Planning for a special event is never easy for me. When I think of things I can do for Sabrina my mind suddenly goes blank. What can I do to make things special? What can I do to surprise her? How can I make this an amazing day?
That was how it was when I planned things for our 1-month anniversary and that was how it was when I was planning things for our 1-year anniversary/engagement!
My story goes back further than just a couple of days before the proposal. There was a lot that had to happen first before I could get down on one knee and ask Sabrina to marry me!
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Background
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My plan for proposing goes all the way back to December 2008 if not sooner. It isn't easy to remember long distances of time like that. I knew that I wanted to marry her, and I decided that I would propose in the summer.
After spending Christmas in California with Sabrina's family, both Sabrina and I drove to Colorado where I'm from to visit my family and friends there. My mom was also visiting my brothers and came all the way from New Hampshire to visit them. I wanted Sabrina to be able to meet my mom, and spend more time with my family and friends to see how they all interacted together.
One night, I met with my friend Brandon to hang out and talk. I told him that I was going to propose to Sabrina in the summer. He was excited for me.
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Planning
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Like I said before I had no idea what to do on the day I was going to propose. I still didn't even know when I was going to propose. So I decided to pick a date before I did anything else. I chose the 1 year anniversary of our 1 month anniversary which was July 16. I thought it would be perfect because our 1 month was the first dating landmark that we hit, and so it seemed right to mimic it with a proposal.
There was a problem though. Halfway through the semester, Sabrina decided to apply for a 3 week internship at Joni and Friends. I didn't really think anything of it. Helping families with children who have special needs is something that Sabrina is really passionate about, so I was all for it. The problem occurred when she got accepted into the internship. As it turns out the internship was July 13–July 31. During the time that I wanted to propose to her, she would be gone!
Now I had to figure out what I was going to do. I was a little depressed, because I was hoping to do it on that day. Now I was left with a choice though, either move the proposal up, or move it back. Seeing as how I wouldn't be able to wait until the end of summer, I decided to do it earlier. 1 month earlier. I decided to do it on our anniversary!
Now the question came up again, what was I going to do? Luckily I had lots of help.
My first idea was to take her to the Pomona Skyspace by James Turrel. The art exhibit uses different led's to light up a canopy at certain points of sunrise and sunset. The exhibit frames the sky and changes how the viewer sees the color of the sky during the two settings of the sun. I was going to take her during sunrise, and propose there. But that would be too simple, and as my room mate suggested, an easy give-away that I was going to propose.
So the idea had to be expanded, and I had a friend, David Carlson, help out with the next idea. His thought was to take her to this botanic gardens by his house, find a nice place there and propose. Sounded good to me, but what would I do in between a 4-6am sunrise and a 12-2pm garden tour? More thought had to be done.
As June came around I was disappointed because the sky was a constant grey. Apparently there is this thing here in California called June Gloom. That pretty much ruined my sunrise idea. If there are clouds in the way, how in the world would we see the sunrise? So I scratched that and decided to do something else.
The next step was getting a ring. Sabrina had been sending me links to rings she liked online, and so I had a pretty good idea of what she would like. Thanks to a large income tax return, I was able to purchase the ring and store it safely in my room. I kept it a secret for a good half a month. She didn't know that I had purchased the ring, and didn't even think that I was ever going to plan to get engaged any time soon. She was frustrated and almost cried a couple times when I would lead her off track by saying that it would be a little while before I could propose. When she was frustrated, I hugged her, and smiled because even though she didn't think I was doing anything, I had everything almost figured out!
With lots of help I finished planning. I was finalizing things all the way up until the night before I proposed. On the 15th everything was set and I went to sleep. Tossing and turning I couldn't fall asleep for a couple hours. I kept thinking, "By this time tomorrow, I'm going to be engaged!" My heart would race, and it would take me even longer to fall asleep.
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Anniversary and Engagement
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At 8:30am on June 16th, I showed up to Sabrina's house with breakfast. Before we ate, she gave me my anniversary presents. Here we go with the awesomeness:
- Wok
- Bamboo Steamer
- Japanese cookbook
- Wok cookbook
- Japanese art book
- Japanese art posters
- 3D sidewalk chalk
Now it was my turn!
