The proposal
Posted
Wednesday, March 05, 2008 3:21 PM
I realized that I've never described my proposal on this blog and since nothing of note happened in the last day, here it is:
From January 2006-August 2006 M worked an internship a few hours away from our home city. He continued paying rent at our apartment but also rented a room in a big old house in a small town near his internship. We visited each other every weekend, but still, it was pretty hard being apart for those months (it was a little easier because he was making over $20 bucks an hour...)
Within a week of his return back to our home city, he became very antsy over going on a walk to our favorite spot along the lake, Picnic Point (a peninsula into one of Madison's lakes). It rained the first day we planned on going, but he was insistent we go on this walk the next day. I figured he just missed being in Madison...
Our walk out to Picnic Point was uneventful, the path is rocky and M continuously complained of a rock in his shoe. As we neared the end of the peninsula, a short path cut off to a large rock over looking the lake. I suggested we stop at the rock so we could put on bug spray and M could get the rock out of his shoe.
I went to work covering myself in bug spray while M dug around in his shoe. He then turned to me, shoe in hand, and said "I can't get the rock out, maybe your fingers are small enough" and handed me his shoe. This didn't seem unreasonable to me, so I stuck my hand in his shoe. Instead of finding a rock though, my hand hit against a ring box.
We had not discussed getting engaged, although it was obvious to both of us that each other was "the one". Still, it was a complete and utter surprise. "What's this?" I asked. "Open it." So I did, and inside was a beautiful ring. "What is this??" I asked again, and then he proposed to me (the words of which I don't remember as I was pretty shocked the whole thing was happening in the first place) to which I, of course, replied yes. (Unlike when he first asked me to be his girlfriend to which I responded that I would need to think about it...)
I've later learned the story of the ring. While making $20 an hour, it occurred to him that this would be a good time to buy a diamond, so he started doing research, when a guy in his company told him he was selling a ring from his son's broken engagement. M haggled the price down to a reasonable range, but didn't like the setting at all. So M became a jewelry expert and literally designed the ring himself. He asked around and was directed to a nice jeweler (which has since gone out of business) who was able to make the ring he wanted. M's family knew he was going to propose, and when M went to pick up the ring, the jeweler told him the payment had already been taken care of... M's dad called ahead and paid the balance.
The ring (I can't seem to find a picture): A 3/4 ct princess cut diamond (G/H-VS2) with a deep blue "AA" trinity cut sapphire on either side, set in white gold. Lucky for M, I had never thought about what I'd want in an engagement ring before, so it's perfect :-)