Posted Monday, May 12, 2008 10:40 AM
Lost hope for the perfect proposal
Joel and I took a trip to Greece during the end of September. I had an inkling that he was going to propose on the trip since my mom slipped and told me he had asked for her and my father's permission to propose. However, after a few days in Greece, which included many romantic dinners, strolls along gorgeous beaches, and breathtaking sunsets, I gave up hope.
A no-frills romantic tavern in Santorini
On the fifth day of our Grecian adventure, Joel and I traveled to the island of Santorini. We arrived at our hotel late in the evening and inquired about nearby restaurants where we could grab some dinner. We were given a flashlight and told to walk half a mile down the beach to get to a local tavern.
The seafront tavern was small, charming, and far from glamorous. The sun was long gone, replaced by a bright full moon, and light poured out of the restaurant windows onto the open-air patio where we were seated. Our entertainment was watching the stray cats and dogs scattered on the beach sand, waiting for table scraps. With the waves crashing in the background, the ambience was set for a romantic meal.
I, however, was in no such mood for romance. During dinner, I remember Joel staring at me quite a bit. Being the anti-romantic I was that day, I annoyingly asked, "WHAT?!"
He sweetly replied, "Can't I just look at you?"
I responded by rolling my eyes and continued to eat my meal. Once finished, we grabbed our flashlight for the dark walk back along the beach to the hotel. Then, the most uncanny thing happened. One of the stray dogs (seemed to be of German Shepherd descent) got up from his resting spot on the sand and began walking with us. I felt a little uneasy about our large, furry companion, so I willingly took Joel's hand when he offered it. As he grabbed my hand, I felt something poking me. Thinking it was our room key and wondering why one would hold a room key in the hand they were going to hold someone's hand with, I snapped, "What is poking me?!"
The unsuspecting moonlit proposal on the beach
Still holding my hand, his feet now stood still, and I turned to face him. He got down on one knee and said, "Vanessa, will you marry me?"
In his hand, he held a ring, and again, in typical fashion, I responded in semi-disbelief: "Shut up." I kept looking down at him, with the ring in one hand and my hand in the other. The only words that kept coming out of my mouth were, "Shut up," accompanied with an occasional eye-roll. After a few moments, I came to my senses and replied with the answer he had been longing for: "Yes!"
Joel stood up and in ready excitement said, "You HAVE to see this ring!" He then shone the flashlight onto the ring he held.
Feeling the excitement of his proposal, I didn't care what the ring looked like and said, "Put it on my finger!" to which he happily obliged.
The oddest thing about that night was the aforementioned stray. During the proposal, the dog had wandered off, but when we continued our way to the hotel, he was back by our side. It wasn't until we reached the outdoor staircase to our second-floor villa that he turned and walked away. During his time with us, he never once tried to garner any attention; he was just a silent companion in the night. Joel and I have never been ones to believe in the supernatural, but we feel like this event was something special. We like to think that, through that stray, we had all of our loved ones with us, blessing the evening and our engagement.
Greece, the beach, a moonlit walk, and a dog? What could have made the proposal more perfect? Maybe the perfect man -- luckily, he was there too!
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.
