I have two weddings I'm attending this year. The first one, in March, is for my college friend Erin and her fiance Tommy. Erin and Tommy had been a couple for about 6 years. She and I went to a sporting event together last February, while we were both in our internships in the radiology program. We spent the day talking about the future. At that time, I was still in the middle of planning our move to Austin (we didn't know that would be halted until about April). Erin was fretting about her relationship with Tommy, mostly wondering if it would lead anywhere other than its' existing state. As much as she loved him, she didn't want to be the 'forever girlfriend'. She was very concerned about her options once we graduated, because she didn't want to start the next big part of her life (career) without figuring out how her relationship measured in on it.
About two months after graduating, I got an email from Erin. A GREAT email. She and Tommy had gone to an Angels game one evening. During the game, Tommy gave her the cue to look at the JumboTron and sure enough, there it was: Erin, Will You Marry Me? Tommy was sweet enough to tell about 40 of their family and friends, and he was sly enough to somehow get this large group of people in seats that were directly above/behind them, with only a few rows separating the group from Erin and Tommy, but enough space to allow for their successful hiding when Tommy and Erin entered the stadium. After accepting the proposal, Tommy turned Erin around where she saw this large group standing with signs reading "Congratulations!" Erin is the world's biggest Angels fan, so this proposal in this place with all their family and friends was perfect.
The other proposal, which happened on Christmas Eve, was that of my best friend Ashly and her boyfriend Tom. They were having dinner with friends and family, and Tom was acting nervous all night. Ashly thought it was just because everyone was all in one place at the same time until Tom dropped the bomb. During the dinner, he asked Ashly what she wanted for Christmas. Ashly, not at all thinking that this was going to be a big deal, answered her wish. It wasn't a ring, not that she didn't want one, but that she wasn't expecting Tom to propose this night. She told the group what object she'd been coveting, and she left it at that. Tom asked her if she wanted to know what he wanted, and she didn't because she thought that she already knew... About two seconds later, he stood up in front of everyone and told Ashly that all he wanted for Christmas was to have Ashly with him for life. He knelt down, proposed, offered the ring, and Ashly accepted.
This brings me back to Ryan's proposal. All I knew at that point was that we would be getting engaged sometime during the coming year. The reason I knew that is because when we went to Austin to sign the papers which would kick off the construction of our home, I told Ryan that I would not move out of state with a boyfriend. I didn't think it would be right for me to leave my existing family in California to live with him in HIS home. Plus, we were both already beyond the point of silliness. We were ready. Even in that state of readiness, my proposal was still a gigantic surprise. The second best night of my life.
About two weeks prior to our engagement, Ryan started telling me he wanted to go and see a monster truck show at Angels' Stadium in Anaheim. This wasn't a big surprise. Ryan's a fan of anything that includes demolition. It totally bucks his trend of being a big old engineering nerdy kind of guy. If he wasn't as cute as he is, and if he didn't have the education and compassion that he does, he'd be your average Manly Man. Anyhow, each day leading up to this event, he kept telling me how excited he was to go and how much fun we would have. It was January, it was freezing, and I was thinking that it would be fun for like a half hour and then it would suck.
On the day of the event, he told me to pack my carry-on bag. I was a little surprised. He told me that we weren't going to the monster truck show, we were actually going to Long Beach to spend the next two nights on the yacht where he took me for my birthday a few months prior. I was so excited! The picture of the yacht is below:
At this point, I still thought it was just a weekend getaway, and great surprise at that. We drove to the Albertson's, where we used to shop when we lived in Belmont a few years ago, a bought some wine and cheese and other nibbly foods. We went to the yacht, unloaded everything, and just sat on the back deck for a few hours enjoying the surroundings. Then we ordered food from Gladstone's and brought it back on the boat to eat on the back deck, overlooking the lighthouse and the Queen Mary. After finishing dinner, I went into the cabin to sit next to the amazing little fireplace and watch the NFL playoff game on the plasma screen TV. This yacht is so pretty, inside and out. Here's the cabin area:
So while I was watching the game, Ryan was absent. He does that alot while I'm watching football, so that wasn't a big deal. Just after the game ended, he poked his handsome head inside the cabin and asked me to come up and see something on the back deck. I climbed up the steps and there in front of me was the deck table with a few things sitting on it that weren't there about an hour before. First, there was a very large bottle of Veuve Cliquot Rose. On either side, were sitting two champagne flutes. Directly in front of the champagne bottle was a very large, plastic, diamond ring. This thing could've fit around my wrist, and the 'diamond' was the size of an apple. I was shell-shocked.
Ryan had a big smile on his face, and all I could muster was,"Is this a joke, because if it is, it's not funny!" It was no joke, and I was still shocked. Ryan got down on one knee and said a lot of things to me that I'd only believed were possible in my wildest dreams. He was talking and talking, and I think I started to cry, and of course I said YES! The next best thing was about the ring. He told me that I always said I wanted a big rock, and he didn't know exactly what kind of big rock I wanted, so he had to find a ring to suit that request until we found exactly what I wanted. God, how much do I love this man?!
We found my 'big rock' at a reknowned place in Las Vegas: The Jewelers of Las Vegas. We dealt directly with the owner, Mordechai Yerushalmi. Mordechai has been in business for 35 years and has sold jewelry to people like Elvis, Mike Tyson, Sharon Stone, and thousands of other athletes, actors, entertainers, dignitaries and politicians worldwide. Little did we know that when we bought our ring in February in Vegas, we'd be back there 3 months later to have our wedding at the Bellagio. ahhhhh.....memories!!!
Man am I lucky. I love my husband!!!
Comments