(Eric) Let me tell you my "Glory Story", as Donna terms it. My story is here in plain visibility, while Jess' side and her thoughts can be expanded by clicking the thought bubbles, just like this one:

Except, this one's empty

{ When I decided }

It was around May of 2009 that I knew that the time for getting married was quickly approaching. For me it had never been a question of if - more when. Earlier meant that we get to start our exciting lives off together sooner, while later meant we would both be more established. Engineers are all about the tradeoffs. (smirk)

But we both have many personal goals, and we've had many long periods apart, (hence also one of the themes of our wedding!), so I decided on early.

The month of May was crazy as I was preparing for my graduation show. Although we had talked about marriage before, he didn't really mention it that much... so I had no idea it was on his mind so soon!

How early though? Well... we did plan on going to Europe in June. And Paris. I had thought, wow, what a great time to go propose! I should go propose on the top of the Eiffel tower! But I ended up not being able to get the ring in time due to way too many things to do, and glad I didn't too. Apparently Eiffel tower proposals = very cheesy.

Yes, very cheesy indeed.

{ One ring to - uh. Wrong movie. }

One thing about Jess - she likes surprises. So I had wanted this to be a complete surprise. Unfortunately, I'm terrible with style, and my record with choosing jewelry that she likes is terrible.

Quite true, but he's getting better!

I had no idea what Jess wanted. So I recruited helpers! Many thanks to Donna, Vanessa, Nixon, and Denise. I bought it in August and it came in September.

Ah, the waiting. I would look at the thing every day before leaving work, and every day after I got home. I can understand why women like diamonds now. It was quite shiny. Really shiny.

{ The Plan: Operation... why do guys like calling it "operations"? }

Side comment: Seriously, looking at someone else's new wedding site, they also called theirs an operation. Guys think alike. But I have to say I came up with a more disguised code name. Code names are so cool.

Back to the glory. Where was I? Ah yes... (strokes the 1mm hairs on my chin).

There were several version of the plan. One was to drive into Waterloo on a random work day and surprise her. Scratched due to lack of available dates. Another, to surprise her in her house here. Scratch. But come Thanksgiving weekend, my time had come. Time to shine.

{ Operation: Agricola }

I wrote her a song, brought in some of her favourite stuffed animals, planned a nice dinner at Golf's in Waterloo. Yeah, sounds boring right? Oh but the logistics were the toughest part. How do you sneak a guitar into someone's house? How do you keep a bag of stuffed animals hidden? How do you set up all this stuff?

I had no idea. By the grace of God, everything worked together. I was unable to get the guitar into her apartment, and had to leave the stuffed animals in the trunk. We were planning to go apple picking, but due to a change in plans we went to, J&J's (board/card game store - this part is critical), St. Jacobs, and Conestoga Mall instead. Shopped for a bit, had lunch. All the time I'm fretting in my mind... how the heck do I do this?

As the day went on, I was just enjoying the nice sunshine since it rained for the past 2 days in Waterloo. I decided to move apple-picking to Sunday since the sunshine would allow the ground to dry up a bit. Eric seemed pretty relaxed... or so I thought anyway!

The conversation in the car went something like this:

Jess: Hey, what do you want to do for dinner tonight?

Eric: (I remembered that I had booked a reservation at a restaurant and a big question to pop in the next 4 hours). Uh. I think you've worked hard this week, so I'd like to go out for dinner.

Jess: But we just bought all these fresh veggies from St. Jacobs! We should save money and cook at home. Healthier too.

Eric: Yeah. We did. But it's Thanksgiving! You can cook dinner the day after.

Jess: Well, okay. If you really want to.

Yeah, whatever. In my mind, I was still going to cook dinner. I figured that if food is cooked and a meal is already prepared, then we'll have to stay home! Ah-ha! What a great plan to be healthy and save some money! We don't have a money tree after all.

