Christian lured Jilma to Ramscale Studios, where inside waited an accoustic guitar and Spanish-speaking vocalist performing “Quieres Casar Conmigo” (Will ...]]> I have such a great way to start the week today, a gorgeous surprise proposal, designed by Sarah of Brilliant Event Planning.  Christian flew all the way from Mexico to New York to create the perfect proposal for his lovely girlfriend Jilma.

Christian lured Jilma to Ramscale Studios, where inside waited an accoustic guitar and Spanish-speaking vocalist performing “Quieres Casar Conmigo” (Will You Marry Me) by Carlos Baute, and a rustic, natural archway with branches and Spanish moss – which was meant to be the backdrop for Christian’s proposal, except he jumped the gun and proposed before he got there!

I adore this sequence of images that Jennifer captured, so joyous and exciting.

After Jilma’s exuberant “YES” they enjoyed a private dinner al fresco and called friends & family to share the news.

The following NYC wedding vendors contributed to Christian and Jilma’s proposal:

Photography – Jennifer Davis Photography
Catering – Ashton Keefe
Event Planning – Brilliant Event Planning
Stationery – Lion in the Sun
Floral – Villanueva Florals
Venue – Ramscale Studios

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Posted in: getting engaged

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We stayed ...]]> H & I got engaged July 31, 2010 in foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. After a wonderful 2 years of dating, H suggested that we celebrate our anniversary wine tasting and stay at a B&B. He took care of booking the B&B, and I got to choose the vineyards – Sweely Estate Winery, Barboursville Vineyards, and Horton Vineyards.

We stayed at the quaint Ridgeview Bed & Breakfast near Orange, Virginia where Frank and Eleanor took excellent care of us! Our room was wonderful, and breakfast was to die for.

Friday night, H made reservations for us at Elmwood at Sparks in downtown Orange.  The options and presentation were excellent – definitely not expected from such a small town! After an enjoyable dinner and several bottles of wine (!), we went back to the B&B to rest up for the day ahead.

We started early, at Sweely Estate Winery, where the innkeeper, Frank, suggested. Sweely was definitely my favorite of the day. We had trouble deciding which bottles to purchase!

Barboursville was also excellent – we had a great tour of the winemaking areas, and the ruins and the views were spectacular.

What a great day! After lunch and visiting Horton Winery, the third and final winery of the day, we were (or at least I was) ready to head home. But H decided we NEEDED a picture with the mountains in the background. Knowing H’s quirks, I didn’t think anything of this. I did, however, think it was hilarious that he, the usual stress-free driver, was getting annoyed at every little thing – like the trailer that pulled out in front of us with hay bails going 5 miles per hour. So funny, that I even took a picture! Little did I know…

That we were pulling over on the side of the road to “take a picture” with the mountains in the background (it was overcast, so you can’t see them well). H set up the camera like he was taking an automatic picture, but instead turned on the video camera, came over to where I was standing and got down on one knee to tell me how much he loved me and wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. I was totally taken aback and may or may not have shouted “you must be kidding me!” along with some few choice words not to be repeated! I was definitely surprised! And then, of course, I said YES!

We had actually found the ring in March. While shopping for antiques for the house, we stumbled into Anthill Antiques in the Carytown district of Richmond, not far from our house. H went straight to look at coins, while I browsed the jewelry, and tried (not so stealthily) to try on this classic diamond ring before he noticed (I was embarrassed). Needless to say, I was caught. Judy, one of the owners, explained to us that it was an Orange Blossom ring dating somewhere between 1930 and 1970. I did some research on-line and determined that it was made by Traub, a jeweler in Detroit, Michigan sometime between 1940 and 1950. And, it fit perfectly! H went back a few weeks later in April, and just barely kept a secret (my close girlfriends all knew and did an excellent job keeping it) for over 4 months!

Antique rings are definitely not for everyone – but I was never one to dream of what my ring may look like as a young girl; I only wanted it to be unique. My ring is modest, but one of a kind and just my style (not to mention affordable)!

