Popping the Question

by Danny
On October 23, 2008, One Year, One Month and One Day after we first started going out, I decided it was time to pop the question. My decision to ask for her hand in marriage was brought on during my trip in Europe. We had spent two weeks together traveling about and then I spent another two weeks traveling alone in Italy. During those two weeks in Italy I came to the conclusion that I wanted to share my travels and adventures with the women I had spent the previous two weeks with. The fact was that everything I saw was muted because she was not there and I never wanted to have that feeling again. I then decided to ask for her hand in marriage!

Coming up with how to pop the question is a question in itself and so I consulted my brother, Todd and brother-in-law, Chris. Many ideas were thrown about and so I took ideas from the two and formed one ingenious plan.

So on the appointed day we set out on a drive, me in the drivers seat and Stephanie cluelessly questioning me with questions about where we were going for she knew something was up. (It's not every day that a boyfriend asks his girl to go on a drive to a surprise destination midweek). After an hour drive we arrived in San Francisco. We continued up to historical Coit Tower and parked.

Since Stephanie figured out I was going to propose I had to have a couple of aces up my sleeve. I therefore left the ring box in the car, making sure Stephanie saw that the box was staying but we were going. With this fact in her mind she was lead to believe I was going to ask at a later time in the night. We began to walk around the monument together and eventually found a spot away from the tourists and other sightseers and sat down on a bench. I began telling her how much I loved her and that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her, sharing every experience with her. I then slowly pulled a red handkerchief from my pocket. Inside the handkerchief I revealed the ring . Meanwhile I had gotten down on one knee. No sooner had I done that then I burst out, "Will you marry me?!". Although my speech was quite rapid at this point I got the point across and Stephanie shook her head yes, although she made me ask one more time and only after that did she say, "Yes!!!" I had taken her compeltely by surprise because she thought the ring was still in the car.

After the ring was on her finger we stayed where we were, looking at each other, the ring, and the sunset over San Francisco Bay, simply taking in the moment and knowing we had just started on another amazing journey together. After a time we went back to the car and drove to Restaurant Americano.

I had reserved a table and upon sitting down Stephanie notice a bouquet of a dozen red roses sitting on the table. She once again began to cry with a huge smile on her face. Throughout dinner we continued to stare at each other stargazed. The table next to us bought us some celebratory wine in honor of the occasion. After the meal the waitress even bought our desserts.

The night was a complete success...mainly because she said "Yes!!!!!!!!"

And they lived happily ever after...