The Proposal
Kerry’s Version
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| Photo Credit: Personal Photo |
In december, Mark had asked me when I wanted to celebrate our anniversary. I said we could celebrate on the day of. He said it was a secret where we were having dinner. I really thought that we were going to “Simply Fondue” in Mission Viejo.
On our anniversary I woke up to find two roses outside the door. I was really confused as to why there was a giant vase with only two flowers inside and said aloud, “why is there TWO!!!” I unlocked the door and put them inside and opened the card. The card had two more roses so it made a little more sense why there was two.
I went down to my car and there was two under each windshield wiper. Then, I started to get a little suspicious.
At work there were two more roses on my desk and I was a little embarrassed I hadn’t cleaned my desk the night before. I seldom clear off my desk though haha. I asked around the office and no one said they had seem Mark.
After I came back from my morning break there was a box on my seat. Again no one had seen anyone. I opened them up and there were two more roses there. Girls in the office starter twittering around my desk and I was talking to my friend Christina online…counting down the flowers. I thought I would get another package in the afternoon but I didn’t!
Mark showed up with two more flowers to pick me up and said the anniversary present was in his car and it was too big to bring in. I thought he had got me a new cruiser or something. I started walking to his parked car and he was walking the other way. He had surprised me with a limo. I stopped dead in my tracks.
Mark still won’t tell me where we were going and we were heading toward the mall. I thought he was taking me to dinner at Charlie Palmers! but…then we turned into the parking lot at Metro point. I thought to myself, if he proposes to me at Starbucks(where we had our first date) I will die of embarrassment!!
Mark ordered coffee and I had some apple cider. We tried to sit at the table where we first met but a giant study group was there so we sat inside. He told me we were to have dinner at PF changs(our second date) and dessert at Cheesecake factory (third date) I wondered to myself why he didn’t remember to stop at our first kiss location since it is fairly close to the cheesecake factory but figured we didn’t have enough time.
While having drinks at the cheesecake factory mark kept telling me to hurry up. I was totally clueless because he told me we needed to be back to my apartment at 10pm and we had an entire hour left!! There was no need to rush. I figured mark was extra worried about going over the time because waiting for a table to PF changs had taken so long. So I downed my drink and left.
When leaving fashion island we made a left instead of a right hand turn. I was confused as we kept driving further south and told mark he should tell the driver to turn around! We would certainly be charged extra if he kept driving away from my apartment!
As we turned to go down to Corona Del Mar beach I knew we were going to where we had our first kiss. I didn’t really think about why mark hadn’t told me we were going. He likes surprises so I just thought this was one of them.
At the beach mark insists that we get out to take a picture. It took a little coaxing since it was pitch black and I didn’t bring my camera! Finally I agreed. Mark and I posed for a few pictures then he said I needed some props. Ah! my last two roses were coming…and they were. Mark told me to stand in the same spot but the driver needed constant help working the iphone! Mark came back with the flowers and we posed for more pictures.
Then mark got down on one knee! I was so surprised that I just stared at him and the ring for what seemed like a long time. I nearly forgot that mark was there just waiting for an answer! I finally said yes haha
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| Photo Credit: Personal Photo |
Mark’s Version
On Wednesday, January 6, 2010 Kerry and I celebrated our 3rd year dating anniversary. During the Christmas holiday break I asked her if she wanted to go out to dinner to celebrate our upcoming anniversary. Little did she know that I had a diamond engagement ring hanging out in a top-secret hiding place in my room since the end of November. Initially, I had plans to propose to her on her birthday but the ring buying process turned out to be longer than I had originally anticipated. Unfortunately, the ring I purchased had to be sent back to New York to be sized and it did not return back in time for me to propose on Kerry’s birthday. So, naturally, I made Kerry wait… and wait. Her birthday came and went; Christmas came and went; New Years came and went and still no proposal.
I always knew that I wanted to attempt something of an elaborate proposal. On top of that, I wanted it to be a surprise. With that in mind, I hatched a plan to mask the proposal as an anniversary gift. I set the proposal in motion on Tuesday, the day before the big day. I went to the florist and bought an arrangement of a dozen roses and 12 note cards. I wrote out something on each note card and attached them to the roses and left them in my office which served as the staging area.
On Wednesday I woke up at 5 am and drove to my office. From there, I took 6 roses along with the vase the arrangement came in and got in my car to drive to Kerry’s apartment in Huntington Beach. After turning out of the driveway from my work I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I looked over at the passenger seat and saw a stem hanging from the door. Panicked, I pulled off to the side of the road and saw a rose bulb sticking out from the door. I hurriedly rushed back up to my office and switched the decapitated rose for an intact one and went back out.
I arrived at Kerry’s apartment and stealthily snuck up to her porch and left the arrangement vase with two roses and a card on her doorstep. I proceeded down to her car and left a rose underneath each of her windshield wipers on her car. From there, I drove to her work and, with the help of some of Kerry’s office mates, and left two roses on her desk.
To be continued…