I think Amy would agree we had both known we would become engaged and married to another a long time ago and it became a joke sort of – who would beat who to the proposal.
I ultimately thought she would propose but one day it occurred to me that I didn’t have to wait for her to propose to me. My future/our future was up to me as much as it was up to her. When I decided I wanted to propose I reached out to some of my friends and family for their blessing and support as well as her sister and parents. The next few weeks I spent brainstorming the perfect proposal. To me the perfect proposal was something romantic, full of special meaning, a genuine surprise, and heavily involved our son Grayson.
A Mother’s Day to remember sprung from those items. Grayson LOVES to read books before bed so I thought he and I would create a book for Amy. I wrote the story and added images he could color then sent it off for printing. The story line was such that Grayson wanted to give her the BEST Mother’s Day gift but those things like a Movado watch, English bulldog, jewelry or a robe didn’t seem special enough. The last page of the book reads that Grayson is giving her a family. By the time she got to the last page she was crying and I was on one knee.
Speaking of the ring. I spent lunch hours and evening hours on Tuesdays and Wednesdays skipping around to several local jewelry stores. Because of her profession she actually wanted something pretty simple – a channel set diamond band. But I wanted round diamonds that didn’t wrap the whole way around the finger and if it’s going to be a band it still had to pack some pretty shine. Funny, after all the running around, it took only 15 minutes to look at the final ring Murphy Jewelers had found for me and sign the papers.
The final details and coordination were the most difficult. I wanted to propose at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in honor of her late friend Burgi but Mother’s Day was rainy and cold and Amy wanted to do so many errands and house jobs that I had to convince her it wouldn’t take long. My sister and brother-in-law joined us for breakfast and I purchased some Gerber daisies and told her I wanted to start a new tradition of leaving the flowers at Hawk Mountain in honor of her friend Burgi, our grandmothers, and all mothers so we headed up the mountain after breakfast. Grayson handed his mom her Mother’s Day gift. It was perfect. And I think we actually did surprise her. We had an impromptu family gathering to celebrate that afternoon!
Amy and Val plan to marry in May 2014, and we can’t wait to cover their big day!
Photos by BG Productions | Submitted via Two Bright Lights
