A Proposal Story
Monica: Randy and I had been dating only a short while when I fell in love with him and realized that he was the one I’m supposed to spend the rest of my life with. I knew we’d get married…sooner or later. When my dad suddenly passed away in May 2001 I realized that it should be “sooner”. Time is just too precious. But I wasn’t sure if he agreed. Sure, we talked about marriage, but it was always hypothetical.
Randy: More comments on this later. How much later is still a mystery.
Monica: So I waited.
Randy: Hey, I was waiting during this same period too.
Monica: In June Randy returned to Louisville for Buck and Jennifer’s wedding. When he came back the wedding talk was different.
Randy: Well, yeah. The change in attitude hadn’t come from my best man’s wedding though. I had started the plan in motion back early in the spring and was going to do it the proper way and ask her dad first. I couldn’t figure out how to do it over the phone so I decided to wait until their planned trip up to New Hampshire in the late spring or my trip home to Louisville. This plan was of course overtaken by events. So when I went in for Buck’s wedding I took her mom out to eat at the Spaghetti Factory and asked her. And her mom gave the okay. Which would definately change the talk when I returned.
Monica: Before I knew it we were planning our own wedding. He hadn’t asked me to marry him yet, but it didn’t matter. We were getting married. We flew to Louisville the last weekend in September as a gift from my mom. Randy wanted to go to a U of L football game and I was homesick. (We had also made appointments with the church and reception sites.) Once in Louisville we went those meeting and immediately booked them from 11-02-02. No one else knew that we were doing this because he still hadn’t proposed. We weren’t offical.
Randy: I kept saying good things come to those who wait, but she was still getting impatient. At the begging of September I had started to make plans to buy a ring on the trip home in September and propose at the end of October in Louisville (when we would be back in for Matt and Tracy’s wedding). Unfortunately we weren’t going to be able to make it back into town, so I had to compress the buying and presenting into this trip home.
Monica: Aside from these meetings Randy and I were both busy visiting with our friends and family. We pretty much only saw each other in passing and when we went to bed and got up in the morning. This was pretty wierd after spending the previous year with only each other for company.
Randy: Well, I proably would have had more time to spend with her if I hadn’t spent so much of my time away at The Shane Company.
Monica: So, I told him I missed him and he suggested we go to dinner alone on Saturday evening. I thought it sounded like a plan. (I love a plan.)
Randy: I don’t think that I said we would be going to dinner alone…I just forgot to mention that there might be other people there. And it was a plan. More than she knew.
Monica: On Saturday Randy left the football game a little early to come back to my mom’s and clean up before dinner.
Randy: One of the reaons I went to the football game was to show off the ring. I had to show somebody, and most dof the people there we would not have an opporunity to see after it had been presented. I had to make sure I got back on time to pick her up since I was on a deadline to get her out of the house.
Monica: He wouldn’t tell me where we were going. It was a “secret”. Randy likes secrets.
Randy: And I have a secret level clearance, so there’s nothing wrong with keeping them.
Monica: As we were headed downtown I was sure we wre going to the Old Spaghetti Factory, but I was wrong. We parked near the river by Joe’s Crab Shack and Randy said he just wanted to walk around Riverfront Park for a while.
Randy: Actually I think I just wanted to go lay down. My stomach was jumping something awful.
Monica: So we wandered around the park for a bit, holding hands. (I knew something was up? Randy rarely ever want’s to hold hands as we walk. we sat down on a hillside a little ways away from the kids and families grouped aroundd the park to watch the sunset. We talked about missing Louisville and about our plans for the future. Randy started getting fidgety and after a long pause he looked at me and said “I know what I want to say, but I don’t know how to say it.”
Randy: And it was so true. I think I could have tired to push a million thoughts out at the same time nad they all would have gotten stuck. Normally when faced with a situation I push it off and don’t deal with it at the moment. The long pause was not a joke. I think that I took ten minutes of near silence and watching the giant clock on the other side of the river before that thought came. Knowing my propensity for pushing things off I had set up some built-in deadlines so I would eventually have to go through with it. That and I was pretty sure if I waited much longer one of us would be ready to head back to the car to go eat dinner.
