The Proposal

My sister Molly and I frequently go to Alana to try on some of their vintage engagement rings. I love the history of estate jewelry. One day while drooling over the cases of diamonds, I came upon the most beautiful ring I had ever seen. Molly urged me to try it on. We both got chills, and I knew this was the ring I wanted. This particular ring was vintage 1930's-- an illusion set round brilliant diamond in platinum with three smaller diamonds set on each side. They stopped making the illusion setting in the '50s, and I have always loved this particular type of ring setting. It also means that this ring is truly one of a kind, so it hit all my marks--beautiful, good quality diamond, vintage, and unique. At the time, Ben and I were dating but it wasn't totally serious so I didn 't mention it to him. Later I wished I had, because one day when I went to admire it, it was gone.



Skip forward a few months, despite having talked about Ben moving over, I was beginning to get increasingly frustrated by the physical distance between us. The night before Halloween, 10/30/08, this all came to a head. I felt like he didn't really want to take the risk, and that was what was stopping us from moving forward and getting closer. After a long and ultimately fruitless discussion, I retreated from the conversation (I hung up on him) and went to bed. The next morning I was surprised by Ben, he had driven through the night. The next thing I knew, he got down on one knee, pulled out a ring box, and proposed! I hesitated slightly, considering making him sweat, but I couldn't contain myself. Obviously I said yes. He later told me he was shocked that I said yes without having to think about it, but I already knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him.



Imagine, however, my complete and utter surprise when that beautiful mahogany ring box turned out to be from Alana. With MY ring inside!



Molly had clued him in that I had found the ring of my dreams and that if he ever wanted to marry me, he should snap it up. And being the amazing man he is, he did. He had had that ring for months, even before we had begun to move forward in the relationship. He had been waiting for the perfect moment (apparently there was also a plan involving a hot air balloon, but the timing and weather never coincided). My frustration foiled his plans a bit, but it all worked out perfectly in the end. I am marrying the best friend that I could ever ask for, and I got a pretty good rock in the bargain!