David and I have discussed marriage for a long time now. Once I decided I liked him, it wasn�t very long before I decided I loved him; and once I decided I loved him, there was nothing I wanted more than to make our relationship permanent. David felt the same way, and started looking for a ring around Christmas 2003.
The ring buying process totally consumed David. He was pulled in by the diamond companies� 4 C�s, and as complusive as he is, he couldn�t bring himself to buy anything less than perfect. I requested a princess solitaire, and evidently, you cannot find a completely perfect princess-cut diamond. David came close!
Looking for a ring became an obsession for David, and this nerosis became the source of many family jokes. Of course, my parents didn�t even know that we were this serious, but my sister and David�s family were well aware of the situation.
Anyway, I go into this detail because it is important to note that as the holidays approached in 2004, there was no ring in sight. I was ready to force him to buy something less-than-perfect, but David would have nothing of it.
This whole situation really started to get me down, so in order to cheer me up, David asked me out on a date for Friday, October 1. This did not strike me as unusual, because we like to dress up and go out every now and then.
I asked to go to Miyako, which is a new Japanese steakhouse in Lexington. I wore my slinkiest black cocktail dress, and Monica (who is a sophomore at Lexington Beauty College) offered to do my hair. She also loaned me a pair of kickin� stilleto heels, which were uncomfortable but super cute! I was very tired after a long week, and I mentioned to Monica in passing that I hoped David and I wouldn�t be out late. Of course, when David showed up, that was the first thing Monica told him. I didn�t know it at the time, but he was incredibly nervous and started spouting out about how �we [didn�t] have to stay out long,� and basically stumbled all over himself. I backpedaled and said that I would enjoy having a long evening together.
Our dinner was wonderful. Miyako, while not quite as good as Nagasaki quality-wise, made up for it in price and entertainment. I ordered shrimp and chicken, and David ordered the filet. Nothing was unusual about these selections; but David hardly touched his food. I ate all of mine and most of his! After paying our check, David had to go to the bathroom.
I waited, and waited, and waited, and waited. The other people at the table started to notice that he wasn't coming back and started to make friendly jokes with me. They ended up waiting there until David came back. I was a little concerned, but David cleared it up with perhaps one of the most believable lies ever... the food ran right through him and he wasn't feeling good.
As we left the restaurant, David asked me what I wanted to do. Imagine what would have happened had I said "go see a movie"! I said, as usual, that I didn't care, so David suggested that we go out to Wesley Woods because he wanted to show me how beautiful the lake was. This made me a little suspicious, but David made a call to the caretaker to see if we could come out, so everything seemed okay.
We parked the car at the edge of the woods and had to walk back to the lake. At this point, I was really regretting borrowing Monica's shoes. As we headed around a bend in the trail, a beautiful sight came into view. There were tiki torches everywhere and a white tent glowing from candlelight. David escorted me into the tent; and there I saw beautiful burgandy carpet on the floor and burgandy velvet hanging from the ceiling. There were pillars, candles, hanging lamps, and greenery. The back of the tent had been left open to show about 200 tealights floating on the lake, but where it was so dark outside, it looked as though the lights were floating in nothingness.
On a rose petal-covered table, there were two pieces of Brownie-swirl cheesecake, and David poured us both a glass of sparkling grape juice. Unfortunately, I had eaten so much at dinner, there was no room left for me to enjoy the dessert. David could hardly eat, so he turned on some music. We danced to Frankie Valli's "You're just too good to be true."
Finally, David set me down on the couch and brought over a little treasure chest. He mentioned something about my having been depressed and him wanting to do something nice for me, and I thought to myself, "if this isn't a proposal, I'll kill him." But then he opened the box, got down on one knee, and asked me to marry him.
I took my time in responding, because I wanted to be sure that this was the right thing to do. But when I looked into his big blue eyes brimming with tears, I could say nothing other than "of course."
He slipped the ring on my finger, and I was looking forward to spending time together in this beautiful fantasy environment he had created especially for me. Unfortunately, he seemed to have another case of the runs, and insisted that I accompany him up to the main pavilion where the restrooms were located. This was about as unromantic an end to the evening as I could picture, but I went up with him anyway.
When we got to the pavilion, David turned on a light to reveal all of our family sitting there. Our parents, siblings, grandparents, and even many of our cousins were able to be there. Several people fixed dessert, and we had a mini-reception right there on the spot. We were able to get lots of nice pictures, but I kept thinking about how much I just wanted to be with my fiance right then...
Once things settled down, many people decided to go down and see the scene of the engagements and take photos of me and David sitting in the tent. Finally, everyone left, and David and I shared our first few moments together as an engaged couple. |
