This is the post I’ve been waiting FOREVER to write. Ok, well at least since the idea of this blog was born. I no longer have to be a closet-wedding planner and can now wave my ”bride in planning” flag proudly!
First, let me just say, seeing how much work G put into the proposal, and him light up talking about it still gives me goose bumps. (He was pretty proud of himself.)
THE STORY
It all started Monday at WORK of all places. My boss forwarded me an email from her boss saying that he knew both of us were scheduled to be out Friday, but he really needed one of us on hand. I didn’t think a thing of it, and gladly agreed to work that Friday. After all, I didn’t have plans, but was just trying to use up some “use it or lose it” vacation time by the end of our fiscal year. I didn’t even know for sure if G realized I had Friday off, even though I’d told him 17 times, he just always shrugged me off when I was trying to schedule time off, but apparently he listens more than I think he does!
As the week went on, my proposal radar continued to rise. The first sign: G was being overly nice. Sure, we love each other and everything, but you might not know it if we didn’t know us – we have our own little way of communicating, as most long-term couples do and he was just off. Polite even. It was a little strange, I almost didn’t know what to do! (You’ll be glad to know he’s back to his old self).
Let’s just say it was a long week of waiting! My after-work routine usually involves several stops, the gym, the aisles of Target for who knows how long, the mall, perhaps, before I make my way home. To avoid this, G made sure I knew he had some friends coming to town that afternoon that would be at our place about 3, and then they wanted to go to the casino (he had dropped hints the week before about wanting to go), he begged me to be home by 4 so I wouldn’t keep them waiting because he wanted me to go with them. (Also weird – wanting me to go with his deer buddies). I grinned and agreed.
By the time Friday rolled around, I was at the edge of my seat. We have the option to wear jeans on Fridays, I opted to instead go with a cute “just in case” outfit. Later, you’ll see why I’m glad I did. So, it’s the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, I’m at work. Can I tell you how many people take that day as vacation? A LOT. The office was SO quiet, which made the suspense even more daunting. I actually did get a lot done, until it was nearly time to go home, I got so nervous, you would have thought I was about to do a ballet or something!
I did have a couple of out of the ordinary distractions though, first of all G. He knows I HATE it when he calls me at work. I can’t stand it, I’m there to work, don’t call me with stupid questions. (He works from home, see how easy that could be to do). He just wanted to confirm that I could be home AT 4:00, because his buddy was already there hanging out and they were waiting for me. Evidence: I could hear his deer buddy from Kansas in the background talking about antler measurements. Totally normal.
Another out of the ordinary text: I got an “Call me asap it’s urgent” text from a friend in the middle of the day. Odd. So I called her, knowing she was on her way out-of-town for the weekend. She said she needed a huge favor, her boyfriend had just gotten an email notification from FedEx that his tree had just been delivered and they didn’t want it to sit outside all weekend in the box. They wondered if I could stop and put it in their garage. This was completely fine with me, I literally drive right by their house every day on my way home.
Later, just as I started my car to leave work, my friend called again, this time just to warn me to be careful not to let her kitties run out when I opened the garage door because they wouldn’t come back in. I told her I’d text her and let her when it was done with no kitty escapees. Again, completely normal.
After I moved the extremely light cardboard box off of her front porch and into her garage, I shot her a text: “Mission Complete.” I would find out in just a few minutes, that G had stopped at her house the night before, asked her to come up with a ploy (have me move an EMPTY box, that I thought a tree was in – seriously who ships trees that weigh nothing? I didn’t know, I went with it) to get me to stop at her place, knowing I would text her, so she could text him, so he knew exactly when I was there, and timed how long it took him to get from her driveway to our house.
I usually don’t go over 40 mph on gravel, I hate rock chips. But, we live on a LOT of gravel, especially when I think there might just be a diamond awaiting. Let’s just say I sped it up a bit, and arrived home at about 4:05.
Before we get to “the moment” you should know earlier in the week G had a giant rock delivered to our yard. I was asking him not so nicely all week what he thought he was doing with it, I hated it! Turns out, it’ll have a special meaning now.
When I pulled in the driveway, I immediately knew something was up, but didn’t have time to reapply my lip gloss. There was a deer blind set up in the front yard, (an ugly camo tent) and G’s truck was across the driveway. I thought about driving in the grass around it ,putting on some flats, and coming back out to assess the situation, but I parked.
As soon as I parked, I looked straight over and swear I saw someone in the blind. Although, as soon as I was out of my car and shut the door, I saw G pop out behind the rock, with his last name and a question mark and yelled, I mean seriously, he yelled it: “WILL YOU MARRY ME?” I think he just couldn’t hold it anymore. I walked over to him on one knee, examined the ring, and as much as I wasn’t shocked – I was. I said yes!
After a few minutes of standing outside and taking it all in, G’s brother appeared from what I now know as the tick-infested, 100 degree deer blind with a video camera. They also had another deer camera set up from another angle. I knew not wearing jeans would pay off!
The next thing I know, I see a car coming down the road… my MOM’s car. She was sitting on a gravel road out of sight so she could see me and let G know when I was coming. (And yes, saw me speeding like a mad woman on gravel).
After I greeted my mom, thinking it was such a great surprise, another car pulls up – one of my best girlfriends! She was hiding on another gravel.
G had also lined up two of my other close friends that lived in the area to come (one was a little late, got lost, even though she’d been there before:)) – I told you we live in the middle of nowhere! The other got there shortly after, and there we had an instant little engagement party!
It was amazing to have people close to me there to celebrate with, and champagne on ice!
HOW HE DID IT
G called my boss on Monday, and told her that he needed her to make me work on Friday. She knew I would think something was up if it came from her. Seriously, I would have, she’s the best and I’m not even just saying that! She drafted an email, sent it to her boss and had him send it back to her requesting one of us be there Friday.Very tricky. This completely had me fooled, it was relevant reasoning and everything.
I only started to mildly question the work email when I got home Monday night and our company contact directory was up on the computer. When I asked G why, he claimed he forgot my number. That’s funny, he didn’t call me?
Also, when my nerves set in on Friday, I decided to examine email fonts, and discovered there was a difference in fonts used in previous emails.
What about his deer buddy from Kansas? It turns out, he was on speaker phone when I called, talking like he was in our house! Clever.
G was completely smooth with my friends. He only told them it was a surprise party for me, and nothing else – although they used their imaginations. I even had dinner with two of them earlier in the week and I couldn’t believe how well they kept it quiet! I was completely fooled.
I think my favorite part of the whole set-up was the deer video style narrative clips documenting G’s whole day of preparations. I always thought people would pay to see “a day in the life of G” and now I might just be able to try it my luck with America’s Funniest Home Videos!
(His day started with a 6:30 a.m. grocery shopping trip!) He made a clip showing everything he did with notes to me saying how excited he was to propose to me and how he couldn’t wait for me to get home, and others….along with some just as funny bloopers of the dog running through the scene and G yelling at him). There are seriously 50 videos. We watched most of them that night after everyone left. I was laughing hysterically and crying at the same time. I have to save these for their special montage debut at our wedding:)
SO – now we’re ENGAGED. It doesn’t seem real, but I’m busy busy busy planning! TONS of planning updates to come.
