MakingTheCut
Rough_Rock
- Joined
- Dec 7, 2005
- Messages
- 6
I have been reading this forum for a LONG time...thought I would share my story that will be unfolding the next two weeks:
The Background
Lily and I met back in August 2004 when I started working at the same consulting firm as her. As consultants, you typically work on different project of different length with different people. Luck had it that my first project was a year-long engagement (not pun intended) with her. Our friendship quickly grew over the next year, but never broke that friend/co-worker boundary. When our project ended we were shipped to separate projects on different sides of the country (her in North Carolina and I in Colorado). Although we often spoke, we didn’t see each other for almost 6 months until she came out to Colorado for a weekend of skiing. I always said I wouldn’t date a co-worker or a good friend…soon I found myself doing both. Work provided us with almost limitless travel opportunities. We took full advantage of this with weekend rendezvous in New York, Chicago, Miami, The Bahamas, Seattle, Vancouver, Hawaii, Denver, LA, etc. Only a small handful of colleagues know about our romance…we think it is more professional that way.
Christmas 2005
When Christmas rolled around, Lily and I decided in lieu of an extravagant Christmas we would take a February vacation to Southern Europe. We originally planned to go to Italy this past summer, but limited airline miles, hotel points, and budget sent us to Hawaii instead. Within hours of our decision we started making vacation plans and set a $46 limit on Christmas presents for each other. $46 dollars was really hard to work with (she ended breaking budget on some creative accounting). I purchased her a nice leather-bound journal that I decided to write MY daily thoughts in and return to her full.
The Journal
I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with Lily and the vacation seemed like the perfect place to put that into motion. I purchased the journal knowing it would eventually become a daily story of my proposal plans. On December 29th 2005, I made the first journal entry indicating my intentions. At that point I knew there was no turning back! Lily loved the journal gift, but her curiosity and demands to read it grew quickly. 26 entries and numerous proposal details into the journal, I knew I couldn’t let her read it until after our trip (still a month away). I decided to take drastic measures to keep her from getting too suspicious, so I purchased a second identical “decoy” journal. It took me almost a week to catch-up to the real journal, and even then, I had to make dual-entries for another week. I finally let her read the decoy journal a week before the vacation and it seemed to buy me the time I needed.
The Ring
Years ago I saw a Dateline NBC Undercover on the diamond industry. I was shocked to see how corrupt the industry can be. I couldn’t fathom spending so much money on something I knew very little about. When it became apparent that Lily was “the one”, I started learning everything I could about diamonds (thanks to this forum and other resources I feel like an amateur gemologist now). After literally months of searching I went with the WhiteFlash/RockDoc/Mark Morrell combination. The diamond specs are as follows:
Shape: A Cut Above H&A
Carat: 1.024
Color: F
Clarity: VS1
Depth: 60.9
Table: 55.2
Crown Angle: 34.8
Pavilion Angle: 40.7
Girdle: Thin to Medium Faceted
Polish: Ideal
Symmetry: Ideal
Culet: Pointed
Fluorescence: Negligible
Measurements: 6.52-6.55X3.98
The diamond went directly to RockDoc in Boca Raton, FL (I live in Texas, so this helped me to avoid sales tax). Thanks to RockDoc, my diamond went through more tests than an undergrad at Harvard. After his evaluation was complete, it was off to Mark Morrell. When I first contacted Mark, I held little hope that he would be able to meet my schedule needs (he is usually backed up for months). However, I was surprised and thrilled to hear that he could “make it work” with my schedule. Throughout the month of January (and into February) my diamond traveled from WhiteFlash in Houston, TX to RockDoc in Boca Raton, FL to Mark Morrell in Concord, MA back to RockDoc in Boca Raton, FL and finally to me in Dallas (sounds like my traveling schedule). It is not often I spend so much on something and then wait a month to see it. It was a great lesson in instant gratification, but worth every second of the wait.
A Mom’s Blessing
Lily was born in Shanghai, China. I thought it would be special if I learned Mandarin Chinese and asked for her mom’s blessing in her native language. I picked the language up surprisingly well considering I was learning from CDs. However, the CDs provided only basic conversational Mandarin…that wouldn’t cut it for my discussion with her mom. With two weeks to spare, I contacted a Mandarin tutor I found on Craigslist. The tutor made all the difference in the world! Not only did she help me with correct pronunciations, she helped me word things in more of a “Chinese” way. The weekend before our vacation I traveled to Austin for her mom’s birthday. I arrived early hoping to find her mom home alone, but arrived to an empty house. A quick phone call to her mom identified her location and I raced to meet her. Standing outside a Barns & Noble in north Austin I had my talk with her mom…it went excellent. I’m so glad I went the extra mile to learn Mandarin. I think it meant a lot to her mother and I hope it will mean a lot to Lily.
