She said Yes!
And I said Wow!
Okay, I lie. I didn't say wow. But I've had that song in my head for the last couple days so I couldn't help myself. But she did say Yes.
Do I need to back up? Well, I proposed to Jenn on Friday night (November 14) at a B&B in Asheville, NC. And she said yes!
So you want the full scoop, huh?
Our first, pseudo-maybe date was on Dec 2, 2006. (Don't worry, I'm not going to give you all the details since then, just recapping.) Within months, I was pretty sure she was the one for me. It's genetic. My dad proposed to my mom in 3 weeks. But I couldn't help but freak out! As my friend Kate kept saying, I had committment issues. And I did. But it didn't help that she's a girl! That's not what I had planned! But, I guess that's how you make God laugh, huh?, just make plans.
Fast forward a little over a year. By earlier this year we had been talking about "the future" for a while. We had pretty much picked out the menu for the rehearsal dinner and the reception. Well, not true. We can't figure out how to have all the food we want, but that's another story.
At my dad's memorial mass in June, I asked our family friend and jeweler Barri to start working on ring ideas for us. She was so excited for me, and it shed some happiness in a pretty rough time. Jenn knew I was having Barri start working on rings, especially since she was helping design it. She just thought is was for a year from now or so.
I bought rubber duckies for my prop in August (though I've had this part planned since last July or August). I spent lots of time flipping out about whether this was a good idea or not, how to do it "perfectly," if I could afford it, yadda yadda yadda. Oddly enough, our mutual friend and Jenn's ex-non-girlfriend giniliz spent a lot of time calming me down.
Okay, okay, enough background.
The proosal itself...
With with the help of TriangleGrrrls, I found this amazing B&B in Asheville. Unfortunately, with the help of google maps, we drove around in separate cars lost for 45 minutes - after Jenn had driven 3 hours and I had driven 4 already. We were tired and slightly crabby. And apparently, Jenn wasn't feeling all that well, which I did not know at the time. But I had this ring burning a hole in my pocket!
We looked around at the place and cuddled a bit on the loveseat. Then Jenn wondered where the hot tub was. I excitedly said "I don't know, but I have a surprise for it!" and went to get a box out of my backpack. When she opened it, she saw what's pictured to the left.
She didn't say anything, just started picking up each ducky and examining it. I thought, well, she likes details, so.... uhh.... okay. I just sat there with the ring box in my hand. When she was done looking all through the duckies, she turned to me and saw me with the ring box.
And I said...
"Jenn, I love you so much, more than I could have ever imagined possible."
She's really quiet, and not crying like I thought she would. It was making me reeeeeally nervous, and even more worried about tripping over the words. But, I just kept going, because I was more worried about stopping.
"I would feel incredibly blessed to spend the rest of my life with you. Would you do me that great honor?"
And she said "Yes." And then begged to examine at the ring before I put it on her.
But she did finally let me put it on her. And I spent the rest of the weekend randomly saying "Mine!" To which she would reply, "Yes, I am."