A Puzzle of a Proposal
Well I suppose it's about time that I share my side of the story...which basically mimics Jenny's side...with some different perspectives and some additions. :)
I think I'll begin from when we first decided to be married. We had discussed marriage and were tentatively planning a December engagement and a wedding in April. Well Jenny's mom came to town and after I wooed her during our breakfasts together while Jenny was at work, her mom suggested getting married in December. Jenny was extremely comforted to know that her mom was behind the idea, and the next day we talked and decided that we were going to get married. That meant that I was going to have to propose.
I've often joked with my friends about starting a proposal business (I've always been able to come up with wonderful proposal ideas, and I thought about offering my services to others...essentially I would go on a double date with the guy looking to propose, ask him and her casual questions on the date to get to know their personalities and understand a little bit more about their relationship. If necessary, we'd go on another double date. After this I would take a few days to develop a few possibilities, and then I'd meet with the guy, offer my suggestions, he'd pay me, and we'd part ways.) and I had told Jenny about this potential business venture. That meant that I had to even out-do myself. See, I'd already told her some of my best ideas.
Needless to say, the stress was building for me to come up with something we'd both love and could be catered specifically to our circumstances, and something that would absolutely sweep her off her feet. I spent many-a-day pondering about what that might be, then one day, all of a sudden, it hit me: a puzzle.
When Jenny and I first began dating, we would do puzzles while talking, and we did a LOT of puzzles. One day I expressed my concern to Jenny that I thought I was boring because we would do puzzles so often. She then replied, "I like boring. I'm boring too!" I knew I'd found love. :)
I'd never done puzzles with girls before, but Jenny really liked them, and this fit us, so I went with it. I would sometimes go to DI and get puzzles for us to do, because they are extremely cheap, but Jenny didn't like that because if the puzzles were already open, they might be missing pieces, and that would drive her absolutely nuts. So, after all our hours spent with puzzles, they had a greater meaning to us.
Okay, I had the most crucial piece, now I had to figure out of what the puzzle was going to be. We were originally planning to be married in the Mount Timpanogos temple, so I was thinking I'd make a puzzle with the that temple on it, then have a few pieces missing, on which was written, "Marry me?" I did some research and I found out that Walmart could do it for me, but for some reason I didn't order it.
It's a good thing I didn't too! After talking with her parents, we realized the Atlanta temple would be a better fit for us. My family was planning on being there for Christmas anyway, so financially, and historically (we're both from Georgia) it was the better fit.
So now I needed a puzzle of the Atlanta temple, but that still didn't feel quite right, so I didn't order the puzzle.
In the meantime, Jenny and I had gone to pick out a ring and we decided to have one custom made. I went a couple days after we had picked it out to give them the okay to go ahead and begin building it and also to pay the down payment. We were given the option to have the ring ready in about a week, or to have a wax ring made first and it be ready in about a week, which we would then approve, and they'd make the real ring. I chose the first option and told Jenny it had the time frame of the second. So from the day I went, Jenny thought the ring was going to take about two weeks to make.
So the ring had been ordered, and I had roughly a week to figure out how the heck I was going to use a puzzle to propose. I visited Hobby Lobby for some ideas as to what to do, and I stumbled upon a blank 20-piece draw your own puzzle. I was inspired and bought it. (Actually, I was so enthralled with my ideas, that I walked right out of the store with the puzzle under my arm, made it to the car, and then realized that I hadn't bought it! I promptly re-entered the store, got in line, and payed for my puzzle.) After I exited, (for the second time), I texted a good friend of ours, Josh Cotton, who is in my ward and whose sketches I had seen before. He's an incredible artist, and I had just the project for him.
I asked if his services were for hire, and he offered to draw what I had in mind for free because sometime in the past I had let him use my printer. (I definitely got the better end of that deal.) He agreed, and we set up to meet after church on Sunday.
Sunday comes around and Jenny decided to come to church with me. Everything is going great, until right after church when I see Josh and in passing he says, "So come by sometime today after church, today, okay?" I quickly agreed and speedily rushed Jenny away. Luckily, I'm serving in the Elder's Quorum presidency, so I was able to blame my meeting with him on that (and it wasn't completely a lie! I did have to talk to him about something relating to the Elder's Quorum...that just wasn't my ONLY intention).
A quick note about the ring: they told me it would be available for pickup on Monday around 5:00. If things were going well, then I might even be able to pick it up earlier that day. Jenny was thinking it wouldn't be here til at the soonest Friday, so things were looking good for surprising her.
Okay, back to Sunday. After church I had to take care of some Elder's Quorum stuff, and I also needed to get the puzzle to Josh, but Jenny was at my apartment. So I ran upstairs after church, hid the puzzle the best I could among my Elders' Quorum stuff, then left as quickly as I could so she wouldn't see. I stopped by Josh's apartment, explained what I wanted him to draw. Essentially, the puzzle is a collaboration of the scenes in our courtship that have meant the most: our first date, our first kiss, where we said I love you, the temple we decided to be married in, and then where I was going to propose. Josh agreed to do it, and we decided I'd meet up with him that evening to pick up the puzzle.