The Trip
We are flying into Zurich, Switzerland on February 6th. We will travel to St. Moritz where we will ski the Swiss Alps and spend 3 nights at Badrutt’s Palace. From St. Moritz, we will travel to Italy for the remainder of our vacation. The first stop in Italy is Florence where we will stay 2 nights at JK Place. Then off to the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino where we have tickets to the Men’s Snowboard Halfpipe Finals. After some fun in the Olympic Village, we are off to Rome where we will spend several days (including Valentine’s Day) in the heart of the city. Finally, we head to Venice for 2 nights at the Locanda Orseolo Bed & Breakfast before returning to Zurich and our flight back home.
Hiding the Ring
I immediately saw a problem with hiding the ring through most of our Europe trip. It was important that the ring did not leave my side. It was also important that the hiding mechanism protected the ring since I would be skiing in St. Moritz. My initial hiding plans were to cut a ring-shaped hole in the journal. The journal was already a proposal story…this just seemed to make sense. However, I had fears of the ring falling out if I made an entry in front of her. I finally decided to use an Eclipse mint container. I always carry these mints, so it wouldn’t look odd to her. I built a
small custom ring box out of sheet metal that fits inside the mint container. Mints can be placed on top and completely conceal the custom ring box. I am so confident with the container, I’d let her take out her own mint (not knowing she was holding her own engagement ring).
The Real Decoy
We will be in Rome for Valentine’s Day. I’m planning on giving her a convincing, but fake, diamond drop pendant necklace. If I know Lily like I think I do, she will go through 4 quick phases…taken back by the gift…upset that I spent so much…questioning its authenticity…then back to being upset I spent so much. Soon after accepting the necklace she will concede any suspicion of a vacation proposal.
The Proposal
After the Valentine’s Day decoy and the approaching end to our trip, I think she will be completely fooled. On our last night in Venice I am planning on taking her out to eat. I am going to make sure the dinner location requires a gondola ride. When we are in the gondola, I am going to ask the gondolier to take our picture. As he is taking pictures, I am going to say “I have a confession to make…your necklace is fake…but this isn’t (pull out ring)…(INSERT mushy part here)”. Hopefully the entire proposal will be on film! Later we will return to the Bed & Breakfast and I will give her the REAL journal…finally!
So there it is...we leave for Europe in 2 hours. My only fear is getting the ring container through airport security. I''m planning on sending it through separately in my backpack, but it still looks like I am smuggling something (anyone on here work for TSA?). I''ll report back when we return (hopefully engaged!).
The Background
Lily and I met back in August 2004 when I started working at the same consulting firm as her. As consultants, you typically work on different project of different length with different people. Luck had it that my first project was a year-long engagement (not pun intended) with her. Our friendship quickly grew over the next year, but never broke that friend/co-worker boundary. When our project ended we were shipped to separate projects on different sides of the country (her in North Carolina and I in Colorado). Although we often spoke, we didn’t see each other for almost 6 months until she came out to Colorado for a weekend of skiing. I always said I wouldn’t date a co-worker or a good friend…soon I found myself doing both. Work provided us with almost limitless travel opportunities. We took full advantage of this with weekend rendezvous in New York, Chicago, Miami, The Bahamas, Seattle, Vancouver, Hawaii, Denver, LA, etc. Only a small handful of colleagues know about our romance…we think it is more professional that way.
Christmas 2005
When Christmas rolled around, Lily and I decided in lieu of an extravagant Christmas we would take a February vacation to Southern Europe. We originally planned to go to Italy this past summer, but limited airline miles, hotel points, and budget sent us to Hawaii instead. Within hours of our decision we started making vacation plans and set a $46 limit on Christmas presents for each other. $46 dollars was really hard to work with (she ended breaking budget on some creative accounting). I purchased her a nice leather-bound journal that I decided to write MY daily thoughts in and return to her full.
The Journal
I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with Lily and the vacation seemed like the perfect place to put that into motion. I purchased the journal knowing it would eventually become a daily story of my proposal plans. On December 29th 2005, I made the first journal entry indicating my intentions. At that point I knew there was no turning back! Lily loved the journal gift, but her curiosity and demands to read it grew quickly. 26 entries and numerous proposal details into the journal, I knew I couldn’t let her read it until after our trip (still a month away). I decided to take drastic measures to keep her from getting too suspicious, so I purchased a second identical “decoy” journal. It took me almost a week to catch-up to the real journal, and even then, I had to make dual-entries for another week. I finally let her read the decoy journal a week before the vacation and it seemed to buy me the time I needed.
