Jess & Bryan
03.06.2011 - 181 days to go
The Proposal
When it came to ring shopping for Jess, I had a very specific ring design in mind. I spent a little over 2 months reading everything I could possibly find about diamonds. I learned about depth percentages, girdles, tables, facets, color, and carats. By the time I was finished, I was pretty much a diamond specialist. I knew the exact specs of the diamond I wanted to get, so I looked all over until I found the right one. I purchased the perfect diamond for her ring. The challenge was going to be finding the setting I had imagined.
I knew the exact setting I wanted to get for Jess. The problem was that no one made it. I went to countless jewelry shops, from Stafford, to Alexandria, to Tysons, to DC, to Friendship Heights, to Bethesda. No one had what I wanted. I was getting very frustrated, and I was beginning to think I may have to settle for something else.
I called up my father to vent about not being able to find the setting I wanted. I told him that I knew exactly what I was looking for and that it is a simple design. I told him that I was shocked I couldn't find anything like it anywhere. My father simply said, "Why don't you go to Greenan & Sons and have them custom make it for you?" I was like, "Oh, I remember that place. I used to go there with Mom when I was a kid. They make jewelry?" He told me that they do make jewelry and that, as a matter of fact, it was the place where he got my mother's engagement ring. I went online and searched for Greenan & Sons, and it turns out that 1 of their 3 locations was right here in Silver Spring---only about a mile from our house.
I went into the shop with my idea for the ring, and I spoke with Damon (one of the Sons). I told him what I wanted and drew a picture of the ring for him. He told me that it would be no problem for them to make that for me and that he would have it done by Christmas. He actually hand-delivered the ring to our house on Christmas Eve, since it had taken his jeweler a little longer than expected to finish the ring (Jess was in Pittsburgh).
When I first saw the ring, it was exactly what I had envisioned. My dad was on the money when he told me to go to Greenan & Sons to have them custom make the ring I wanted. I'll be forever grateful to him for that. It was the perfect ring for Jess, and I couldn't wait to give it to her.
On the day of the proposal, Jess and I had agreed to meet in DC to do some shopping for our New Year's Eve outfits. This really worked out because I wanted to propose to her in DC, and now I didn't have to manufacture a reason to meet her in the city after work.
I decided to propose to Jess under the very awning where we first met. In order to get us to that location, I had to come up with a reason for us to venture in that direction. There was a Ben & Jerry's on the same block as the "spot," so I suggested that we go for ice cream after shopping. It would have been better if it hadn't been 18 degrees outside, with wind gusts in the 30 mph range, but what could I do? I had to get her in the vicinity, and it was the only thing I could think of.
Things went smoothly with the ice cream plans, and it was time to leave Ben & Jerry's. This was it! This was the moment where I was going to stop Jess under that awning, grab her by the hand, tell her how much I love her, and get down on my knee and ask her to be my wife. I had worked it perfectly. I was very proud of myself.
We stepped outside of the ice cream shop, and I turned toward the awning and started walking.
SCREECH!!!
Jess was walking in the OTHER direction! What?! This couldn't be happening. Didn't she know that she was going the "wrong" way? Didn't she realize that I had worked things out perfectly to get her in the right spot at the right time? How could she be walking in THAT direction?
I called out to her, "Where are you going? Let's go this way." She replied, "It's a lot shorter if we go this way though." "Yeah, but...(uh, uh, think fast, stupid)...look, there's where we first met," I replied. "Aww, yeah, that's nice. Can we please hurry up? It's freezing!" she said. I stood there for a second, then said, "I thought it would be nice to walk by the place where we first met." Jess said, "But this way is so much closer to the car, and we can see it from here. Can we please go?" "Fine," I said.
It was a quiet ride home. I was upset and a little bitter about what had just happened. I tend to like things to go according to plan, and I get really stressed when they don't. As we were driving, I was thinking about everything that had happened. I started to realize that the location, the time, the planning, and the details didn't really matter. What was really important was for me to tell Jess how much she means to me and to ask her to marry me. By the time we got home, I was calm and ready.
We walked in and took off our coats. She hung up hers and walked into the kitchen to put away her purse, while I walked over to our Christmas tree. We had worked hard decorating the tree, and we frequently talked about how much we loved it. As I was standing there, admiring the tree, I asked her to come into the living room. My back was to her when she came in and asked me what I was doing. I knew this was the moment. I turned around and took her hand. I began to speak. I don't know exactly what was said, but I do know that I let her know just how much she means to me. I pulled the ring box from my pocket, and I brought it up in between us. I opened the box, went down to one knee, and asked her to marry me. She said yes. Right there, in our home, next to our beautiful Christmas tree, the girl I love more than anything in this world said that she would marry me. It is something I will never forget.
I did tell her about my original DC proposal plan, and she felt horrible about what had happened. I assured her that it was fine and that the actual proposal was much more special than my original idea. Still, she felt bad and said that we should go to the awning and fulfill the DC proposal. So that Saturday morning, we drove into DC in the bitter cold, all bundled up with coats, hats, gloves, and scarves. The weather was severe. The wind was blowing just as hard as it was the night of the proposal, and it was just as cold or maybe colder! We managed to get to that awning. The whole thing lasted about 5.5 seconds. I got down on my frozen knee and asked her to marry me (again), and she quickly said yes. I quickly jumped back up and kissed her, and we quickly ran back to the car.
It turns out that Jess was right when she started walking the "wrong" way. Our marriage proposal at home is something we will always remember. Every year when we admire our Christmas tree, we will be reminded of that night. Who wants to be reminded of sub-zero temperatures? :)