The Wife® and I had made a tradition of celebrating our going-together anniversary at The Corsair, one of our local fine-dining establishments, and I decided that's where I'd pop the question. So, I made an appointment to meet with the manager to make the arrangements.
I selected a semi-secluded round booth that they later told us they called the "love booth." I also looked over their huge wine list but in the end, I talked the manager into allowing me to bring in a special bottle even though they normally don't allow corkage. By special, I don't mean that it was an especially good, expensive, or rare vintage...it was just a nice, undistributed reserve bottling that we purchased on her first trip to an estate winery. I also arranged to drop off a bouquet of flowers ahead of time, to be waiting for her in the booth.
For flowers, I had researched the 19th century custom of assigning meanings to flowers in certain colors and arrangements. I selected a dozen roses in various colors to symbolize things like love, passion, friendship, and fidelity, and had them bound in pairs with ribbon, to signify our engagement.
Finally, the ring...for which there is a backstory. At the time I proposed, we'd been seeing each other for three years and certain friends of ours that we'd see at the watering hole had been teasing us about tying the knot. One day while shopping at Walmart, we came across a couple of cheap wedding-ish looking rings that would look somewhat convincing under bar lighting. We wore them that night and had great sport with our friends when they finally noticed we were wearing them. The "Walmart rings" became mildly infamous after that.
I had already scouted out the real ring...a nice one at that...but just couldn't bring myself to buy it without her there. I always thought it was important for us to make big decisions together...and this was a doozie. So, I obtained a velvet ring box and put the Walmart ring inside. That's right, I proposed with a ring that cost me a whopping $6.97!
So, between dinner and desert, I scooted over next to her and explained the secret meanings of the colors of her roses...and then the symbolism of them being tied together. That's when I dropped to one knee and produced the ring, catching her completely off guard. Of course, I had to be quick about explaining that ring. She got a big kick out of it, actually, while appreciating that we'd make the decision about the real ring together.
That was almost two years and we now celebrate our wedding anniversary at the same restaurant.
Alright Stevehawk you are one of the reasons why time lines get messed up and not notice that the post is almost 4 YEARS OLD!!
Me too...dammit! :blush: