the day. If she doesn’t grab the list early while she is getting her makeup down I will swap it for the full list.

Afterwards I have us booked into the restaurant for a 6 course tasting meal. We also have breakfast and dinner the next night booked, and a second night in the hotel, so she has a chance to explore.
 

Phdecorate

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Nov 7, 2011
Messages
352
It sounds like you have really thought things out! It also sounds like you have really taken into consideration what she likes (the abbey idea, etc). Do you know if she would want to be proposed to in public or private, etc? Some people may not like the idea of others being able to witness the proposal, whereas others might not mind or even like the extra attention. I think this would be an important piece of information for you to try to determine that will help you narrow down your choice of actual site.

I am not sure if you like this idea, but possibly you could arrange to have a photographer on hand to capture the moment? Wherever you decide to have it take place? That could be the final picture for your album and you could leave an empty page for it. Is it just pictures or is it more like a scrapbook? You could always tell her you want to spend your life making more scrapbooks/albums with her and have a page that says will you marry me with a blank spot where the picture of you asking could go.

Maybe if you email the concierge at the hotel, he or she could suggest several locations that might be most suitable and possibly even send you pictures? Have you Googled the location to find other posts from visitors that may include pictures that would give you additional ideas? Maybe you could get so lucky as to find a blog or something showing someone else's proposal at the same location!

It sounds like your girlfriend would like all the intrigue happening throughout the day as you are contemplating let her see you have a list. You could possibly turn it into a scavenger hunt of "anniversary" clues if you think she would like to take it this far. I am not sure, it just seems like you are trying to have every detail planned ahead.

I would also suggest to make sure you have a little bit of time between the actual proposal and dinner. In case she wants to call some people, take some pictures, have some time alone or if she is a bit teary and needs to retouch the make-up?

Good luck, can't wait to hear what you end up deciding on!
 
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