
We don't have a complimentary color to go with it yet... maybe white or silver or both?
MY VERSION:
It was Sunday, February 10 and I had just finished working a 3-day meeting at the Sheraton hotel in DC. I was really looking forward to starting off the week because the next day was Cory’s bday and we both had the day off, and we also planned a Valentine's trip to NYC later on in the week. I suggested that we go to the National Gallery of Art after my meeting since we were already in DC, and he suggested stopping by the Botanic Garden after the art gallery. Last summer, we went to the garden and walked around the outside but we ran out of time and didn't get to go inside the Conservatory.
I asked him to pick me up at noon from the hotel. He got there on time (of course) and waited patiently in the car because (surprise) I got held up doing something and didn't get out until 12:30pm. We got to the art gallery and had a good time walking around both the east and west buildings. Little did I know that while we were he was also already looking for possible backdrops for our engagement pictures! As we were leaving, he offered to get the car, which was parked several blocks away, and pick me up. Normally, I would've said 'no' but it was cold and windy that day so I couldn't refuse the offer.
It didn’t take long to get to the Botanic Garden. When we arrived, I was so happy because it turned out they were having an orchid exhibit in the Garden Court!!! The place was packed!!! It was so beautiful inside!! We walked around the different themed rooms (i.e. desert, Hawaii, endangered species, etc.), but my favorite was the Jungle, which was a huge room located in the center of the building (http://www.usbg.gov/virtual-tour/upload/Conservatory-1.mov). It was filled with 'jungle-like' things like trees, plants, mini ponds and waterfalls, and the sounds of nature (mostly frogs). It was sooo relaxing!
We also went up the catwalk twice to view the room from 24 feet up in the air (http://www.usbg.gov/virtual-tour/upload/Conservatory-Catwalk-1.mov). The first time we went up there we just sat on a bench and people-watched. The second time around was a totally different story. We just finished climbing the stairs and we were looking down at the Jungle room again. He started saying, "You know… there's another reason why I wanted to bring you here today." At first I was confused as to what he was talking about but after a few seconds and by the look he had on his face, it clicked. I remember looking at him with my widening eyes and saying, "Oh my gosh!" over and over again. I needed a place to sit down but the only thing behind me was a plant. He got down on one knee and took out a beautiful ring from his jacket pocket.
The rest was a blur. I had to take off my jacket because it suddenly felt like someone had cranked up the heater! I also had to keep wiping my face because the tears had smeared my eyeliner. I wanted to scream and dance around but was afraid of falling off the catwalk. When I got the feeling back in my legs, we walked to the opposite side where it was less crowded. Then, as we were leaving and getting in the car, he presented me with a dozen tulips (one of my favorite flowers). He already made reservations at Domaso, the new restaurant at the Hotel Palomar in Arlington, so we had dinner there that night. My parents were away on a three-week vacation so I was worried that he hadn’t “talked” to them before they left for their trip. So one of the first questions I asked him was, “Did you ask my parents?!” His reply was, “Pssshhh… is Big Bird yellow?” (which is one of my dad's popular sayings). Hahahaha!!! Good answer Up until now, I still can’t believe that he managed to surprise me. The beginning of the week turned out to be better than I could have ever imagined!
HIS VERSION:
It all started out many months ago with a little weekend “stroll” through the jewelry store and with a “quick stop” by the engagement ring sections. With an intense stare Cathryn quickly scanned each detail of every ring, and to my surprise had no interest in any of them. Little did I know she already had a perfectly clear picture of the ring she wanted in her head. With a few quick key strokes on Google, the little piece of beauty was before my eyes. However, without the ability to find it at the store, Cathryn was convinced that it had been discontinued and was no longer available for sale. My mission now: FIND THIS RING!
After numerous calls to different stores, intensive searching on the Internet and going to multiple jewelry stores in my free time I finally hit the jackpot. The only catch, the ring actually didn’t exist… it had to be special ordered and built from scratch. Of course, this was going to take at least three months, causing my original plan of proposing over the Christmas holiday (that was just a month away) to be thrown out the window. Without any other option I quickly signed myself up and began counting the days.
Sure enough, three months went by and the ring had arrived. Now the question was how to do it? I had originally wanted to take her back to San Diego and propose in the church where I first saw her, but I knew this would just be too obvious. With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, and knowing we already had a trip planned to New York, I was afraid that she’d think it would happen while we were there. Determined to make it a surprise I decided to do it the weekend before just to catch her off guard.
Cathryn had to work that Sunday morning, so the plan was to pick her up and begin by taking her to the National Gallery of Art. This would be followed by some food, then a romantic walk across the mall in DC over to the Botanic Garden. I had looked it up online and found that the place closed at 5:00pm, so I figured if we get there by 4:00pm things would be winding down and we were sure to find a quiet corner where I could get down on one knee and ask those famous four words.
The day began without a hitch. I picked her up and we were off to the Art Gallery. After a few hours of looking at some masterpieces and taking her out to lunch in the Museum it was time for our romantic walk. Who would have thought there would be wind gusts of 50 miles per hour with a wind chill of about zero in the middle of February? A slight oversight on my part. This became a romantic me running to the car to pick her up and drive us over to the Botanic Garden. As we walked into the greenhouse to catch the last, quiet closing hour, I was surprised to find that they were having some special orchid exhibit that people from all over the world had come to see! Yay! As we moved through the exhibit with people from shoulder to shoulder, I considered aborting the mission altogether on many occasions. My only chance at this point was to delay it as long as I could. I walked as slow as humanly possible around the entire place. Finally, as we were walking through parts of the gardens for the second and third time, I took Cathryn up to the catwalk overlooking the main garden. After strategically spacing us out between other visitors, I finally had my chance.
With a small stream flowing in the background and overlooking our own little indoor tropical paradise, I looked into her eyes and told her that there was a reason I had brought her there. With a look like a deer in headlights, Cathryn didn’t know what to say. As I got down on one knee and pulled the ring out of my pocket, she almost began to scream and I asked her if she would marry me. She immediately said yes and began to cry. I slipped the ring over her petite finger and gave her a long hug and kiss. Just about that time people came walking by to look at flowers but we just kept right on hugging. I knew then, like I knew since the first time I laid eyes on Cathryn, that I was the luckiest man in the entire world for getting to spend the rest of my life with such an amazing woman!
I knew that there would be a million things involved with planning the wedding. Everyone says that the entire planning process gets very stressful and that the big day arrives before you know it. I decided to start this blog so we could look back one day and ask, "How da heck did we pull this off?!" J/K It's gonna be a challenge b/c when I was younger, I was one of those people that got excited about getting a new diary... then, in the first entry would write, "I'm gonna write in you every day," but then find it a year later with all the pages still blank. It'll be time consuming to keep up with this thing but I think it'll also be therapeutic.
If you're reading this and just recently got engaged (congratulations!!!), I'm sure you've been asked the following questions at least once:
"How's the wedding planning going?"
"How'd he propose?"
"When's the wedding?"
"Where's the wedding?"
"What's your color motif?"
"Did you buy your dress, yet?"
(the list goes on and on...)
My advice is start a blog and send them the link. Don't get me wrong, I think it's nice of them to ask (and I do the same thing)... it just gets tiring answering the same questions over and over.
Wedding fever seems to be in the air so who knows, these blogs might also be helpful for other brides and could serve as a forum for suggestions and ideas. There's also baby fever going around but we're not catching that bug for several years so someone else can start that blog
ENJOY!
Oh btw, I know a lot of wedding sites use acronyms like FH (future husband) and MOH (matron or maid of honor), but I'm not very familiar with what a lot of the others stand for so you probably won't see that on my posts.