All Request Day: romance

My next question comes from Mother In Law, who wrote:
"I'd like to know how you met your wife and how you proposed to her. :)"

I thought it would be fun for my wife to write this post and tell the story from her point of view, but she declined. It's just as well, because now instead of looking like a fool, I can paint myself as a real stud (which I am). I met my wife on Spring Break 2000. She was a competitive surfer, and I was a celebrity judge...

No okay seriously. We were driving down to Florida very unglamorously with a group called the Navigators for a week of fun/sun/camping in Pensacola. The carpools were arranged by a committee, and we were placed in the same little four-seater coupe for the 18-hour drive down. I fell in love with her on that trip, but I was awkward and never told her so. About four years later, I was kneeling by her bed on a Saturday morning with a dozen red roses, a ring, and 24 cupcakes decorated with the words, "will you marry me?" I know... aww.

But now this is for the guys out there taking notes and for all the ladies to show you how I paid attention to the details to really pull this thing off in style. First, the roses. Kind of lame, maybe; not so much my thing. But J. had made it known that this was just what she wanted to see from me some time. Plus, I had not yet given her a red rose (only yellow white & pink), so the gesture was 12x as meaningful. Give or take. The cupcakes were decorated, one letter per 'cake, with Jelly Belly jellybeans--her favorite, and also using her favorite flavors of 'beans.

Obviously the ring is the kicker since that's going to stay with her the longest.* I bought a wedding/engagement ring set that was hand-engraved all along the sides, and custom-mounted two side-stones in our (wait for it!) birthstone colors. The central diamond--which was the highest quality I could afford and absolutely sparkled--was lowered because she was afraid of snagging it on something. End result: she said yes. On my first try! Now that's priceless.

*except for maybe the cupcakes: "a moment on the lips, forever on the hips!" am I right, ladies?