Isn't this serene? It has absolutely nothing to do with this post. But it is quite serene. You know, if you say serene enough times, it doesn't sound like a word anymore. Try it!
Hey all! This is part three of my behind the scenes engagement story. If you’re just joining, check out our previous posts to get the whole story!
Otherwise, let's keep going. At this point, I had purchased the ring and gotten the stone set into it. The next step was to plan the actual proposal. Figuring out how I was going to propose to Beverly was no easy task. The thing about proposals is you only get to do them once ever in your entire existence as a human (if you’re handling things properly anyway). So, in my mind, I had to figure out something that would be affordable, manageable, but also specially tailored to reflect Beverly and create a memory that she would cherish. What I ended up actually doing, however, will not sound like it was affordable, manageable, or even possible. But that is the kind of thing you can do when you give your story over to God. More on that later.
The thing that I wanted to keep in mind is that, not only do I myself only get to propose one time ever (if things go well), but Beverly is only going to receive a proposal one time ever (if things go well). So I’m not knocking anyone else’s proposal story, but I didn’t want to propose to her in her living room or randomly at a mall somewhere.
“What I ended up actually doing will not sound like it was affordable, manageable, or even possible. But that is the kind of thing you can do when you give your story over to God.”
Of course I was praying for some good ideas, and of course I also had some “good ideas” of my own.
The aforementioned old brain. You can't see it, but ideas are tumbling around in there.
The first idea that I had tumbling around in the old brain was to find a local, small live music event at which some as-yet-undecided-upon musician friend of mine would be playing. I would work out an agreement with them where they would let me come up and perform one of the songs I had written for Bev, and then I would end the song on my knee proposing (I know, insert “awwww” here).
I knew I might not be able to do that, so my second “great idea” was epic. Three words. Hot. Air. Balloon. Boom! Who wouldn’t say yes to a marriage proposal whilst being suspended by a thin cloth thousands of feet in the air? Foolproof, right?
But then I considered this: if I am going to ask her to change the rest of her life for me, then my proposal should symbolize what I hope the rest of her life will look like. That means that I wanted the proposal to do three things:
Show her how much I have studied and learned her
Be reflective of our story together
Demonstrate the amount of effort I plan to put in for her every day forever
1. Show her how much I have studied and learned her
That’s when I remembered she once said to me that in a perfect world, she would visit the zoo in every city she went to. My response to her when she said that was, “So let’s make it a perfect world.” Therefore, I decided that I should take her to her perfect world and ask her if she would make it a perfect world with me for the rest of her life.
“If I am going to ask her to change the rest of her life for me, then my proposal should symbolize what I hope the rest of her life will look like.”
I don’t know if you have been able to figure me out yet, but I don’t think it will come as a surprise to you that I couldn’t just take her to any old zoo on any old day and propose to her in any old spot. I had to find either a zoo that was having a special, more intimate event where I could propose to her or one that would be willing to help me set up a special event. So I started calling local zoos and looking up events on their websites.
I quickly discovered that the biggest nearby zoos were unable to help me do anything special, and the events they were having that might have worked were all booked up for a few months. However, Bev will tell you that I am really good at finding places. She almost always asks me how in the world I found wherever it is that I am taking her. So I didn’t let this local trouble stop me. I simply expanded my search area. I think I looked at almost every real zoo between here and Ohio. No joke.
To further complicate things, I (or more likely the Holy Spirit in me--remember I asked for His help) often find a way to take my little ideas and turn them into something bigger and just outside my comfort level (or way outside my comfort level). Have you ever noticed that when you give an idea over to God, He tends to expand it into something that takes a lot more faith than you originally planned on needing?
Let me explain what I mean. As I was calling these different zoos to see what I could set up, I started to realize that I have no clue what things I could do at the zoo to make a proposal special, and neither did the people that work for the zoos because it’s not a common event to propose at a zoo. It’s not like there were a bunch of examples for me to follow out there. So I realized that not only did I have to find a zoo, but I also had to come up with my something special for the proposal. Otherwise these poor zoo employees will have no clue as to whether or not they can accomodate me. Here is where the next component of this story comes in.
2. Be reflective of our story together
One thing that Bev and I love to do for each other is set up puzzles, scavenger hunts, and other fun, mysterious, fantastic things to figure out and do together. There was the time that I made a puzzle box for her to take on a trip out of town. It had secret compartments, false bottoms, hidden gifts, love notes, and clues for her to find what I had hidden for her in it each day. Another day, Bev set up a scavenger hunt adventure for me that started at an old diner in Bethesda, spanned much of Montgomery County, included an expedition to find the pieces of the original Capitol building that had been abandoned in a forest, and ended at one of the fanciest movie theaters in the DMV. There was even the trip we took to the Mansion on O St in Washington, D.C. which is filled with dozens of secret doors, rooms, and passageways to discover. And there are many other stories.
“Have you ever noticed that when you give an idea over to God, He tends to expand it into something that takes a lot more faith than you originally planned on needing?”
I needed to create some kind of awesome activity for us that would end in me proposing to her. So I decided that the best way to do that would be to try to set up a scavenger hunt at whatever zoo was willing to work with me.
So, to sum up where I am at this point, I now have to find a zoo that will allow me to set up a believable scavenger hunt on its grounds, using its employees and its attractions, that will NOT give away what I am doing until the very moment of truth. Yeah. Piece of cake, right? Well, tell me why I found multiple ways to make this whole thing even MORE difficult to pull off.
But that, my friends, is where I must leave you for this week, since this post has already gotten a bit long. Stay tuned for the awesome conclusion of The Engagement Story: Behind the Scenes!