Danielle and Mitch's Engagement Story

Danielle and I decided to share each of our stories of what happened the night I proposed. We also included some pictures from that evening.

A little setup for the story:

Danielle and I have been together for almost 6 years. Needless to say she was anxiously waiting for the day that I would propose to her. Her plan has been to get married in June 2004, and she said she needed at least a year to plan for it, so she thought that I would be proposing sometime this May or June. 

We went and looked at rings in January and Danielle found a ring that she loved. I didn't buy it then, but the saleswoman told me she would hold it (Danielle was off looking around so she didn't know).

Our spring break was March 17 to March 24. Danielle decided that she needed to stay in Cedar Falls and do homework, so I had the perfect opportunity to go home and set everything up without her having any clue what was going on.

I needed some way to throw her completely off track, so before I went home for spring break I told Danielle that I had to get my car checked out because it wasn't working quite right. Then I called her later in the week and told her that it had cost $2000 to get it fixed and I was going to have to pay for it myself. She called her mom and complained that now she was never going to get married because I didn't have any money to buy a ring.  I also told her that we had to go to my grandma's birthday party on Friday night and that we need to dress up for it. I now had a way to get her there and she would never expect what was going to happen.

On Wednesday I picked up the ring and went and asked her parents for permission. Deb said she would be honored to have me in their family, and so did RJ, although he had a few interesting questions first.

Danielle had an interview on Friday morning, so I drove her to Des Moines for the interview and then to Lake McBride near Solon for my grandma's fictional party. My parents had set everything up at the park and were hiding out of sight waiting for us to arrive.

Danielle's Story

(As told in an email to a friend)

...remember that birthday party I had to go to Friday night.  Well, it turned out that Mitch had been lying to me all week.  He actually had a romantic night planned so he could PROPOSE!!!!!!!!  Yes, that's right I am now an engaged woman.  It still makes me very giddy.  He totally surprised me.  I really had no idea.  I just thought that doing something like making up a story like that and doing it right now would be the only way that he could surprise me since I was convinced that it wouldn't be until May or June. 

Here's the story:

He had made us dress up for the "party" so I had a dress on and he was wearing dress pants and a tie.  We went to Lake McBride Park in Solon.  We got to the lodge were the "party" was and no one was in the parking lot.  It was a surprise party so he said that the cars were all parked in some other lot.  We parked by the building because he said he wanted to go in and check and then he would move the car.  It's funny because as he got out of the car he got something out of the back seat and I looked at his pockets to see if I could see a ring box just because it was in the back of my head that that might be what was going on.  

So we got out of the car and walked around to the back of the building.  It was weird because the building looked dark.  So, we got to the back which was on top of a hill overlooking the lake.  When we got up there, we went to the patio which was enclosed by two walls.  Sitting on the patio, there was a picnic set up on the floor with candles burning, a fire going in the fire place, and music playing.  There were rose petals sprinkled all over and just a beautiful sight.  There were Champaign classes sitting on top of little plates and white cloth napkins folded prettily in the glasses.  To eat there was fancy cheese that we see on the food network, bread, chocolate, grapes, strawberries, and nonalcoholic wine on ice. 

He told me that he had done it to make up for not taking a trip for spring break so I figured that's what it was for.  We sat down and started eating some of the food and he kept sneaking little kisses.  There was a picnic basket also that he then pulled a long stemmed red rose out of.  Then he came over and asked me to dance.  He had made a CD the night before with romantic songs.  We danced for awhile and then he told me to turn around and close my eyes.  At this point I still wasn't sure whether he was going to propose.  I didn't want to get my hopes up to be crushed.  I could hear that he got a paper out of the picnic basket.  He came back and danced with me some more.  (He said it was because he couldn't talk because he was getting chocked up.)  I kept looking around to try and figure out if there was something that I was supposed to see but I didn't find anything. 

Finally he pulled it together and told me that he had a poem to read to me.  He had found something but adapted it so it fit us better.  He started reading and of course I started crying.  Then he got down on his knee and pulled out the ring and said that we had had good times and bad times but he knew that he wanted to spend all of his times with me. Then he asked me to marry him.  He put the ring on my finger as he asked and I couldn't even look because I still didn't think that it was really happening.  I thought he was playing a mean trick and was putting a plastic ring from a gumball machine on my finger.  I just stood there looking dumbfounded not saying anything.  I just couldn't believe what was going on.  Then I knelt down and hugged and kissed him.  Then he told me that I hadn't answered him yet so of course I said yes.  I don't know why I didn't answer him.  It was in my head that I needed to say something but I was in total shock and couldn't get it out.  Then we stood up  and he made me look at the ring because I hadn't yet. I couldn't even believe it.  I must say that it's absolutely beautiful.  I just kept giggling and couldn't stop smiling.  I was afraid it was all a dream. 

 We stayed there for awhile until I was ready to see people because his family was waiting outside in the parking lot because they were going to clean it all up.  So finally we went out and saw them and then we came in and had a toast and took some pictures.  Then we went out to eat where we met my family and his grandma.  It was the greatest night of my life.  Everyone in my family said that they had never seen me so happy.  I can't stop smiling and my cheeks hurt so bad from it.  For that whole night I wouldn't have looked at the ring for awhile and then I would look down and just giggle again because I couldn't believe it and I guess forgot about what it looked like. 

Mitch's Story

(Coming Soon)