Were you completely surprised by your proposal?

*all images from author’s personal collection

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Posted in: getting engaged

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The mission was appointed for Thursday night. It was my first night off of ...]]> I knew this was coming, but I had no idea when. As far as I was concerned, Captain Awesome hadn’t talked to my parents. I was convinced my mom would have slipped that to me on purpose/accident, whatever. But she didn’t. They lied to me for weeks.

The mission was appointed for Thursday night. It was my first night off of work all week and we had planned a casual dinner/ice cream date. Because I thought it was a casual date, I planned a meeting for the womens group I am in charge of at church, right in the middle of the date–no big deal. We made dinner (delicious egg rolls) and Captain Awesome was kind of weird the whole time. He usually won’t stop talking and there was just a little too much quiet for me. BUT…I kept telling myself, he isn’t going to propose tonight because he hasn’t talked to my parents.

My meeting was at 7:30 and the Captain dropped me off at the Church–told me to call him when I got out so he could come pick me up. The meeting was supposed to be 45 minutes, it was an hour and a half! I finally get out of my meeting and the anxious Captain was waiting outside, in different, nicer clothes. Hmm. But wait, he hasn’t talked to my parents! He quickly told me he changed clothes due to the grease he spilled on him at dinner. (later he told me it really was an accident spilling the grease but he was going to have to think of something to spill on him if that wouldn’t have happened).

Then it was off to the local ice cream shop in Denton, Beth Marie’s.

Way back when we first started dating, we would count reasons why we liked each other. If the Captain did something awesome (or dumb) I would pull out a random big number…”reason #4582 why I like you. One day, we decided to start back at 1 and actually count for real. Then I said, “What happens when we get to 100?” And both of us at the same time said, “Ice cream!”

I love him.

That was the excuse for Beth Marie’s…which is on the old-fashioned Square in the middle of Denton.

After Ice cream (where the Captain is still acting a bit weird) we walk across the street to the old courthouse–all the while, I am yak yak yaking about how my hairdresser is too busy for me and I need a haircut…blah blah blah. He is trying to get this segue into the proposal and I won’t shut up about my hair.

We get to the courthouse and walk up some stairs to this patio area and the Captain says, “Can we stop talking about hair? I need to talk to you about something….Let’s talk.”

Oh no!

He had been weird all night and my first thought was…he is going to postpone this.

He starts saying a bunch of mushy gushy lovey dovey stuff, “I love you, you make me so happy, I am so happy, I wanna marry you…” Ok, we already established that. Thank you. Is there a “but…”

No buts about it.

He says, “Sallie, will you be a spy with me for the rest of our lives?”
(We LOVE the show “Chuck”)

“Well Yeah!” This isn’t an unusual request from Captain Awesome so I didn’t think anything of it.

Then…he pops out a walkie talkie from his pocket and I knew something was about to go down.

Captain: “Air Support, come in”

Then I hear the Captain’s brother-in-law on the other end of the walkie talkie:

“Air support here. Air support coming in 10 seconds.”

Then, the Captain’s sister, Allyse,  prances around the corner and very officially hands me a bouquet of big white gerbera daisies. My favorite.

Captain: “Air Support, send in the bubbles”

Greg: (brother in law) “Sending in the bubbles”

I look over to see Allyse vigorously blowing bubbles in our direction.

Captain: “Air Support…do you copy?”

Greg: “Air Support copies…”

Captain: “Send in the Rubber Duck”

Greg: “Rubber duck is on it’s way”

The ring box suddenly appears on the patio and Captain Awesome grabs the ring, gets down on one knee and says more AWESOME lovey dovey mushy goodness and says, “Sallie, will you marry me?”

I literally squeal yes!

Kissy, Kissy…and the first question: Did you talk to my parents?

Apparently that went down the week before without me knowing.

The Captain and I are very fun loving, free spirited people.  I love him more than anything in this world.

Did your fiance have any “Air Support” when he proposed?

