"The eagle has landed."
How it all went down, on December 17, 2013
at Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens.
His
The ball was set into action around early November 2013. I had been vloging each step of the way and every decision I had made, and at this point in time I had taken the official first step and actually purchased the ring. Every day I was so scared of her accidently finding it that I couldn't even let myself leave it at home, so I wore the same oversized leather jacket every single day and kept the ring (in the box) in the inside pocket. This may not have been the brightest idea, because I would end up having a slight panic attack every time we would hug.
Step two of my plan was to do something cheesy. Eventually I learned that she wanted to read the The Lord of The Rings books and then it hit me, I would write the story of our relationship, incorporate it into these books that she really wants to read, and then lead her on a journey through our relationship using these edited books. I ended up purchasing two box sets of the books (one to put our story in and one for her to actually read) and getting them shipped to a friends house who was helping me with my proposal. After many hand cramps and lots of glue, I finally had the book ready for action.
Step three was to organize the perfect proposal at the perfect location. Chelsea and I had talked about going to Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens recently and my friend confirmed that it would be a beautiful location. So that was it, I was going to propose to her at Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens on the night of Saturday, December 14th and my friend was going to bring the edited books and be there to take photos too.
Turns out...When it came to that night, it rained and our plans were canceled. We had to reschedule it for the next time that my friend was free, which was on the following Tuesday. That was fine with me, but I had to find a way to fend off Chelsea's "Why can't we go tonight?" every night until then. Finally Tuesday rolls around and the game is on!
After work we headed to the Botanical Gardens and started touring the beautiful Christmas lights, while I was secretly guiding us away from my friend and his wife who were already there with the wrapped books. After touring almost the whole grounds, we started to head back toward the center near a water fountain and I get a text from an unknown number saying "The eagle has landed". As I'm walking hand in hand with her I think, "Who in the world is this?" and then it hits me, "It's on!". We walk up the stairs to the fountain, I spot the wrapped box on a bench to the left and try to turn that way but since we had already toured that side Chelsea wouldn't budge, so we ended up walking around the whole fountain to get back to the bench. She sat down, unwrapped the books, and worked her way through the journey of our relationship I had writen in the books. As she reached the end of the story my heart started racing so fast I felt like I needed to run a couple laps of the place, but as she ended I was able to calmly say my piece and ask the big question.
Hers
In mid October of 2013, Kevin and I began to mention getting engaged. Little conversations popped up here and there, with not so subtle hints from me about him visiting jewelry stores over the holiday sales.
I had an idea of when he would propose, thinking he was planning it for the night of my college graduation. Which led to me begging him not to – how horrible (or selfish) is that, really? I didn’t want him to propose in front of such a large group, even though they were all family. He promised not to, and he didn’t. Graduation came and went flawlessly, on December 14.
I knew that Kevin had another plan in place – one that would be perfect for the two of us. All of these days led up to me finding packages from the USPS that I wasn’t supposed to see, spotting a ton of paper and glue sticks lying around the apartment, and lots of frustration on both ends. I knew something was coming, and was trying not to ruin it by asking questions – which is literally the hardest thing in the world to do.
With Christmas fast approaching, we were planning our first trip to Daniel Stowe to look at Christmas lights for a Saturday, but it rained for most of the day, which led to us rescheduling. Of course, I wanted to go on the following day, but Kevin insisted that we couldn’t go. He came up with the lamest excuses, saying he had a stomachache, and a headache, and all of these reasons why we couldn’t go. Which led me to believe he had plans to propose at Daniel Stowe. After a lot of compromising, we settled for the next Tuesday, December 17.
Tuesday finally arrived, and when I got home from work, I found Kevin in the bed asleep. I couldn’t believe it. I knew there was no way he was going to propose that night if he was calm enough to sleep after work, before I even got home. After dinner and sitting in rush hour traffic, we finally arrived at the gardens. We began to relax and enjoy the evening for what it was, one of the most beautiful Christmas displays we had ever been to on foot.
After circling through most of the gardens, we headed back up to the main house, wrapped in each other’s arms. Kevin decided to lead me around a fountain, back towards the direction we had just came from, when I saw a wrapped present on an empty bench. A simple "Really?" was all I could get out, heading towards the bench to take a peek. Once I got it all unwrapped, with a very nervous Kevin beside of me, I found a boxed set of Lord of the Rings. There was a note with instructions to guide me through, each piece leading me to the next. I took a journey through our relationship, entwined with chapter titles from the books, recounting our lives thus far together, the future and hopes he had for us. At the end, Kevin gave a little speech, dropped to one knee, and asked me to marry him.