The Ring
Years ago I saw a Dateline NBC Undercover on the diamond industry. I was shocked to see how corrupt the industry can be. I couldn’t fathom spending so much money on something I knew very little about. When it became apparent that Lily was “the one”, I started learning everything I could about diamonds (thanks to this forum and other resources I feel like an amateur gemologist now). After literally months of searching I went with the WhiteFlash/RockDoc/Mark Morrell combination. The diamond specs are as follows:
Shape: A Cut Above H&A
Carat: 1.024
Color: F
Clarity: VS1
Depth: 60.9
Table: 55.2
Crown Angle: 34.8
Pavilion Angle: 40.7
Girdle: Thin to Medium Faceted
Polish: Ideal
Symmetry: Ideal
Culet: Pointed
Fluorescence: Negligible
Measurements: 6.52-6.55X3.98
The diamond went directly to RockDoc in Boca Raton, FL (I live in Texas, so this helped me to avoid sales tax). Thanks to RockDoc, my diamond went through more tests than an undergrad at Harvard. After his evaluation was complete, it was off to Mark Morrell. When I first contacted Mark, I held little hope that he would be able to meet my schedule needs (he is usually backed up for months). However, I was surprised and thrilled to hear that he could “make it work” with my schedule. Throughout the month of January (and into February) my diamond traveled from WhiteFlash in Houston, TX to RockDoc in Boca Raton, FL to Mark Morrell in Concord, MA back to RockDoc in Boca Raton, FL and finally to me in Dallas (sounds like my traveling schedule). It is not often I spend so much on something and then wait a month to see it. It was a great lesson in instant gratification, but worth every second of the wait.
A Mom’s Blessing
Lily was born in Shanghai, China. I thought it would be special if I learned Mandarin Chinese and asked for her mom’s blessing in her native language. I picked the language up surprisingly well considering I was learning from CDs. However, the CDs provided only basic conversational Mandarin…that wouldn’t cut it for my discussion with her mom. With two weeks to spare, I contacted a Mandarin tutor I found on Craigslist. The tutor made all the difference in the world! Not only did she help me with correct pronunciations, she helped me word things in more of a “Chinese” way. The weekend before our vacation I traveled to Austin for her mom’s birthday. I arrived early hoping to find her mom home alone, but arrived to an empty house. A quick phone call to her mom identified her location and I raced to meet her. Standing outside a Barns & Noble in north Austin I had my talk with her mom…it went excellent. I’m so glad I went the extra mile to learn Mandarin. I think it meant a lot to her mother and I hope it will mean a lot to Lily.
The Trip
We are flying into Zurich, Switzerland on February 6th. We will travel to St. Moritz where we will ski the Swiss Alps and spend 3 nights at Badrutt’s Palace. From St. Moritz, we will travel to Italy for the remainder of our vacation. The first stop in Italy is Florence where we will stay 2 nights at JK Place. Then off to the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino where we have tickets to the Men’s Snowboard Halfpipe Finals. After some fun in the Olympic Village, we are off to Rome where we will spend several days (including Valentine’s Day) in the heart of the city. Finally, we head to Venice for 2 nights at the Locanda Orseolo Bed & Breakfast before returning to Zurich and our flight back home.
Hiding the Ring
I immediately saw a problem with hiding the ring through most of our Europe trip. It was important that the ring did not leave my side. It was also important that the hiding mechanism protected the ring since I would be skiing in St. Moritz. My initial hiding plans were to cut a ring-shaped hole in the journal. The journal was already a proposal story…this just seemed to make sense. However, I had fears of the ring falling out if I made an entry in front of her. I finally decided to use an Eclipse mint container. I always carry these mints, so it wouldn’t look odd to her. I built a
small custom ring box out of sheet metal that fits inside the mint container. Mints can be placed on top and completely conceal the custom ring box. I am so confident with the container, I’d let her take out her own mint (not knowing she was holding her own engagement ring).
The Real Decoy
We will be in Rome for Valentine’s Day. I’m planning on giving her a convincing, but fake, diamond drop pendant necklace. If I know Lily like I think I do, she will go through 4 quick phases…taken back by the gift…upset that I spent so much…questioning its authenticity…then back to being upset I spent so much. Soon after accepting the necklace she will concede any suspicion of a vacation proposal.
The Proposal
After the Valentine’s Day decoy and the approaching end to our trip, I think she will be completely fooled. On our last night in Venice I am planning on taking her out to eat. I am going to make sure the dinner location requires a gondola ride. When we are in the gondola, I am going to ask the gondolier to take our picture. As he is taking pictures, I am going to say “I have a confession to make…your necklace is fake…but this isn’t (pull out ring)…(INSERT mushy part here)”. Hopefully the entire proposal will be on film! Later we will return to the Bed & Breakfast and I will give her the REAL journal…finally!
So there it is...we leave for Europe in 2 hours. My only fear is getting the ring container through airport security. I''m planning on sending it through separately in my backpack, but it still looks like I am smuggling something (anyone on here work for TSA?). I''ll report back when we return (hopefully engaged!).
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