The Preface
So, I decided that I had waited long enough and it was time to propose, but in the middle of moving across country, it was just too hard to pull off. I figured that June would be a good time since it would be Jen’s birthday and I would have been settled in some from the move, so I started looking into what buying an engagement ring is all about. Luckily, some good friends, my mom, and the internet were great tools in educating me.
The Plan
We had decided that once we got to California, a good time to come back home and visit would be Jen’s birthday/Father’s Day weekend since it would be about six months away and a special occasion. I figured that it would also be a great opportunity to buy the ring so that I could spirit it back to Calfornia and figure out something really fabulous to do at some later time.
The Method
I researched stones and settings beforehand and called around to different dealers to make sure that they had some stuff ready for me to see. Once we came home, I would have Jen spend the day alone with her mom (quality time) and proceed to see if anyone had a match for what I was looking for. If I couldn’t find it, I would just keep looking.
The Delivery
First…getting Jen out of the house to go see her mom was not easy. We were tired and it was hard to wake up since we had both taken red eyes the day before and hadn’t really recovered from the flights. Second, we left the house late and were basically not going to make the train under normal driving conditions, so I was making like a bat out of hell to get us there. The whole time, Jen was thinking I was nuts, and she said, “I can just take a later train…what’s the big deal?” Now, because you read the section above, you know that it was a big deal because I needed her to be gone so that I could do some very important shopping, but she didn’t know that which makes the story all the more funnier.
The good news is…I got her to the train with seconds to spare. And I was off.
The even better news is that the main dealer I had been speaking with had found the perfect stone and at a price I could live with. Great stuff.
Now that the purchase was made, I could just put the ring away, bring it back west with me and all would be easy. Wrong. That ring started burning a hole in my pocket the second I bought it. If that wasn’t bad enough, I basically couldn’t remember anything from one moment to the next. Finally, Jen thought I was totally losing my mind. This was time for drastic action.
So…we headed down to the Jersey shore on Jen’s birthday, originally to go see some friends in Long Beach Island, but then traffic got bad, and we decided to just have a fun day hitting all of our favorite spots. First there was pizza at our favorite spot, followed by mini golf and skeeball, and then homemade ice cream at this little place with a little garden with a waterfall and stone benches. We were sitting there, Jen finishing her Peanut Butter Swirl (her favorite) and found ourselves alone when I realized that we had just had the perfect day and this would be the perfect way to top it off. And….she said “Yes”.
The Epilogue
We had already set up a dinner for later that evening to see some friends and enjoy some good food and wine. Little did we know it would turn out to be an engagement party complete with Champagne toasts, tons of great food, fantastic bottles of wine and some of my best friends. I think that is about as close to perfect as you can get.