Kelly already did a great job of describing the proposal – but for anyone interested in what it looked like from my perspective, that’s what this post is about. It’s like Rashomon!
I’ve been told by several people – Kelly included – that they were surprised by how calm I seemed during the night before/morning of the proposal. I didn’t think too much of that, at first, but it is a little bit odd – I can easily be made nervous by things much less momentous than a marriage proposal. My outward calm was partially by design - I had made sure that I was the only one who knew the exact date of the proposal, and I didn’t want to arouse any suspicions that might ruin the surprise. However, I think the main reasons were that doing the proposal – and doing it right – was something I really wanted to do, and that I had a plan.
That first bit – wanting to do it – mainly meant that the feeling I had immediately beforehand was more akin to excitement than nerves. I can’t think of what to best compare it to…boarding a roller coaster that you’ve been looking forward to comes to mind, but seems off the mark. Thinking of that second bit – that I had a plan – might make things a little more clear. There have been a couple times that I’ve really tried to sweep Kelly off her feet with a surprise, and when it works, it’s the best feeling in the world. Some of those surprises ended up on strips of paper inside the eggs I had hidden – the memories from the relationship that Kelly alluded to in the previous post. Anyway, the point is that such surprises take a lot of planning, sometimes starting months in advance. When the time comes, though, there’s usually a point where I just need to do something relatively small to set things in motion – drive her to the theater for a surprise performance of her favorite musical, for example – and then, if planned correctly, the plan takes care of itself.
That’s essentially how the proposal felt. When we got home from church, I had Kelly take a brief nap so I could hide all the eggs, and put the ring in the final egg (I had the ring in my possession for less than 24 hours at that point – getting it was down to the wire, but that’s another story). It was during that time that I had that excited feeling – sort of like the feeling of excitement before any of the big surprises I would plan for her, but of a greater magnitude. Once she started getting emotional on the very first egg, though, the anticipatory excitement changed to “this is going to work…it’s working!” By that point, things had been set in motion, so I could relax (somewhat) and enjoy her enjoying what she still thought was just an egg hunt.
After she found the final egg, it was time for the actual proposal part of the proposal. I had only recently decided exactly what to say, and given the emotionality of the moment, it was a little hard to remember the exact words. I got the message across, though :), and it was pretty easy to remember the last bit: “Kelly Alexandre, will you marry me?”
…And she said yes!
