So it feels like it’s about time for me to put up a blog about my engagement. I’ve been lazy and it’s been a long holiday season. Now it’s all over, and it feels like it’s time to put something up. I told at least one person (sorry Daniel) that I would call them and give them the details about it. Things have just been crazy since with the holidays and everything, so this seemed like the appropriate thing to do instead of relaying the same story over and over again, which I know I’ll already have to do anyway.
So Rachel and I have been together for over 2 years now, and that was the time frame in which I would be allowed to propose after. I think I may have even asked her to marry me unofficially sometime shortly after our second anniversary, whether it was a couple weeks or even a couple days I’m not sure, but I’m pretty sure we were even still at Chinoe when I did, so it must not have been long. The unofficial version was we were lying in my bed watching television or just cuddling or something and I got her attention and told her it had been two years since we had been together and asked her if she would marry me. I said that we would go get a ring and all that kind of stuff and then I would officially propose once she picked out a ring and all that jazz. She said yes, of course, and we decided to set up an appointment with the jewelers to get something for her.
Our friend Natalie had a ring done by Mithril Jewelers here in Lexington, and after mentioning them to a couple of people it became evident they were the go-to guys when it came to jewelry in this town. So we set up an appointment and went down there, oddly enough on the same day of the wedding of our friends Thomas and Lacy, it was also because I took the day off in case I needed to do anything to help them with the wedding stuff. Regardless, we went down there and sat down with one of the guys there and flipped through what felt like hundreds upon hundreds of ring designs. She didn’t like any of them. At this point in time, Rachel didn’t really know what she wanted. Little by little, and after about an hour of talking to us, he started to figure out what she wanted though, and brought out two waxes from molds they had salvaged.
Ding ding ding! Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winnah!
This started the process of Rachel picking out the stones she wanted, she knew she wanted a garnet as the main stone, and there was also the process of picking out the 14 other smaller diamonds that go around the ring. They’re very small, but they catch the light beautifully. Rachel went back in a couple more times to pick out the stones and take them a check for the down payment on November 4th, I remember this because it was election day. The process had begun.
We hadn’t heard from them for a while, almost a month. and after several attempts to contact them I was getting worried.
Then I get a call from the store where our salesman left me a very excited message “RIIIING! RIIIING! WE HAVE RIIIING!” He told me to call him back and we would set up a time to come down and get the ring. So we did.
I left work early so we could go to the jewelry store and I met her downtown. I was handed the ring, since I was the one giving it to her, and told to see how she liked it. You could tell he really loved to play up this stuff with people. So I walked over to Rachel and asked her very unceremoniously which hand and finger I was supposed to put it on simply explaining “I don’t know these things!” We paid for the rest of the ring, thanked the man, and left the store.
On the way out of the store I got the box back from Rachel and told her she couldn’t have the ring until I had officially proposed. At the moment, I was trying to come up with some creative way to propose to her, but after she begrudgingly gave me the ring I knew I had to do it quick.
The way she went back to get to my apartment was going to be a little bit longer than I was going to get there, so on the way home, while trying not to get killed on Nicholaville road traffic because I believe the lanes had just changed as I was coming up on a left turn I needed to make, I decided I had better propose that night.
When I got back to my apartment I rushed in and was very thankful to see she had not gotten there yet. I turned on my computer and grabbed a white button up shirt and my suit coat out of the closet. I turned off all the lights in the apartment except for the lamp next to my bed, which is an LED lamp and therefore gives off a really nice and cool blue light. I cued up my iTunes to play Ben Folds – “The Luckiest” and then I waited.
And I waited.
And I waited some more.
Eventually I heard Rachel walk in through the door, I called her back to my bedroom, turned on the music, got on one knee, which while I was waiting I should have cleared the area better because I ended up kneeling on a wooden hanger, pulled out the ring and asked her if she would make the happiest man on Earth.
She simply replied with “Darn tootin’.” I put the ring on her finger, once again having to ask her which finger to put it on, and we stood there and hugged in my doorway while the rest of the song played.
This was about a week before Christmas, which was our target date to announce our engagement to everyone else.
I’m tired, and this post has gone on long enough, so the rest of the story will have to wait. Tune in next time to hear about telling our parents, telling our families and all that fun jazz.
Oh and here’s pictures of the ring, most of you have probably already seen these though:
