The Proposal Story

That day I knew I was going to get engaged before he even proposed.

It wasn't due to any intuition, it was knowing how David thought.

Let's look at the clues:
1. we've already decided we wanted to get married at the end of the year
2. it takes time to plan the wedding
3. David was about to go back to work full-time and study part-time, leaving him very little free time.
4. It was exactly 1 year and 9 months since we got together.
5. He asked me out to dinner

Of course I couldn't be 100% sure but all morning I kept thinking, "This is the last time I'm going to be technically not committed to anyone" and "Ohmygod, I'm going to get engaged!" I kept busy trying to guess how David would do it. For example, would he surprise me and ask as soon as he walked in the door (he did joke that he would surprise me by asking me after going to the toilet). Or would he be more formal and wait till the end of the night.

As soon as I saw him with a haircut and wearing a white shirt, I knew that was the day.

The next hint to give me further proof was when after deciding to go to the City, he changed his mind and suggested we go to the place where he asked me out the first time.

We didn't anticipate the peak hour traffic in that area and got there in two hours. I must've been whining a little too much because he said, "Don't worry, I'll make your day worth it". Could he have made it any clearer of what was going to happen?!

We had very yummy (and 'cheap Tuesday') dinner. Later he commented that he couldn't believe how quickly I made up my mind about what I wanted. My indecisiveness has been known to annoy him but I could see nothing was going to annoy him that day.

I started feeling his nervousness.

After dinner we went for a walk towards the exact place where he asked me out the first time. Usually that place is quite empty but that day there was a constant stream of people. David always kept looking around, something he never does! We were looking out into the water and I got so nervous because I knew exactly what he was about to do since he started talking about how wonderful I was and how he could never get enough of me. I wasn't stupid, I knew where that was leading.

Since I got really nervous and I was really feeling for his nervousness, I decided to tell him some jokes. Instead of teasing me, the way he usually does, he was just smiling this really sweet loving smile... and looking around.

He took me to sit down on the bench. We discussed a little whether it was the bench on which he asked me out the first time. Since we couldn't remember, we just sat on the cleanest one.

At that point I could feel his nervousness to the depth of my core. I think he tried to calm himself down by kissing me. As he was giving me a kiss, I saw his hand reach into his pocket. He probably thought he was distracting me from seeing that but I was so nervous, I was aware of every move.

When we broke apart, he showed me the box and asked, "Will you marry me?" (well, that's what I think he said) and even though I knew it was going to happen, I still got such a shock that it actually did. I couldn't stop giggling. I said yes. Then kept on laughing. After a few minutes he asked, "Uhm, did you say yes?" which caused me to laugh even more. I said "yes" again.

Then he asked, "Well, aren't you going to open it?" referring to the box with the ring. For some reason I assumed the guy was supposed to do that. We laughed about our lack of experience in these proceedings. When I opened it, I could barely see it because it was very dark. He slipped it on my finger and I almost felt like we just said "I do".

When we got into the light, I had a closer look and to be honest, I couldn't care less what it looked like, I was just amazed that there was an engagement ring on my finger. I told David it was a good proof for the next day when I'd wake up and think it was all a dream.

He told me of his long search for the ring because he couldn't find anything he liked but when he saw this one, he knew it was the right one. The fact that he put so much effort into getting me a ring was what really touched my heart.

I didn't pay attention that it was too big for me and the band was quite thick and rubbed against my other fingers.

The stone was what I would've picked - "Princess Cut" because he said I'm his Princess.

A little earlier we were talking about jewellery (don't remember why) and I mentioned how I prefered white gold. He said he was worried I wouldn't like the yellow one but of course I loved it. How can I not? It was chosen with care by the person who loves me the most. I was never fussed with jewellery. (Right now it's being resized.)

After the nerves settled down, I told him how I knew he was going to do it and was trying to make it easy for him. I asked him why he was nervous when he knew I would say yes. He explained that there's always doubt that I might change my mind.

We hung around the ocean a little longer, letting it all sink in. Then we rushed home to tell my parents before they went to sleep, but that's a story for another day.

So there you go! That's how I got engaged. I thought it was perfect - intimate and meaningful, just the way I like it.