March 2016. Jake and I had been dating for 4 1/2 years. We never talked about marriage. I tried to bring it up a few times but he never wanted to talk about it. What's a girl suppose to think when her man doesn't walk to talk about marriage? So, I had made up my mind that I was just going to have to do the proposing.
I bought a ring. I hung onto that ring for months.
September 3rd, 2016. I planned a recreation of our first date, 5 years earlier. "This will be perfect!" I told myself. "5 years ago he asked me on our first date, and now, 5 years later, I'm going to ask him to marry me." I knew it was an outdoor concert in Deer Valley sometime in August or September but for the life of me I couldn't figure out when it was. So I picked Sept 3rd because Jewel was going to be there and I knew Jake liked her. Come to find out, the dates were exactly the same. It couldn't be more perfect!
The plan was to grab dessert after the concert, at the same place we had dessert on our first date, and that's where I was going to pop the question. Probably. I hadn't really thought through that part... In hen-sight, maybe not the best part of the night for wingin it... because when push came to shove, I couldn't get myself to do it.
Fast forward to the holiday season this year. It was happening at Christmas or bust. I was planning on building him a desk to study at while he's in grad-school. If I put the ring in one of the drawers the night before then I would have no way to back out the morning of.
Dec 1, 2016. Jake had a surprised date planned. "Snowshoeing and Hors d'oeuvres". We made the turn off to Deer Valley Mountain Resort, to which Jake exclaimed, "We're going to Deer Valley!" in an overly enthusiastic voice. As we got to the resort and began looking for information on the date, we saw a projector screen being set up at the base of the mountain. We wandered over and they asked if we could help with a sound check. Everything sounded great, but Jake wanted to stay there for a second and watch what was happening on the screen. I didn't know why, it was a random video of someone modeling something in 3d software.
"Why are they showing this for a sound check?" I asked Jake.
"I don't know. I don't know how sound checks work".
"Well should we go figure out where our date is? It's almost 7"
"No, don't worry about it"
... uh? What? So we stood and watched this strange video. The music playing was a lovely Christmas song and it looked like the model was of some holly. "How nice. Why are they showing this?" I looked around the area and there is no one in sight. Soon the music transitioned to a sweet love song I had never heard. As the video wrapped up, the camera panned around the finished model to show the most unique ring I've ever seen. A ring that Jake had designed and modeled in 3d.
Jake gets down on one knee, opens a little box, and looks at me. He doesn't say anything - he can't through the tears in his eyes. My eyes well up with tears and we look at each other in amazement for just a split second before he says, "Will you marry me?" I bend down and kiss him and say, "Yaaa! You really want to marry me??" He laughs and says yes.
When we got home that night, I ran into the bedroom to grab the ring I had be hiding from him, I sat him down on the couch, made him open the little box and said, "Will you marry me?" To which he responded, "No! Will YOU marry ME?"
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