The Proposal

Bryan and my one year anniversary was on December 6th, 2016, and a week before that, he told me to keep the Saturday night before open and to not ask any questions. My heart was racing as I agreed and started to think it was going to be "the night". When that day came, I had a hair apppintment and told my hair dresser that I needed a special hair style done and that tonight could be "the night". I rambled on to her for three hours not knowing that she secretly knew the entire time (sneaky sneaky)! After I got my hair done, I got my nails done, too, juuuuuust in case I'd be taking any special pictures later. I had to be prepared!

Now, I'm waiting for Bryan to pick me up and I am on HIGH alert and ready for anything. He shows up bringing a brand new jacket and opens it up to show me how warm it was on the inside and I smile and secretly stare at the pockets looking for a ring. Nothing. Little did I know, he did that on purpose to throw me off to show me nothing was in his pockets knowing that I was suspicious. But I don't give up. I know it's there somewhere, so I stare at his other pockets. Nothing. We end up taking an Uber to the Mission Inn to see the Festival of Lights and the whole ride there, I'm trying to figure out where he hid the ring. Could it be in his car? No, we took an Uber. Maybe look at his pockets again. Dang, still can't see anything. Where the heck did he put it??

We get to the Mission Inn and it is just GORGEOUS. Neither one us had ever been there before (except when we were too young to remember), so it was so wonderful to experience it for the first time together and he knows how much I love first experiences together. So we walk through and I am constantly looking for a place where he might propose. He keeps pointing out places where we should take pictures and I am still on high alert. Over there! Nope. Ooo maybe over there! Nope. Ok there? Nope. Dang, where is he going to do it??

We are now inside and this place is unbelievable, but way too crowded for him to get down on one knee, so my radar goes down for a bit until we sit at our table. We are surrounded by lights and sit before this gorgeous, beautiful Christmas tree. We even had carolers come to our table and sing to us and it was so unbelievably romantic. But the way we were sitting, I thought hmmm this wall is in the way and he can't get on one knee next to my chair, so how is he going to do this? The night goes on and nothing is happening (proposal-wise). Appetizers. Nothing. Dinner. Nothing. Dessert? Nothing. We're starting to run out of time. I look at him with starry eyes and tell him how much I love him. Still no proposal. I can't catch a break! He is still pointing out places to take a picture together, but one by one they go by with no proposal. At this point, I am starting to get very discouraged. I even thought about texting my friend while he was in the bathroom saying, "False alarm," not realizing that he was secretly laughing the whole time knowing that he was totally throwing me off. He even told me we were going to be going out to a very nice dinner a few days later on our actual anniversary just to throw me for a loop (which worked as I started questioning the night after that).

We are now leaving dinner and I am now "Bitter? Party of 1?" I completely gave up and am super disappointed and trying not to let it ruin the night. It's still an early anniversary celebration. It's still a beautiful setting. Blah blah blah (I am so bitter lol). Ok, shake it off. Then, Bryan frantically checks his pockets freaking out as if he lost something and I'm like ah ha it's in his pockets!! And he says, "Oh whew! I thought I left my phone on the table." I don't think I need to tell you how that made me feel. So Bryan and "Bitter Party of 1" are now on their way to see the Christmas lights around the whole place and I have 100% given up. Once it didn't happen at dinner, I thought no way - it wasn't going to happen. Not tonight, anyways. So now at this point, I have put it completely out of my mind and I am now starting to shake it off and enjoy the rest of our evening, which is ironic because now all the obvious signs started to appear (none of which I caught onto lol)...

As we stand in line outside to take a picture in front of a Christmas tree (aka "the" tree), I had my hand on his chest and I looked at him and thought, dang his heart is RACING!! Hmm weird (at this point, I was completely oblivious to everything...I know, perfect timing lol). Then, we go up to get our picture taken and he hands my phone to a random girl who turned out to be an angel (side story at the end). Also as a fun side story, Santa and the Grinch were actually already at this tree before we got there and little did we know, Bryan's sister and brother-in-law had to get rid of them and paid them to get out of there because we needed that tree lol (yes, they were there, but I didn't know that - more on that later).

We start to dance in front of the tree and all of a sudden, a song starts playing and he says, "Hey, it's your song!" and gets a big smile on his face. Now here's something you need to know about this song. The name of the song is "All My Life" by K-Ci and JoJo (featured in the slideshow at the bottom of the page) and I had sent him that song about 8 months prior to this night telling him how beautiful it was and how it would be perfect for our wedding, but we hadn't talked about it since. For all I knew, he forgot about it. Now what I also didn't know is that Bryan purposely picked that specific song to play at that specific moment when we started to dance and cued his brother to start it when he handed that girl my phone (yes, his brother was there, too - I still didn't know). AND he even picked when in the song to start it, so it would start at the perfect part of the song! Now back to oblivious me and I'm like "Oh yeah!" assuming that music had been playing this whole time for the festival and thinking it was a complete coincidence. I'm now thinking about how much I like this song and we're still dancing and Bryan now has a really big, nervous smile on his face and I'm thinking what's that about? I'm thinking it's probably because people started pulling away I assumed to watch us dance. A photographer also showed up whom I assumed was there for the Mission Inn and thought maybe he was taking pictures for their website (little did I know, he was actually hired by Bryan to capture our special moment). Either way, I thought Bryan was just nervous with everyone staring at us. Nope. Not even close.