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The day goes on, I take Jenny home, and then I'm waiting for the appointed time to get the puzzle. While I was sitting there, I thought about writing up a story to go along with each piece of the puzzle. So I opened my laptop and began writing. I wrote about each of the scenes listed above with the last line of each tidbit leading into the next scene with ellipses...
I picked up the puzzle, which turned out better than I could have ever expected, and proofread my story to my roommate Kevin. After a few small changes, it was ready. I printed it out, then cut out each story's explanation and put it in an envelope with the pieces representing that scene. I then labeled them with the times, 12:00, 2:00, 4:00, and 6:00. I included all but one of the pieces in the envelopes. Then I went to bed.
The next morning I woke up pretty early simply because I was so excited. I had planned with Jenny to go to breakfast in the morning and then take her to work (so that I could pick her up and go propose!). Before I went to go pick her up for breakfast though, I drove to her work to deliver the envelopes. I talked to her boss briefly and told him the plan. He asked if I'd propose to him as well, and I replied that I might propose lunch with him someday. I left and went to go get Jenny.
Breakfast was good. Honestly I don't remember much about it because my mind was definitely elsewhere. After breakfast I took her to work and we had a few minutes so we sat there talking. I started grinning around the time she was about to go up to her office and she asked me why. I told her she'd find out soon and she got so mad at me! She kept asking if I was going to play a trick on her or if there was something on her that would make people laugh. Finally, to avoid further anger from her, I finally admitted that she had something waiting for her. I wished her a good day at work, and left.
Immediately upon leaving her office, I went to Sierra-West. There I was informed that the ring wouldn't be done until Tuesday. SHOOT! I had already started things in motion with the envelopes! In hindsight, it was pretty dumb of me to start everything before I had the ring, BUT to my credit, I had called a couple days before and verified the Monday pick-up date. Now I had to figure out what I was going to do. I thought about going to Walmart and just getting a cheap ring until we could pick up the real one on Tuesday, and I was still trying to figure out what to do when I went to work.
I work at the MTC, and the missionaries are SO interested in the personal lives of their teachers because frankly, as a missionary, you don't have a personal life. They had known that I had a girlfriend, and at the end of my shift I took some time and informed them of my plan to propose and my predicament with the ring. As I was talking to them, I noticed a voicemail on my phone. I told them I thought it might be the ring place to which they quickly and excitedly shouted, CALL! I called my voicemail and the ring was in fact ready to be picked up. So, at around 5:40 I picked it up and it was beautiful! I was so pleased with the work they'd done, especially in having it ready for me to propose that day. Thank you Sierra-West!
After that I ran home and changed and then headed to pick up Jenny. She'd be getting off work around 7:00. I had scheduled for her brother and his girlfriend to be at the place of proposal hiding around 7:15 to capture the moment. Well Jenny was able to get off a little bit early, so I made sure her brother would still be able to get the pictures, then headed to go pick her up.
When I got there I didn't want to leave the ring in the car, so I put it in my pocket, but then I had this bulging box protruding from my leg. I did my best to keep my hand in front of it and went up to her office. I set there for a few minutes with her, then we came down and were on our way. The night before, I had asked her to have dinner with me and she suggested Applebee's which is where we had our first date. So that's what she was thinking the plan was. As we drove out of her work's parking lot, I told her I knew it'd drive her crazy to not have the final piece of the puzzle until after dinner, so we'd just go find it then.
We began driving to the Y parking lot, and on the way I pulled behind a car that had written on the back window, "Just Married (Almost)" How perfect, right? I said, "Hey, look at that!" and Jenny started to freak out. I hadn't planned this in the least bit; it just happened that way, but I wasn't complaining. As we began following this car I was secretly hoping they had planned to go up to the Y too. Jenny caught a glimpse of the driver and said, "I don't recognize them!" I told her that she didn't know all of my friends and continued as if it was all a part of the plan. :)
Eventually we had to turn away from following them in order to make it to our real destination, but not before I honked at the driver. On the side window was written, "Honk if you're in love!" so I figured he'd at least understand why I was honking and give me a smiling wave. He didn't. He looked very confused and kinda waved towards me...which told Jenny for sure that it wasn't the plan. Haha. It was quite the addition to the ride though.
We made it up to the Y, walked over to a rock overlooking the city, and I gave her the last piece to the puzzle. Meanwhile Jake and Taylor are taking pictures. I read to her the last bit of the story I had written, got down on one knee, and proposed. She was crying but quickly said yes. We kissed and Taylor took some great pictures. We then called our families and went to Applebee's for dinner. It was quite a wonderful night.
So there is my half. It's a bit longer than hers, but I was the one doing all the planning. And in the end, I think I lived up to my own standards. She loved it, and it'll be a story to tell forever.
I think I'll begin from when we first decided to be married. We had discussed marriage and were tentatively planning a December engagement and a wedding in April. Well Jenny's mom came to town and after I wooed her during our breakfasts together while Jenny was at work, her mom suggested getting married in December. Jenny was extremely comforted to know that her mom was behind the idea, and the next day we talked and decided that we were going to get married. That meant that I was going to have to propose.