Coming soon: A groom who cares, picking a color palette, and invitations.

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Posted in: getting engaged

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Dave had been acting in a somewhat mysterious manner for about two weeks.  My inner Nancy Drew was curious (Scarlet Slipper Mystery, anyone?), and my inner bride-to-be was hopeful (given the fact that, at that point, we’d been together ...]]> Hi again friends!  Anybody want to hear a story?  I like to call it “He Asked and She Said Yes (I Think).”

Dave had been acting in a somewhat mysterious manner for about two weeks.  My inner Nancy Drew was curious (Scarlet Slipper Mystery, anyone?), and my inner bride-to-be was hopeful (given the fact that, at that point, we’d been together for almost 7 years), but I had no idea as to what was in store that night (with “that night” being September 13, 2009).

Sidenote: I really use too many parentheses.

After showing up at his house in my pajamas around 8 pm (and BEYOND excited for the season finale of True Blood), he asked if I could come help put a few pool chairs away — a pretty common task.  The pool chairs live in the pool house, so after we went outside, I picked up a chair as Dave headed toward the pool house in order to open the door and turn on the light (or so I thought).  Door open?  Check.  Light on?  Not so much.  I looked at him with raised eyebrows in order to indicate that a little light would be nice, but he just stared at me and smiled.  I then said “Um, honey?  Did you want to get that?” (as I sarcastically thought “Way to help out, Boyfriend”… nice, huh?).  He continued to ignore me and smile, so somewhat huffily, I said “Fine then, I guess I’ll do it myself”.  I put my chair down and turned on the light in the pool house, then saw him fumbling with his pocket.  However, while I noticed him reaching into his pocket, I managed to completely miss the ENORMOUS wood sign which read “Will you marry me Teresa”.  Go figure.  He looked at me expectantly, so I looked around and then saw the sign, and when I turned back to him, he was down on one knee.

Apparently he asked me and apparently I said yes, although the only thing I actually remember saying (through tears) was “Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, DON’T SHUT UP!”

Always the classy one, I tell you…

I later found out that he’d wanted the sign to be floating in the pool, but realized that the sign would most likely sink… therefore, to avoid using scuba suits and goggles in the proposal, he kept it in the pool house.  And now I get to sand it, paint it, and put it somewhere in our (future) home.  I’m thinking headboard?  Dining room table?  Any suggestions? :)

p.s. Want to see the ring?  Come back for post numero tres!

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Posted in: getting engaged

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From the beginning, our relationship was easy. We had an immediate connection and everything came natural to us. There were no embarrassing moments or awkward silences. It really feels as though we have ...]]> After becoming engaged, I quickly found out that after you receive the congratulations and ring inspection then comes the questions. One of which being “how did Tristan propose?!”

From the beginning, our relationship was easy. We had an immediate connection and everything came natural to us. There were no embarrassing moments or awkward silences. It really feels as though we have known each other forever, as cliche as that sounds. Our relationship has always been based on communication. In fact, the very first day we spent together, we talked for over 7 hours straight!  So when it came time to discuss marriage, the conversation was easy, honest and open. There was no surprise box given or the standard down-on-one knee in the middle of dinner, just a simple conversation. After deciding to get engaged, we shopped on eBay for the perfect vintage engagement ring and found one for a bargain!

I’ll admit it’s a bit awkward at times when people eagerly ask for the proposal story and are met with “we just decided we were ready”. However I don’t wish for a second that Tristan had an elaborate scheme planned for the proposal. Sitting on the couch in our pj’s, discussing the commitment to each other and the plans for our future- to me, it was perfect.

Did you have a similar proposal?

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Posted in: getting engaged

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One of the personality traits ...]]> This was written by the mister, and posted with his permission. I just couldn’t resist giving you his side of the story because he is such a talented writer (I’m so proud!) and let’s face it, I didn’t know what was going on this whole time so he’s the only one who can truly tell it!

