Katie and Cody

Posted Monday, December 01, 2008 10:51 AM

Our engagement was a complete surprise! Cody told me that he received an emergency claim for work that had come in from Madison, which is an hour away from my mom's house in Milwaukee (he’s part-owner of an insurance-adjusting company). Cody said the claim was for a water pipe that had burst in a mall. I'm so gullible, so I totally believed it.

He asked me if I wanted to tag along with him the next morning and do the claim, mostly to keep him company on the drive there, and I obviously said yes! He made a big deal out of printing the paperwork he needed on my family’s printer. Unfortunately, it didn’t work, so we decided to go to Kinko's the next day and print the paperwork before we headed out to Madison. He even had me filling out forms on the drive there so I wouldn't suspect a thing!

We got to Madison, and we started walking into the mall to meet "Steve," the contact for the claim. We walked into the mall, and that was when everything became an "out of body experience.” All of a sudden, he started walking toward a jewelry store, and I followed behind him. I actually asked, "The water pipe broke in a jewelry store?" He didn't answer me and just kept walking inside. When we went in, I didn't see the sign right away, so he had to pull me over to the case, which was about the point where I saw the sign and starting saying things like, "Seriously?" "For real?" "You made us drive to Madison?" I actually said “yes” before he had a chance to ask me on his knee because the sign had the proposal written on it.

Obviously, it was an unforgettable moment. The pictures were taken by the manager of the jewelry store, Helzberg Jewelers, who was in on the whole thing! I actually didn't have a clue she was even standing there during the entire proposal, but I’m so glad she was! She introduced herself and told me that there were some other people who were excited to share our special moment. She pointed behind her, and there crouching behind a jewelry case was my mom with a video camera and my younger brother with his own camera. They’d filmed and taken pictures of the whole thing!

By the way, the guy "Steve," who Cody had spoken to several times on the way to the "claim," was actually my mom! Apparently, my mom and brother had gotten up that morning and driven out to Madison before us so they could meet the florist and bring the ring to the store. I found out later that Cody purchased the ring from Helzberg in Wellington Green, and they suggested proposing in their store, a la Sweet Home Alabama. But he told them he wanted to propose in Wisconsin when we were there seeing all my family. Well, luckily for us, they have a store in Wisconsin! They told him he could use their store in Madison -- and the rest is history!