Monica: It was priceless? I’ve never known him to be at a loss for words.
Randy: I resent or resemble that? one of the two.
Monica: Then my stomach dropped. I thought that this is it: he’s either going to propose or tell me not to go back to New Hampshire with him.
Randy: Now she knew how I felt since about two o’clock that afternoon. Besides, I would have taken her back either way…I wasn’t going to move all that stuff out of the apartment.
Monica: After struggling to find the words for a few minutes, he laid his head against my shoulder and looked at me in the oh-so-cute-and-vulnerable way of his and asked “Will you marry me?” I gasped. Even though we were already planning the wedding nothing had prepared me for the overwhelming joy of him finally asking. “Yes!”
Randy: I was glad she said yes. And hungry.
Monica: We hugged each other tight and kissed. Suddenly he pulled away and looked down. There on the ground betwen us was the most beautiful ring I’d ever seen.
Randy: I could have sworn I looked down to the gray box that was still in my hand and opened it for her.
Monica: How he had managed to get it out of his coat pocket and the outer box and right there between us without noticing I’ll never know.
Randy: Well, Monica was just a little bit out of it that night. And me trying to get the large box out of my inside zipped coat pocket and behind my back so I could take it out of the box probably explained why I had seemed so fidgety for a while. That was hard work.
Monica: I was shaking as he put it on my finger. We sat there for a bit longer, not talking, just holding each other.
Randy: And getting even later for our dinner date (supposed to be at 8:00pm). I was planning on being fashinably late for the reservations, but not the twenty minutes late we were already running.
Monica: Suddenly Randy decided he was hungry. He still wouldn’t tell me where we were going I still thought we would go to the Old Spaghetti Factory. I was still wrong. We ended up[ driving all the way across town to Dillons.
Randy: I went in first (how ungentlemanly of me and walked to the hostess stand to find out where our reserved table as located).
Monica: He led me straight to one of the party rooms they have there. Waiting for us there were his parents, my mom, brothers, and my brother’s fianc?.
Randy: My sister was supposed to have been there too. Perhaps she had gotten lost. I kno wMonica must have still been floating on air because we walked right poast my dad’s truck in the parking lot. I was sure the surprise had been blown.
Monica: I couldn’t contain myself as we walked into the room: “We’re Official”! There were hugs all around and everyone agreed that Randy has excellent taste in jewelry.
Randy: I give more of the credit to my friend in the diamond business, The Shane Company.
Monica: We had all calmed down a little and were looking at the menus when Lindsay arrived. She gave her mom and dad a hug and was getting ready to sit down when his dad told her to give Randy a hug. She walked around the table and gave him a hug, looking just a little confused.
Randy: Then my dad said “and now Monica”, and my sister was looking really confused until my dad said to Monica “now show her why.”
Monica: I held up my hand and smiled. Suddenly Lindsay screamed and started jumping up and down as she grabbed me in a tight hug. (I think we may have hit my mom in the back of the head.) She was the first of several in the next few days to say “well, it’s about time.” Later during dinner we talked about the plans that had already been made earlier in the week.
Randy: Which gave me the chance to tell everybody the story of how we had all ended up at Dillon’s. (The main reason that it had to be Dillon’s and no other restaurant was that they are the only place in Louisville to take reservations on a Saturday night. If Bua di Bepo had taken reservations we would have ended up there instead.) It should be noted that this engagement was pretty much a surprise for everyone. Her mom had her suspicions, but I hadn’t told anyone else. They had no idea about the planned engagement or why we were all getting together for dinner.
Monica: As we were in the parking lot walking out I asked Lindsay to be a bridesmaid. I was once again tackled with a giant hug and much screaming and laughing.
Randy: It must run in the family. Those who have had one would refer to it as a “Randy Hug”. I don’t tend to giggle and scream as much though.
Monica: I never imagined what it would be like when Randy propsed. Even if I had tried, I could have never imagined it to be as wonderful as it really was.
Randy: I’m glad she liked it and a little bit relieved it was finally over.