One of the personality traits Melissa and I share is a distaste for doing things with only marginal success. If I cannot be the best at something after just a short while then I quickly lose interest. Now, I admit this is not the most positive of traits as it can cause me to avoid doing a great many things. Knowing full well I only had one shot to propose (apart from mumbling the first go ’round) I was committed to making it count.

Before I continue I must relate just how stressful this whole scenario is for the guy. There is a tremendous amount of pressure to be as spectacular and memorable and better than “that other guy’s proposal”. This isn’t just a question you’re asking it is a part of history. The big bang, the discovery of America, the Great War, WWII, the civil rights movement – all meaningless in comparison. My shoulders are strained just thinking about it.

First thing first, I needed a ring. Ages ago I asked Melissa to send me some examples of rings she liked so when the time was here I could have something to go off of. Melissa being Melissa decided to eschew any rings that could be obtained easily or locally. No, she wanted a ring from a guy who only makes rings when someone custom orders them. He lives in England, but thankfully, with the advent of the internet, he gladly takes orders from ’round the globe. After choosing the biggest diamond and shiniest silvery metal I could afford I sent my payment and was told not to worry that he would get right on it and it would be ready to go in just 4 weeks.

Having never purchased jewelry of any kind from anywhere, let alone a diamond engagement ring from a guy in a garage 4,000 miles away I was immediately worried. I kept reassuring myself that this man makes his living selling custom made rings and that creating an entire website complete with shoddy photographs and late 90′s design just to take my money and run would be ludicrous. The fact he didn’t respond to my emails simply meant he was busy in his basement stoking fires and cleaning his instruments. Surely, he wasn’t ignoring my emails because he was in Monte Carlo spending several months of my savings on Blackjack and martinis.

At the end of week 5, when I could barely sleep and seeing anything shiny, round or glimmering made me start to sob a little, I sent a final email asking if he could just please let me know what is going on and I didn’t mean to bother, but could he at least let me know if he had any success at the blackjack table since I never seem to when I’m spending my money gambling. Again, there was radio silence. After various fantasies of me flying to Monte Carlo to hunt this guy down and take back what’s mine, and figuring out just how I am going to scrape together the money for another ring (which she would most likely hate) I received a slip of paper in the post box indicating I had a package from England I must sign for waiting for me at the post office. Naturally, I assumed this was a photo of the jeweler with a couple cheap European floozies and a fan made of $100 dollar bills with a big “wish you were here” sign written on the bottom.

Having convinced myself I should at least see what the guy looks like I head to the post office and pick up my package. After wrestling with a Russian nesting doll style packaging job I pulled out a little brown box with an amazing custom made ring inside. This was it! I did it! I can relax! But wait…how am I going to do this? I don’t know how to make a great proposal! Why couldn’t that guy have stolen my money? He must be some jerk..I made it easy for him! All he had to do was avoid meeting the terms of our agreement and I could avoid all this proposal stress!

After I woke up from having passed out in the post office parking lot I somehow got the courage to see this through. Not only was I going to do this, I was going to do this better than anyone else ever has! I had a whole host of ideas some which would have cost more than the ring, some which may be illegal. I thought hard about what makes Melissa smile the most and one recurring theme was the band Mates of State. She doesn’t just talk about them she gushes about them. If you didn’t know Melissa you’d think they were her children. I knew they weren’t quite popular enough to be stuck up so I went to their website and found their email address. I sent them an email with two sections (to make it easy to dismiss quickly if need be). I had a short section: “Will you help me propose to my girlfriend?” and a long section which went into much more detail of what I had in mind. I stressed that I completely understood they weren’t sitting around just waiting for an email to come in asking them to work for free so if they couldn’t do it, just please let me know. I didn’t want to hang onto that idea for any longer than necessary.

