One Night in July…

I AM ENGAGED!!!

That’s right folks… I popped the question to my lovely girlfriend Jacqueline on Friday night and am now affianced! I love her so much and can’t wait to marry her. We’re looking at a Summer 2010 wedding and details will, of course, be provided as they come available.

The engagement evening itself was pretty special as well, I think. Jackie knew that the question was coming soon and, naturally, I wanted to surprise her. So I was very sneaky about getting the ring assembled (separate stone and setting/mount), meeting her father to ask permission, and even making the evening special. I made the evening great without tipping her off by using the camouflage of her birthday! I took her to the restaurant where we had our first real date, wore an outfit strikingly similar to that which I wore on that first date night, and took her to the park where our relationship really began. We walked the sidewalk that follows the edge of the lake for a few minutes, stopped to open her birthday presents (which she loved!), and then finished the lap around the lake.

At this particular park, Jackie and I have a tree that we call our own. It is a great tree that we have talked, cuddled, and kissed at since the outset of our relationship and I knew that that was where I wanted to ask her to marry me. Of course, as my luck would have it, there was a kid climbing on our tree as well as a group of cigarette smoking teenagers standing a few feet away… So, I asked Jackie to go try to get the kid off of the tree while I put the birthday gifts back in the car (and, unbeknownst to her, retrieved the ring). The kid finally felt uncomfortable enough and ran off and Jackie and I assumed our position at our tree. I could tell that she was tired and ready to go home. I commented on how great an evening it had been. She agreed and smiled that beautiful, sleepy smile that she wears so often. I began to tell her that I had taken her to the restaurant where we had our first real date for a reason… that I brought her to this park and to this tree for a reason… I told her that I loved her and I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. “Will you marry me, Jackie Redd?”

Almost immediately she was wide awake and smiling, crying, saying “yes”, and looking very confused at once! I slid the beautiful ring onto her left ring finger and laughed at her surprise. “How… but I thought… but you said…” Sentences failed her for a few minutes as she grappled to figure out how I had pulled this off without her knowing. The smoking teenagers began applauding and a random jogger stopped to ask if he could take our picture. We retrieved Jackie’s camera from the car as she asked me question after question about how in the world I had tricked her. She affectionately called me a jerk for engaging in said trickery and accompanied me back to the tree for a couple of photos, taken by one of the teenagers. We smiled, kissed, embraced, and gushed romantic words for the next several minutes before deciding to head home (her house) to show her parents. We texted and called friends and family and updated online social networks until we couldn’t stay awake any longer. My cheeks hurt from involuntarily holding such a big smile for so long. The perfect night closed with a final kiss and the exchange, “Good night, fiance”… “Good night, fiancee”. It had been the one day that she wouldn’t have expected the proposal… and it was perfect.

In her parents' foyer before dinner

On her parents' porch swing before dinner

At our tree, just after I proposed