Engagement Story
For the longest time, the only item on this site was the following story. So, I’m re-posting this story here in pretty much the original format. It is still unedited and somehow I never got around to filling in the additional parts that I promised. But I’m not going to let that prevent me from including it on this site.
I hope you enjoy it. Here it is in it’s entirety…
Engagement Story
On Thursday August 22, 2002, Brad and Melissa got engaged. The following is a rough draft of Brad's version of the story. Hopefully, it will be updated soon with more details and with some pictures that were taken as well.
(A rambling recount of how I proposed to my
Anyone, who knows us, knows that it was only a matter of time before I got off my duff and got a ring for Melissa.
The trick was to figure out how to propose to someone who knows "it" is coming and is constantly grilling you, your friends and your friends' dogs for information about "it."As things started to come together and I knew I would soon be able to get the ring I wanted, I started laying the ground work for the proposal. The first thing I did was take her back to a restaurant that we both enjoyed but had not visited in a while. The restaurant, Mo-Mo's, had a wonderful Thursday night "date night" special. We enjoyed the meal, as usual, so I dropped the idea that we start taking advantage of the "date night" special more often. This gave me a convient way of planning a date night that was booked far in advance and yet didn't seem too conspicuous. I knew that any date would be analyzed by Melissa for potential to be "the one." but I hoped to slip this one by her as best as I could.
Next, was planning the first change-up to throw at her. While I love Mo-Mo's, what I really wanted to do was to take her to Jeroboam, a place we had been to once before. So, the day of "it", I told her that I had a real craving for Jeroboam's so I had spontaniously made us reservations. Which was basically the truth, except for the spontanious part. I knew this would really raise her radar, but there was no way to avoid that and still give her the opportunity to dress up a little bit for the evening.
Oh, but that leads us to the part that was a little bit mean. Knowing that she would be looking for a proposal at dinner, I did not propose to her there. I expected Melissa to be nervous and on edge, trying to figure out if this was the night or not. But in fact, I think I had done such a good job of my story that she really didn't think it was going to happen that night. She had decided it was just a nice dinner and that I was trying to make up a little for not having the ring yet.
Finally, we left Jeroboam's and headed back to her house where the real surprise was waiting. While we were away, my good friend Scott Gunter had been doing some leg work for me. Just before we rounded the corner to her parking spot, I stopped the car as we waited for the gate to open and told her that I loved her and then leaned over to give her a kiss. Then, I pulled into the parking lot. As we pulled up, she noticed there was something in the parking spot. In a high pitched voice she asked "What is that?" I tried to sound casual, and ended up sounding a little too casual, as I said "Why don't you get out and see?" I stopped the car, so that Melissa could get out and pick it up. "It" was a single pink rose sitting in her parking space.
On the rose was a little note which said "Remember When: We met for the first time". I parked the car and joined her for the rest of the trip to her apartment. She had this amazed look on her face and I could tell she was about the cry. I took her hand and led her toward her place. There was another rose outside the gate to her place. When she saw that, she started repeating "I just thought it was dinner!" I tried to keep my cool, but I can't honestly say that I did. It was pretty emotional.
As we entered the gate, she saw another rose just inside the fence. She picked up each one as we made the way into her apartment. One outside the back door. One inside the back door. Another one was placed on the entertainment center just inside the door and. The final, single rose, was sitting in front of the fireplace. Each contained a little note which started "Remember When:" and then listed an important moment in our history together.
Then, we moved into the dining room. There stood a full bouquet of flowers. Unfortunately, her favorite flowers, tulips, were out of season. So this bouquet was made up of one of her other favorites, lilies and an assortment of pink roses (she doesn't like red roses!!). Next to this boquet was one final note which read...
Always Remember: This moment.
At which point I stumbled my way through "it." Yes, we are talking the whole down on one knee, "I love you and will you marry me" speech. Don't ask exactly what I said, because I'm not sure I remember the exact words.
The important part is that I asked her to marry me, and she said yes!
Finally, I must take this moment to thank two important friends who helped make this happen. First, up is Scott Gunter. He was a very critical part of my proposal plan. He set aside the whole night to run errands for me and setup Melissa's place as I requested. He also took plenty of pictures before we got there so that we wouldn't have to worry about that much. Second, is Scott Rogers. Rogers is basically a life time friend of Melissa's and the wonderful friend who introduced Melissa and me to each other. Thanks guys!
(I'll try to fill in more of the details later and, as mentioned previously, post some pictures too.)
Posted by on 05/05 at 09:04 PM
