lol, ophelia's more than welcome to give her take on it, I just wanted to give the background story. Well here goes:
ophelia and I have been dating since January of '05, and we'd been discussing marriage since slightly after that (for the record, we've known each other significantly longer than that). I knew that I wanted it to be special, but I was kind of strapped for cash and I didn't have much time to work on things. The next time that I'd be seeing her was slightly after Valentine's Day, so I figured I could use that as an excuse to take her out for a nice dinner and make up a good gift without her getting suspicious (the proposal was to be a total surprise).
I went ring shopping first off around the middle of January to find the perfect ring. She'd been wanting something with either pave diamonds or pretty filagree work, but all of the rings that had the look she wanted had very detailed bands to go with it, which wouldn't work (since we're following some Jewish traditions in our wedding plans). However, at one jewelry store I found a ring that had a slightly Art-deco feel, but was also very modern. A bridge of channel-set diamonds accented the center stone, but still let it look some-what traditional.
Then I set about finding a unique way to present my message. I decided that since music was a big part of both of our lives I'd try to make a mix cd of songs that meant something to us both as a couple. Once I got to thinking about it, I decided that it would be even more special if I was to perform/record the songs as opposed to just downloading them from iTunes. I talked to one of my friends about it who plays guitar, and he said he'd be happy to help out. We took advantage of my job at a radio station to use the recording studio there and started working on the CD.
It took almost all of our free-time for about a month (we could only record after work, often staying at the station until 3am). It made it really tough, since I couldn't tell ophelia what I was working on, and she was becoming somewhat unhappy about the amount of time I was spending with my friend (time that I couldn't really account for). However, after countless nights of recording, we finally had a near-professional cd with 3 tracks: "Grow Old With You"-Adam Sandler, "Vindicated"-Dashboard Confessional, and "our song" which is "To Be With You"-Mr. Big. I finished up the cd by using Illustrator and Photoshop to create a label for the cd and a cover with a glowing wedding band and a Hebrew quote that my fiancee has always said she'd like to have engraved on her wedding ring.
Fast forward to the Friday I proposed: Ophelia'd just flown in the day before, and we were in Columbus, OH for some shopping and a nice dinner. I had picked out what I was told was one of the best sushi restaurants in town, with a modern atmosphere and good food to be followed up with drinks at a tapas bar down the street. We had a great time and enjoyed some top-shelf sake (maybe a bit more than I'd intended to drink that night
). After the tapas bar, we cabbed back to the hotel where I told her I'd finally give her the present I told her I'd made for her (she thought I was fairly broke, so she was expecting a painting). However, I presented her with the CD which she really loved. Then, I told her I had one last bit to the present, although it was probably small and lackluster next to the CD. I had her close her eyes, and then when she opened them, I was one knee asking her to be my wife. I don't think it set in what was happening until she realized that I referred to her by her full-name (I always said that's how she'd know I was proposing).
I'll never forget what she said as I slipped the ring on her finger, when she looked at me with tears welling in both our eyes: "You're joking,right? Wait, is that thing real?!"
Once she got over the initial shock, she of course said yes, and we actually started compiling wedding ideas that same week. We're hoping for a fall wedding, probably in 2008.