My five year anniversary is coming up rapidly with my girlfriend, and I'm going to propose. I have the ring already, but I'm going to need the TFP's help in attempting the perfect proposal. So - first up, a bit background just to hopefully help come up with some ideas...
About her: I cannot say enough good about her. She is very petite. 5'2 and maybe 105 pounds. Although she is small, she is quite the little bundle of energy. She is very energetic and constantly up for anything fun. She works full time and goes to school part time - for "Tourism and Hospitality Management" She is in her final year of school. We have been officially living together since April, when I bought a duplex, but she typically stayed over 5 or 6 nights a week at my apartment prior to that. She volunteers at the local animal shelter, which is ironic, because she is allergic to just about everything. Additonally, she is very liberal - which I am not - and she is also a vegetarian - also, which I am not. She and I have quite different tastes in music - she likes country and hip hop, as well as the typical popular music, I'm more into punk rock. I guess the cliche is true - opposites attact. She is incredibly cute - and I mean that in every sense of the word. She has a ridiculous amount of clothes - including NINE pink sweaters - and likes pretty much... everything... that is cute. Animals, clothes, cars, movies, ect. Hopefully that gives you a bit of insight.
As far as our relationship is concerned:
We started dating in high school, and although we love each other very much, didn't want to jump the gun with the marriage thing because we did, in fact, start dating so young. It's been five years - and I don't think that she has any idea that I'm considering this. I don't mean to imply that she doesn't want marriage - I just think that we have been together so long that it will seem unreal for me to finally propose.
Here are some rather noteable memories that we still joke about today that may come into play with the proposal. Prior to reading them, however, I'd like to let you know that neither of us are insane, lol, and these situations are most likely "you had to be there" moments. Nevertheless, here we go:
Within the first few minutes of meeting her the first time, I smashed a cake in her face. I know that sounds ridiculous, and it wasn't meant done with any menace - I simply was holding a cake and remarked how funny it would be to smash it somebody's face - and the girl that I had known all of 5 minutes volunteered. Silly her - she probably had icing in her ears for a week.
After we had initially met each other, we fell out of touch for a couple of years. We had mutual friends and spoke with each other whenever we happened to run into each other, but I think the big issue was her best friend had a crush on me at the time - at the time, there was a bit of mutual attraction between my current girlfriend and myself, but out of loyalty to her friend we never got together or explored anything past really being aquaintences.
Fast forward a couple of years - We re-met (if that's a word) at a highschool Halloween dance - she looked absolutely ridiculously funny - she went as the pillsbury doughboy. She had somehow managed to find clothes big enough to stuff probably a half a dozen pillows in her clothing and tape them into a roughly pillsbury doughboy shape. I was dressed as the "Scream" guy, and after we talked at the dance she, myself, and a bunch of our friends went out for dinner. Even then, It seemed as though it was just her and I.
Shortly after, we began dating. We went on a double date with my best friend at the time, and although I cannot imagine why it was brought up, weddings became the topic of choice. At the time, obviously, we weren't considering marriage or anything of the sort - we were probably just wondering if there would be another date - or I whether or not I'd get into her pants
- but I digress. In essence, somehow the subject came up, and she and I got mock married in jest. My best friend would say something preachereske like "For richer or poorer, in health and sickness, ect" and she would repeat "for richer... and healthy" or something similar. Anyway, the point of the story is instead of exchanging rings in our mock marriage, we exchanged "wedding parcley" - I took a stalk of parcley and stuck it behind her ear. (Reading through that, that DEFINATELY qualifies as a "you had to have been there situation" - it was really quite innocent, and we weren't really serious for quite some time)
We began dating exclusively not long after that, and there are a few more incedents that stick out in my mind when I think about our past... However, I think those are the only two that directly relate to how we met or marriage. I'd post the other things, but I don't want to bore anyone to tears, and hopefully at least some will find the willpower after reading this far to finish the post.
Throughout our relationship, we've had far more ups than downs - and although I'm not really the mushy type, I'm certain that she is the girl I'd like to spend the rest of my life with. We are probably one of those couples that many people dislike, constantly touching each other and always together - we're real sickly sweet.
As far as the date of my proposal, I'm leaning towards the anniversary of our first date - which is October 29th. It seems we have a tradition of our anniversary to pretty much go to dinner and exchange gifts, and that's about it. I'd like to at least keep the facade up of this just being a "normal" anniversary until she has the ring on our hand, so we'll be going to a classier restaurant... and that's about all I have planned.
I'm open to suggestion - please feel free to throw some ideas out there for me. If you like, you can share your proposal stories as well - hopefully it will help me get it together and pull off a spectacular evening. The only pitfall that I know of so far, is she works ridiculously early the next day. I've considered a couple of things, including calling her work and explaining the situation to her boss - leaving her on the schedule so she doesn't suspect anything is up, but having someone ready to replace her on the following day, but am not sure if that will fly or not.
And since all the ladies ask me... no, I didn't pick out the ring. She picked it out quite some time ago, but has no idea that I have it. She was with a friend and they were apparently shopping - and of course, her...
lovely friend suggested that they swing by a jewelry store and look at engagement rings. It turns out she fell in love with one in particular, and the next time I spoke to her she told me she put it on a wish list, and that I should go take a look. I told her that we still had to wait one year, two hundred some days (see note if you care) and that when we got closer to that date we'd go ring shopping. Of couse, without her knowledge, I went down the very next day and reserved the ring so I could pick both it up and the engagement band up. She has gone a couple of other times with her same friend just to get ideas of what she likes - each time she has gone, however, she remarks that she can never find any that was as good as the first ring that she had found. It was a designer piece, so there was a very limited amount made - and I had dibs on the only one in this area. It is that ring that I have hidden where she will never find it
(Explanation on the number of days till marriage thing... For as long as I've known her, she's been a nail biter. After we had been dating for a while, she asked me to help her stop biting them. Originally, whenever I'd catch her, I'd tickle her - but she still continued. The next attempt, much to the chagrin of anyone that was near us, was for me just to tell her to stop. Which... on the generous side, was about every 3 seconds. Finally, I told her that every time I caught her I would make her wait at least another year for the ring - in jest, of course. When we remained at a for about 6 months - I'd catch her daily, I told her that I was going to start adding 1 day to that year every time I caught her. Everytime I catch her, I just say "One year, X Days," or whatever - I'm sure it's not even anywhere in the realm of accurate - but just kinda wanted to explain why I'd give such a ridiculous response to her looking at a ring. I wanted it to be a surprise when I popped the question, and didn't want her to have any idea that it was on the horizon.)
Well, there you have it folks. It probably seems like we are nuts - and I'm not sure I can convince you otherwise - but we're young and in love and silly. What else can I say?
If you have any questions, please ask - I'd love to do whatever I can to ensure that she is very pleased with our anniversary, I'd like to make it as memorable as possible and add it to hopefully a long chain of happy memories.