(Slightly later in the conversation)

Jess: You know, there are two places I'd like to go dinner with you sometime - but not today since it should be for something special. Wildcraft is a nice place, and so was Golf's. I wouldn't mind going to those places sometime.

Eric: Oh, really? Cool. (back of mind: YEESSS!)

We went home, brought in the veggies from the backseat.

I thought it was a tad peculiar that he insisted that the groceries be put on the backseats and not the trunk. His reason was that it would be easier to access. I simply shrugged it off and thought nothing of it.

Got into the apartment. Here comes the best excuse ever.

Eric: Hey I want to uh, grab the new game we bought from the car and start sleeving the cards. And then afterwards we can play?

4pm.
I went out to the car, opened the trunk, checked that the goods were still ok. I took awhile, just to muster up some courage (and strength). I carried the guitar, board game (well, I did say I was bringing in a board game), and bag of Stuffies into the apartment.

The poor things! I found out later they were all stuffed into a tiny duffle bag!

Here's the logistics challenge. Jess is in the kitchen packing away groceries. I have 3 bags to bring into the room. There's a small section between the front door and the room where she can see me from the kitchen. I can only carry one thing at a time, to avoid clunking and giving away the guitar. Rest of the stuff I leave in the apartment hallway.

Pass 1: I bring in the game - just in case she was waiting for me at the door. She's not. Still in the kitchen. So far so good.

We bought quite a lot of groceries from the market. I share the fridge with my roommate, so I was so focused on trying to fit everything into the fridge that I had no idea he came in! It did cross my mind that he was taking a tad long, but didn't really think much of it passed that.

Pass 2: Bring in the bag of Stuffies. The hallway is public. I can stand to lose the guitar (-$300, ouch) but I can't stand to lose her Stuffies (-$priceless, thanks Mastercard). I run into her room, set up her Stuffies nicely on her bed.

Pass 3: Bring in the guitar. The biggest thing. Aw, caught red handed - or, guitar handed. Nuts.

I had made tea and it was getting cold. So I wanted to bug him to quickly drink it. I saw the guitar, and was quite excited since I do enjoy listening to him play. We had also talked about singing together last weekend too. So no suspicion at all.

At this point I thought the surprise would be done. No way that she wouldn't be expecting it. She KNOWS me.

Haha, I still had no idea.

But anyway, the plan proceeds. I take the guitar into the room, she follows me.

Well, because I wanted him to drink the tea!

She gasps when she sees her Stuffies. She's surprised at that at least. Yay, secondary objective accomplished!

I bring the guitar out of the case, she grabs her favourite frog and holds it on her lap. I sing, break windows, and come the end of the song, I pop the question. She's in shock.

He told me the Stuffies are here because it's Thanksgiving, and I thought it was nice of him to try to make it feel more like "home" for me here by bringing them in. When he started singing, I thought, "It's the weather network song! Cheesy, but cute. Is he going to propose? No, it can't be! If he's going to ask 'Will you marry me?', then there must be a phrase in the song that rhymes with that... and there's none. So it can't be. It must be some affirmation of commitment kind of thing". Turns out that he didn't make that last line rhyme with anything.

-First words-

Jess: Really???!

Eric: Uh.. yes, really. All this doesn't come without... (I take her frog and open it to reveal...) a ring!

No wonder Froggy felt a little puffier than usual! He managed to stuff a pretty large box in Froggy's mouth! I was in absolute shock!

Jess: Oh...(stunned pause) Of course!

I proceeded to give him a hug... and wow, he must have been nervous because he was literally sweating through his shirt!

Eric: (thinks a little) "Of course" means "yes"... right?

Jess: Yes!

Primary objectives accomplished! Mission accomplished!

The end!

{ Epilogue }

If you've read this far, here's more. We went to Golf's for dinner, just to enjoy the evening. It was hard work afterall.

Ah, so that's why he kept insisting we go out for dinner!

What else did we do that weekend? We went apple picking! And had a thanksgiving dinner and potluck with our friends, also E & J!