Popping the Question
So I suppose I will tell the engagement story from my point of view…
This all started in mid fall, when her and I started talking about spending the rest of our lives together. I was confident then after starting to talk about it that she was the person I wanted to be with forever. With that in mind I told her we should start looking at rings so I have some idea what she liked and what she hated.
We went ring browsing in Elkhart first over Thanksgiving and then a few weeks later went to Shane Co. here in Indianapolis. We went to Shane Co. with the intention to sort of finalize what we liked. I never had the intention of purchasing anything that day, but we found something we both really liked, so I had someone keep Steph distracted and I bought it that day. She had absolutely no idea, which was pretty amazing that I was able to pull that off.
The next step was to talk to her dad without her knowing. She kept asking whether I had talked to her dad or not, because she can’t stand not knowing things. Little did she know that I had taken her cell phone at one point and got her dad’s phone number from it. I gave him a call and let him know that I would like to meet with him sometime in the next couple of weeks in order to just talk some things over. I am sure he knew what was coming, but I wanted to talk in person. We decided that when he came to pick Steph up from Butler and take her back to Cinci, he would stop by my house first.
Originally that was supposed to be on a Saturday morning. The weather didn’t cooperate and instead he came on Friday night. Steph and I were originally supposed to go to our house church’s Christmas party on Friday night. Steph was really upset that she was going to have to miss it, so I had to try and console her, while at the same time figuring out how I was going to still talk to her dad. I worked it out that he was going to stop by my home at 6:15. Our party started at 7:00. So I told Steph I had to leave at 6:00 to go help set up and such. She was so mad at the situation when I left. If only she had known why I really left so early. I made it back to my house by 6:15 and talked to her dad and asked for his blessing for me to marry Steph.
So I got talking to the dad marked off the list of things to do and all I had left to do was figure out when I was going to propose. I had originally decided to do it sometime in Mid January around Butler’s campus. Specifically on the corner of 49th and Boulevard. That intersection is where, in my car, I first realized how special she was, and also where we decided to start “officially” dating.
Then I thought it would be really cool to ask her where her birthday present was…More on that in another post. You’ll understand things better then.
Ultimately I decided to do it in Cinci. I was going to spend Christmas in Cinci with her family and I knew how special it would be for her to get engaged and then be around her family for Christmas. Now I just had to figure out how to do it in Cincinnati, since I didn’t really know a whole lot about the city.
My original plan was to do it on the Dec. 24th. I was going to wake her up early and we would go ice skating downtown. I would say it was part of her Christmas gift and then I would pop the question down there that afternoon. That plan didn’t come to fruition though because on Monday it looked like the weather was going to be bad on the 24th and I didn’t want to risk not doing it in a special way.
I decided to take the 23rd off and go to Cinci early and suprise her. I told her that part of her Christmas gift was that we were going to go ice skating and then go to the Cinci zoo for the Festival of Lights. She had mentioned she would like to go to the Festival of Lights at some point over break, so I thought that would be a pretty cool place to propose.
We went ice skating for a bit, ate some dinner and headed to the zoo. It was actually really cool at night because there were tons of lights all over. When we walked in I noticed a big lake that had lights all around it that were blinking to the music. I decided that at that point, proposing around that would be cool and special. So we walked around the zoo for a while and ended up back at the lake.
We stood around a bit and were watching the display for a while. I was waiting till there weren’t to many people around so that it wouldn’t make to big of scene. Once the crowd died down I said, “So I got a question for you…” She said “Ya?” I got down on one knee and said “Will you marry me?” And she BACKED UP. She said “ARE YOU SERIOUS?” I said of course and showed her the ring. She was in absolute shock. I asked if that was a yes and she said of course.
She was in shock for about 10 minutes. She was sweating and it was so cold outside. It was great to know I surprised her that much.
Needless to say it was an amazing night that I will never forget. I wasn’t nervous at all except for the waiting for people to die down and pass by. So everything went pretty well considering I had to change a lot of my plans. I am glad I did it and can’t wait to be married to her. She is absolutely everything and more I could have ever wished for.
