Melinda and Joe

Posted Monday, May 05, 2008 11:21 AM

Things don’t always go as planned

Joe went to a lot of trouble prepping his proposal. He thought for a long time about little things that he knew I'd like and wrapped them all up into one day -- with some creative flair. We usually have weekly "date nights" or "date days" where we go and do something fun/interesting. Joe planned to propose on one of our "date days" so I wouldn't suspect what was going to happen. He spent months planning exactly what he was going to do. The night before the proposal, he went grocery shopping and prepped everything he needed to come over to my place the next morning and make me a gourmet breakfast (my favorite meal of the day). He even planned on picking up my favorite kind of coffee from my favorite coffee shop on the way to my apartment that morning. So, the morning of the proposal, he woke up, got everything he needed together, got into his car…and it wouldn't start! He had to go back, wake up his roommate in a panic, and beg him to borrow his mint green station wagon (fondly nicknamed the "junk trunk") in order to get out to see me! What a start to his day!

Finally, a smoother ride

Everything went much more smoothly after that. As soon as Joe got to my apartment and had made me one of the best breakfasts of my life, he told me that our "date day" was going to be at The Huntington Gardens (in Pasadena, California), this amazing house/museum surrounded by acres of different kinds of botanical gardens. He also informed me that our mutual friend was going to come and join us to take some pictures of us to give to our parents as Christmas presents (it was November at the time). I totally bought the story. After changing my clothes about five times, Joe whisked an unsuspecting me off to The Huntington Gardens.

A picture perfect puzzled proposal

The day was beautiful, and Joe and I spent some ample time just walking the grounds and talking. We ended up in the Japanese gardens (my favorite). We decided that this would be the place where we could get our pictures taken, so Joe called our friend and told her to come on over. He pulled a blanket out of the backpack he had brought along and laid it on the grass. As we both flopped down onto it, Joe turned to me and said, "Mel, I have something for you." He took a medium-sized box out of his backpack. By this point I was getting pretty suspicious about what was going to happen, but the box was too big to be a ring box. Inside was the last thing I expected -- an over-sized jigsaw puzzle. Joe told me that we were going to put the puzzle together but that I had to read the back of each piece before putting it in place. On the back of each piece, Joe had written a sentence either describing a favorite memory/experience we'd had together (such as: "Do you remember: our first kiss?") or a sentence stating something that he loved about me ("You're so beautiful. At times you literally take my breath away."). Finally, after putting all the pieces in place, I found that there was one piece missing. Joe pulled it out of his backpack and handed it to me. I turned it over and read, "Do you remember: the time I proposed to you at The Huntington Gardens?" I looked up teary-eyed and there he was on one knee, holding out a beautiful ring and asking me to be his wife.

Also, little did I know that our mutual friend was in on the plan. She had been hidden, taking pictures of the whole thing, and then took pictures of us around the gardens so we could remember the day. Joe put a lot of thought into how to make that day unforgettable, and he succeeded fantastically. I couldn't have imagined a better or more meaningful proposal, and I couldn't have fathomed that I would be engaged to a man as amazing as Joe.