I had a total of 5 surprises to give to Sabrina throughout the day. Each time she received a surprise, I would give her a handwritten card with a little love letter in it. The card also revealed the surprise that she was about to get! Each time I gave her a card, I recorded it with my camcorder (keep this in mind, this was a setup for later!)
Surprise #1 was breakfast. I made pancakes, and scrambled eggs. I brought strawberries, and orange juice to complete the meal.
Surprise #2 was a 1-hour professional massage reservation. I gave her $80 to spend on any type of massage that she wanted. She would get to choose whatever she felt comfortable with! I waited in the lobby for the entire hour. While waiting I made a few phone calls to my mom, and to David to make sure that everything was set for the next surprise!
Secret Surprise! After she was done, I told her that we were going someplace that wasn't written in a card. I didn't want her to know where we were going. I needed to keep her on her toes! We went to my friend David's house. I had things planned for him and his girlfriend to be there. We would all go to the next surprise together…this helped to throw Sabrina off the trail that I might propose.
Surprise #3 was going to the South Coast Botanic Gardens. I gave David the camera, and he recorded me giving Sabrina the next envelope. Since David was now going to be recording me giving Sabrina the envelopes, she wouldn't be suspicious when I had him recording when I proposed! David was going to "show us around the gardens" and I was going to find the perfect place to propose! At the gardens we walked around and took a lot of couple pictures. At one point, Sabrina noticed a really nice gazebo and wanted to take pictures there. She wanted to go and take pictures there. I wanted to do that later, because THAT was going to be the place I proposed!
We walked around a great deal of the gardens and at some point David told me that it was already 1:30. I had plans for 2 at another place, and so we had to turn around and go back to the gazebo, so I could propose!
Surprise #4 proposal! We came to the gazebo to take pictures. Sabrina wanted to take pictures of David and Chelsea first. After they were done, they took pictures of us. When the pictures were done, I went and got the 4th envelope. Sabrina started to follow me and I looked back and said, "Stay there!" (in a nice tone). I told David to start recording, telling him to get up close.
I gave Sabrina the envelope, and reached into my pocket, grabbing the ring with 2 fingers, grasping it in my hand. I stood next to her and waited for her to open the note. After a brief hesitation, she did. Instead of a little love letter, like all the other notes had, this note only had one sentence, "Will you marry me, Sabrina?" I knelt down and proposed!
She took the ring and bent down and started hugging me. Then she started to pull me up to my feet. We hugged and I spun her around. Then I put the ring on her finger!
After a lot of spinning, and hugging, and kissing, David and Chelsea left, and Sabrina and I went and sat under a tree by the gazebo for a little alone time. She kept saying "You did it! You did it!" It was amazing!
After several minutes of us talking and cuddling we got up, signaled David and Chelsea to come back. And then I gave her her last card, and final surprise.
Surprise #5. A celebration lunch. I didn't tell her where we were going. That was still a secret. All she knew was that we were going to lunch. But it was more than that. I had our good friends Melissa and Abe come and meet us at the place to celebrate too! She was very happy!
Sabrina called her mom, and we got into the car. David drove us to Lucielle's BBQ in Torrance, where we met up with Melissa and Abe. We all celebrated, and ate some amazing BBQ. Sabrina loves meat, so I knew that this would be the perfect place to go!
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After Thoughts
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Here are a few extra tidbits for what also went on that day.
- I wanted to make sure that I documented the day. I love looking back and seeing lots of pictures of fun times and special events. I wanted to remember very clearly how it happened!
- I made sure that I recorded Sabrina and I each time she opened a note from me containing her surprise. By doing this, I made sure that she wouldn't get suspicious when the time came to propose, and David was recording us with a camera.
- When we got to Davids house, I strategically gave him the camera, so he could document Sabrina and I, so that way later, she wouldn't get suspicious.
- Also at David's house, I looked up directions to Lucielle's BBQ, and sent them to Melissa and Abe so that they could meet us there at 2pm. It ended up being closer to 2:30 when we all actually met up though.
- When I proposed, David turned the camera sideways. I didn't expect that he would do that. Oh well, good thing I know my way around video editing software!
- I was really nervous throughout the day even though I knew that Sabrina was going to say yes.
- After I proposed, it didn't seem real. It still kindof doesn't.
- After I proposed, I sent a lot of friends and family a text saying it did it. 30 seconds later I had at least 12 new text messages.
Thank you to everyone who helped me plan this day! I really appreciate all your help and support!
