Welcome to the fantastic conclusion of the behind the scenes engagement story! I hope you’re proud of me! Because I finished writing it. I didn’t have to, you know. Could have just left you hanging. I thought about it, but I’m kind.
Wow. Not even a smile or a friendly clap, huh? I see how it is. It’s fine. It’s cool. Doesn’t even bother me. Unfazed out here. Just gonna sit there wit ya reading self. Hmpht.
So…I guess I’ll just 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. And that’s where number 3 from my last post comes in. My proposal needed to:
3. Demonstrate the amount of effort I plan to put in for her every day forever
So after researching pretty much every zoo between DC and Ohio, I finally came across one (hereinafter referred to as “the zoo”) that was just the right size and seemed to have just the right setup for a scavenger hunt. It was a large, family owned wildlife park in Pennsylvania. It took a little bit of phone tag to get a hold of the right person who could help with my ideas, but I finally did. I tried to design everything in such a way that it would take minimal participation from the zoo itself, while still looking like it was official so that Beverly wouldn’t think something was up. I spoke with the lady (one of the owners) over the phone, and she said that it seemed like a workable idea.
Now here we had a slight problem. I had only seen a PDF map of this place. I didn’t really know the setup. So I needed to find a way to go out there and scope out the spots where my clues were going to be. The owner said she was willing to meet with me and show me around so we could figure everything out. That’s fantastic! Except I had to find a way to go to Pennsylvania without Bev knowing.
The bridge to the ISLAND I got to propose to my girlfriend on.
Fortunately, I had been working really hard on a stage play called Black Boy Blues (by the great Jenkins Brothers -> Shameless plug: there’s a free showing of the play this Saturday at First Baptist Church of Glenarden—you should come.) and I decided to take a day off work after the play. So all I had to do is send a few texts, maybe a nice snapchat from my house, to Bev while she was at work, and that should buy me the time to make my visit. And it did. I got out there and back, and she had no clue.
The visit itself was awesome. The zoo was so amazingly accommodating to all my ideas. They even added ideas of their own to make it look cooler and more legit. Not only did they offer to have their employees at the designated clue areas hold my clues, but they printed the clues on their letterhead and made custom lanyards so that the scavenger hunt would look like it was their event. But that’s not EVEN the best part. Not only did they do all this, but on the grounds of the park there is an ISLAND. Yes. An island. One of their family members created a bridge to this island so that he could get married on it. And they told me that they would reserve the island for me to propose to Bev on.
Did you read that last paragraph at all? Why are you still sitting??? AN ISLAND. A FREAKING ISLAND! I get to propose to my girlfriend on my own reserved island.
You may take your seat now.
Now I also said that I was able to make this more complicated. And boy was I able to. In planning for this event, I realized that someone will need to be there to take a picture or video to record it. Well, Bev’s brother-in-law is a photographer. So the best thing to do is to ask him to come out right? Haha! Good one!
Yeah. So my easy idea (that was working just fine thank you very much) is now an endeavor to get 9 people from different states to come to a place where none of us lives at the same time on the same day. I began my phone calls, secret texts, and emails to everybody, trying to get everyone’s agreement to come. Additionally, I had to get all these people into the zoo, which is not free. And the zoo was doing so much for me, I wanted to make it profitable for them somehow as well. So guess who also had to secretly get entry passes to these people coming from all across the country whom I could not take secret road trips to go see. Did you guess? Yup. Me.
The view from THE ISLAND I GOT TO PROPOSE TO MY GIRLFRIEND ON (yes I'm just a little excited about that).
To make a long story just slightly shorter, I was able to get almost everyone agree to be there for the proposal, and I mailed everyone their tickets. And with some forgiveness on the part of the zoo for one ticket lost in the mail, we made it happen.
But guess who’s not done making things difficult yet. You guessed, right? Come on, you have to know the answer by now!
So…remind me to shoot my inner inner self. Anyway, as I was searching for materials for Bev’s personalized ring box, I found instead a box shaped like a book. And Bev loves to read. And I had just bought a wood burning kit. So through a series of decisions progressively increasing in difficulty, I endeavored to create a jewelry box with her first initial engraved on the front with some designs and such like an old fashioned book. I also decided to engrave the spine of the book to look like a real book, complete with a line from the first poem I wrote her as its title. Since I had decided to propose with the ring in this box, I had to make the empty inside somehow make the ring stand up like a real ring box. So I bought cardboard and velvet lining and some wood for framing and got to work. I was able, through prayer and painstaking efforts, to actually make it look like something on the inside and outside.
Having completed that and having gotten everyone’s tickets to them, almost everything was taken care of. Except the weather. In checking the weather, I discovered that it was supposed to rain on my big day. Guess who’s not fazed by a little weather forecast at this point in his testimony! Me! For the most part…there was no way to move the event, and too much had come together for me to believe that rain could ruin it. I knew that the Lord would either hold the rain or make it work to enhance the moment.
The love of my life…after punching me in the chest.
Well, He held the rain until after we left the zoo! And everything else you’ve pretty much read from Bev. We went through the zoo, and everything went just as planned, with maybe a little finagling on my part when people were running a few minutes late (I did this by stopping to look at or interact with every single animal I saw).
Was I nervous as she discovered the last clue and we walked onto the island? No.
Am I lying about that? Yes.
She said yes though! A bit quizzically, but she said it. And then she let me put the ring on her finger. And then she punched me in the chest.
Yes. She punched me in the chest. But it’s only cuz she really really likes me. And she punches everyone who she really likes in the chest. It’s a good thing she doesn’t like anyone else as much as she likes me.
Some folks might wonder why I went to all this trouble. Really, I had almost no doubt at all what her answer would be. My desire to marry her was no surprise, and I didn't need to impress her into saying yes. So why did I go to all this trouble and work in all these details? Because this is her once in eternity proposal of marriage, and I wanted to show her exactly how hard I plan to work for her. She may give her love to me freely, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to at least try to be worthy of it.
Anyway, that's the whole story. I hope I didn’t forget any pertinent details. And I hope that you were entertained by my outrageous storytelling. Maybe you were even encouraged to let God take all your cool plans and push them just a little bit out of your reach so He can blow your mind a little bit. Or a lotta bit. As you can see, He’s really good at that.
The End.
Of the Beginning.
The End of the Beginning.
That doesn’t sound as cool as “the end.” But it is more accurate. Oh well, you get the point.