As we dance, he asks me, "Do you remember what I told Will after our first date?" (he had told him that night that he was going to marry me) and still completely obviously me says, "Yeah," and continues dancing like nothing happened and then boom - he gets down on one knee and I freeze and look at him. He told me later that when he got down, he said, "Are you ready to make that a reality?" but I couldn't hear anything because it was loud and people had started cheering, and also because I just froze. I don't know what's happening and my heart starts racing as I start to process and look down from him to his hands and he has the biggest smile on his face. After a few seconds go by with no response, he says, "So is that a yes?" And I realize I haven't said anything and I give a big enthusiastic "YES!!"

Now what I didn't expect (besides all that) is that when he got up to kiss me, he told me to look to my right and there was our ENTIRE families smiling at us from ear to ear holding up signs that said, "Proposal in Progress!" They had used them to silently sneak around us and move people aside (and actually ended up gathering even more of a crowd), so they could have a front row seat to watch it unfold (Bryan's idea to have everyone there, his brother's idea to make the signs, and his sister's idea to put them on rulers because I like math lol). My mouth dropped as I looked around and didn't see one stranger surrounding us and instead saw everyone that we loved. As you can imagine, I was crying and shaking and the entire night was the most beautiful thing I could've ever imagined from beginning to end and way more than I could have ever dreamed of. It was completely unbelievable and to this day, every time I wake up, I look down at my hand and have to convince myself that it wasn't a dream because every day I feel like I am about to wake up.

Kelly and I both decided we would wait a year until we got engaged. As that date started to get closer and closer, my mind started working and my creativity started coming out. Up until the week of when I was going to pop the question, I really had no idea what I was going to do.

I wanted to be sure not to copy anyone else’s proposal style, so I started to think of different ways I could do it. As I was continuously thinking about it, I kept telling myself I needed to come up with a way that would really make her cry. After all, it would be tears of joy. So I had the date set and now it was time to find a location. Just like any smart man, whenever I needed advice on what a girl would like, I went to my mom. I told her I need to find a location to "pop the question." I told her we both love the holiday season and right way, my mom said the Mission Inn in Riverside. Right away, I started researching it and it looked perfect, but now I needed to see it in person. So I came home from work, picked up my parents, and we went to scope it out. Suddenly, I knew this was the place and I started getting all kinds of ideas. With my parents there helping me, I realized they were a part of this just as much as anyone. Then I said to myself, so are Kelly’s parents, so at that moment, I decided I was going to have my parents and her parents be there watching as it all went down.

As I scoped out the Mission Inn, I found a Christmas tree outside and it was perfect. My dad and I are were talking about how I should do it and where I should have them sitting to watch and I said I’ll just have to figure it out somehow. Later that night, I was thinking of everything and it came to me that if I was going to pull this off, I was going to need some reinforcements. I needed my brother’s and sister’s help. At that moment, I also decided not only am I going to invite both of our parents, I was going to invite my whole family and her whole family. I wanted everyone to be there. The next day, my brother and I went back to the Mission Inn. I showed him the spot and we came up with a plan for everyone to have dinner at one restaurant while she and I were dining at another. Then after dinner, I was going to take her on a horse-drawn carriage ride, which would give our families time to wrap up their meal, shuffle across the street, and get into position to watch it go down. Then, I called my sister for help. Kelly had sent me a song 6 months earlier, which I had always remembered, and it was my sister’s job to play that song on her block rocker when we got in front of the Christmas tree for a picture. The plan was starting to come together. I decided that when I heard the song playing, I would look at her and say, “Hey, isn’t this the song you sent me a while ago?” Then, I was going to ask her for this dance, at which time both of our families would come out, create a semi-circle around us, and watch me do my thing and make her cry lol.

So it’s now the day before. The plan is in place; the reservations are made; and the markers are set. Then I realized, who is going to take pictures of all this? I didn’t want our families to worry about getting "the perfect shot,” so I made a few phone calls and my cousin, Armand (aka "Double A"), came through with a photographer he knows that was going to help us out. Everything was now set.

I showed up to Kelly’s and she was looking absolutely stunning. I knew she was preparing to say “YES” that night. I noticed she was being super nosey - looking at my jacket and my pockets to see if I had any type of box in my pockets. Of course, I thought ahead and had it hidden away. On the way to dinner, I told her to keep Tuesday night open (that was our actual anniversary) because I wanted to do something really special that night. Little did she know, I had nothing planned. I was just trying to throw her off. We arrived to dinner and that’s when she was expecting it to happen. Of course, it didn’t and each time she got all mushy trying to set the scene, I would change the subject or admire the Christmas lights. As it got closer to the time to leave, I received a text from my horse-drawn carriage contact saying that they couldn’t do it after all because there were too many people, so I had to call an audible. I went to the bathroom, called my brother, and told him change of plans - the horses are a no go and we are going straight to the tree after dinner and to get everyone in place. It's Game Time!

As we left the restaurant, I could see that Kelly was completely disappointed that I didn’t propose at dinner and I was laughing inside because I knew she thought it wasn’t going to happen at all that night. As we approached the tree, I said to her, “Wow, what a beautiful Christmas tree. Let’s take a picture,” to which she replied, “Ok fine,” in a grumpy voice. When we got to the tree, I spotted my brother and I knew "Operation Proposal" was in full effect. I then asked someone to take our picture and my sister started the music. I asked her for this dance; the family started circling around us (which she didn’t even notice); and my photographer was snapping pictures. Now it was time to ask the question. Right before I got down on my knee, I leaned in and asked her if she remembered what I told her I texted my buddy, William, after our first date. She looked at me confused and smiled. Then I pulled out the box, got down on my knee, and asked her to marry me. Of course, she said yes! What people don’t know, is that after our very first date, I text my friend, William, and said, “I’m gonna marry this girl!”

I couldn’t have pulled this off without the help of my family. Thank you all. And for those of you who are wondering where I hid the box the whole time, it was in my sock snuggled away!