Well, they probably saw that I asked them to let me know if they couldn’t do it and decided it would be best if they let me sweat over it and never write back at all. This is the best route for becoming a sell-out jerk of a pop star and they are well on their way…

Coming up soon was Memorial day weekend and we talked about going to New York City. Melissa had a couple of art shows she wanted to see and I love going to NYC even if it’s only to stand around like an idiot and eat hot dogs. We booked a hotel and I decided, if nothing else, that at least I could propose in New York and we could then visit it on our anniversary. She would see her art shows that would make her happy and then I could propose and just put her over the top. It’ll be brilliant! The national news will pick it up! We’ll be on the front page! Twitterers will tweet!

We get up early on Saturday morning and begin the 4 hour drive up. After having just driven out of Baltimore when the traffic started to thin out a little my fortitude did as well. I immediately remember what I only should have remembered a couple hours ago. I didn’t move the ring from my sock drawer to my overnight bag. Melissa was in the room while I was packing and I had to make a mental note to go back and grab it before we left. Apparently my mental notes are much like my desk notes, which is to say scattered, illegible, and useful only for disposing of gum. What was I going to do now? I was not ready to give in so I decided I would find a stand-in ring. A temporary substitute that after a short explanation we can laugh about. This would only add to her excitement since she wouldn’t know what the real ring would look like, right? Right..?

After checking into the hotel we clean up, have some lunch, and head over to the first gallery. It’s clear across town and Google maps tells us it takes about 30 minutes to get to by subway. What they don’t tell you is it takes even longer when you can’t find the place and have to walk around with your head facing the sky like like you’re in traction. This process takes an additional 30 minutes or so. Once we get to the correct address we notice it has bars on the windows and one of those roll-down gates tightly secured. What a funny way to run a gallery. I mean most people would simply think it was closed. Well, it was closed. There was no sign or any indication on the gallery’s website. They just decided to close up shop. It was disappointing to be sure, but we still have the second exhibit to visit and plenty of time to spend in NYC.

We find our way back to the subway with ease and head downtown to the other gallery. Again, this gallery wasn’t the easiest place to find, but we eventually do and walk on in the building. We ask the security guard where the suite is and he tells us up on the 6th floor, but he’s pretty sure no one’s up there. Well of course there won’t be a lot of people there. It’s an art gallery. What do they get maybe 3 or 4 people at a time? On this particular day they got zero people because they were closed. Running through my mind were visions of the jeweler, Mates of State, the first gallery owner and now the second gallery owner all crowding around a TV (in Monte Carlo) watching us through a closed circuit camera system, laughing hysterically at everything they’ve put me through.

Despite these setbacks neither of us were particularly salty. We were a little bummed, but decided it wasn’t gonna get us down and we walked over to NoLita/SoHo to do some shopping at all the little boutiques. We passed by a jewelry shop when I suggested we go inside (thinking I could find a surrogate ring). Melissa only stood bewildered for a few minutes before agreeing and after spending 30 seconds inside we decided not only was everything in there completely hideous, they were also overpriced (and ugly too). We finished out the trip by eating some pizza and watching a french movie. I never found the right moment, and without a ring of any kind I decided the whole proposal will have to wait. Getting engaged in NYC just wasn’t meant to be.

On the way home I suggested a stop for lunch in Philadelphia. I was still holding out hope that even without a ring I could find that perfect moment when everything seemed just right and I could pop the question. We had lunch and left within a couple hours because we had no more quarters left for the meter. Welp, there goes that idea.

It was a long exhausting drive home and the both of us just wanted to sit down, veg out and do absolutely nothing. Sitting there next to Melissa I thought to myself there is no such thing as the perfect time. I could wait for years until the stars aligned and the weather was right I hired just the right clown to make the perfect proposal. I didn’t want to wait any longer. I went to my sock drawer, grabbed the ring and sat down. Melissa was on her laptop (but you probably already knew this) so I had to grab her hand to get her attention. I simply let her know what had happened and that I came to the conclusion that waiting for the perfect moment is less important to me than starting our journey together as soon as we can. And that’s that. That’s how I proposed to my future wife.

In case you were wondering, she said “Yes”.

How adorable is that? Does anyone else have a proposal that didn’t go exactly as planned? Didn’t it end up just perfect anyway?

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Posted in: getting engaged

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