An Engagement Story

Well I’ve been waiting around for AF to show up, but thus far we’re on CD26 with no sign of her. *sigh* Ah well.
Christmas is coming up, and it’s going to be pretty darned momentous. See, Kaitlin had proposed to me last June, on my birthday. One of the things we’d talked about a while back was that both of us kind of wanted to be proposed to, and I’d told her that each of us should choose a moment to propose to the other, so that we both got the proposal experience. Well, she beat me to it. At dinner on my birthday she had me unwrap my birthday gift, which turned out to be a singing Belle doll from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (this has a backstory – Belle is my favorite Disney character, and a few months after we started dating I’d accompanied Kaitlin on her family’s trip to Disneyland. While we were at the park she commissioned an artist to draw Belle for me. She used the drawing to say “I love you” to me for the first time. We now have it framed on our wall at home…) She had picked out a princess-cut yellow sapphire solitaire, and had it fastened to the doll’s hand. I happened to unwrap the doll’s hand first, so without even opening the entire present I had already noticed the ring. At first I thought it was one of those kid’s toys, you know, the doll that comes with jewelry the child can wear too... but the ring looked pretty darned fancy. Before I could even finish unwrapping the rest I realized Kaitlin was on one knee, asking me to marry her. I was so surprised that I think I actually asked her if she was serious. But I said yes, of course. :) Later on we went back to the Shane Company together so she could show me rings that she liked. Unbeknownst to her, I had actually already special-ordered a ring that I thought was what she wanted – a band she’d pointed out months ago, and I was going to have them add a stone mount and a purple pear-shaped sapphire. She’d always said she didn’t like diamonds, but as we were walking around the store she suddenly said that she really wanted a diamond engagement ring. So after she showed me what she liked (she and I have really opposite taste in jewelry) I went back to the store to cancel my special order and instead put in an order for the one she’d picked out.
This is the design she picked out, though she wants a different band However, as we were walking around, I also asked her a little timidly if she’d mind if I exchanged the ring she’d proposed with and got a diamond ring myself. She let me pick out a design that I really liked, and put it on layaway. I didn’t tell her that I had hers on layaway too, but I did tell her that she’d probably have to wait a bit for her proposal since I’d need to save up for her ring. Well… it has been about six months. She took me back to Shane Company last weekend so that she could make the last payment on my new ring, and I picked out a diamond. I’m going back this afternoon to pick the new ring up – and she doesn’t know this, but I’m also making the last payment on HER ring while I’m there, which means in a few more days I’ll be able to go pick her ring up and give it to her.
This one's mine. It combines the look of an e-ring and a wedding band and I <3 data-blogger-escaped-font="" data-blogger-escaped-it.=""> It’s her turn for a proposal, so here’s the plan: Kaitlin loves puzzles. She also loves presents, and has a really hard time being patient for things like Christmas and her birthday… she’s always asking if she can open presents early. And, she was pretty adamant that she wanted me to have my new ring before Christmas so my family could see it. So I have decided to propose on Christmas Eve, so that she will also have her ring in time for our big Christmas get-together. And, clever person that I am, I’m going to give it to her as a Christmas present that I will oh-so-generously allow her to open on Christmas Eve. To add a little more fun, I bought a handcrafted puzzle box off of Ebay. Once it gets here, I’m going to wrap the ring, put it in the puzzle box, then wrap the puzzle box. When she opens it I’ll tell her she has to figure out how to open the box, and have fun watching her try to get it open (it has a hidden compartment with a key, and a hidden keyhole.) After she gets it open she’ll have to unwrap the present inside… and by the time she gets to the ring box, I’ll do the whole one-knee-pop-the-question thing. Assuming everything goes smoothly, it should be a ton of fun, and I hope she’ll find it romantic!! I’m just waiting for the puzzle box to arrive in the mail. Really, really hoping it gets here on time. I paid extra for shipping to try and make sure, but I’ll be biting my nails until it actually gets here. So, lots of things to keep me distracted while I wait for AF to show up… Really excited for next week!!