I've often joked with my friends about starting a proposal business (I've always been able to come up with wonderful proposal ideas, and I thought about offering my services to others...essentially I would go on a double date with the guy looking to propose, ask him and her casual questions on the date to get to know their personalities and understand a little bit more about their relationship. If necessary, we'd go on another double date. After this I would take a few days to develop a few possibilities, and then I'd meet with the guy, offer my suggestions, he'd pay me, and we'd part ways.) and I had told Jenny about this potential business venture. That meant that I had to even out-do myself. See, I'd already told her some of my best ideas.
Needless to say, the stress was building for me to come up with something we'd both love and could be catered specifically to our circumstances, and something that would absolutely sweep her off her feet. I spent many-a-day pondering about what that might be, then one day, all of a sudden, it hit me: a puzzle.
When Jenny and I first began dating, we would do puzzles while talking, and we did a LOT of puzzles. One day I expressed my concern to Jenny that I thought I was boring because we would do puzzles so often. She then replied, "I like boring. I'm boring too!" I knew I'd found love. :)
I'd never done puzzles with girls before, but Jenny really liked them, and this fit us, so I went with it. I would sometimes go to DI and get puzzles for us to do, because they are extremely cheap, but Jenny didn't like that because if the puzzles were already open, they might be missing pieces, and that would drive her absolutely nuts. So, after all our hours spent with puzzles, they had a greater meaning to us.
Okay, I had the most crucial piece, now I had to figure out of what the puzzle was going to be. We were originally planning to be married in the Mount Timpanogos temple, so I was thinking I'd make a puzzle with the that temple on it, then have a few pieces missing, on which was written, "Marry me?" I did some research and I found out that Walmart could do it for me, but for some reason I didn't order it.
It's a good thing I didn't too! After talking with her parents, we realized the Atlanta temple would be a better fit for us. My family was planning on being there for Christmas anyway, so financially, and historically (we're both from Georgia) it was the better fit.
So now I needed a puzzle of the Atlanta temple, but that still didn't feel quite right, so I didn't order the puzzle.
In the meantime, Jenny and I had gone to pick out a ring and we decided to have one custom made. I went a couple days after we had picked it out to give them the okay to go ahead and begin building it and also to pay the down payment. We were given the option to have the ring ready in about a week, or to have a wax ring made first and it be ready in about a week, which we would then approve, and they'd make the real ring. I chose the first option and told Jenny it had the time frame of the second. So from the day I went, Jenny thought the ring was going to take about two weeks to make.
So the ring had been ordered, and I had roughly a week to figure out how the heck I was going to use a puzzle to propose. I visited Hobby Lobby for some ideas as to what to do, and I stumbled upon a blank 20-piece draw your own puzzle. I was inspired and bought it. (Actually, I was so enthralled with my ideas, that I walked right out of the store with the puzzle under my arm, made it to the car, and then realized that I hadn't bought it! I promptly re-entered the store, got in line, and payed for my puzzle.) After I exited, (for the second time), I texted a good friend of ours, Josh Cotton, who is in my ward and whose sketches I had seen before. He's an incredible artist, and I had just the project for him.
I asked if his services were for hire, and he offered to draw what I had in mind for free because sometime in the past I had let him use my printer. (I definitely got the better end of that deal.) He agreed, and we set up to meet after church on Sunday.
Sunday comes around and Jenny decided to come to church with me. Everything is going great, until right after church when I see Josh and in passing he says, "So come by sometime today after church, today, okay?" I quickly agreed and speedily rushed Jenny away. Luckily, I'm serving in the Elder's Quorum presidency, so I was able to blame my meeting with him on that (and it wasn't completely a lie! I did have to talk to him about something relating to the Elder's Quorum...that just wasn't my ONLY intention).
A quick note about the ring: they told me it would be available for pickup on Monday around 5:00. If things were going well, then I might even be able to pick it up earlier that day. Jenny was thinking it wouldn't be here til at the soonest Friday, so things were looking good for surprising her.
Okay, back to Sunday. After church I had to take care of some Elder's Quorum stuff, and I also needed to get the puzzle to Josh, but Jenny was at my apartment. So I ran upstairs after church, hid the puzzle the best I could among my Elders' Quorum stuff, then left as quickly as I could so she wouldn't see. I stopped by Josh's apartment, explained what I wanted him to draw. Essentially, the puzzle is a collaboration of the scenes in our courtship that have meant the most: our first date, our first kiss, where we said I love you, the temple we decided to be married in, and then where I was going to propose. Josh agreed to do it, and we decided I'd meet up with him that evening to pick up the puzzle.
.jpg)
The day goes on, I take Jenny home, and then I'm waiting for the appointed time to get the puzzle. While I was sitting there, I thought about writing up a story to go along with each piece of the puzzle. So I opened my laptop and began writing. I wrote about each of the scenes listed above with the last line of each tidbit leading into the next scene with ellipses...
I picked up the puzzle, which turned out better than I could have ever expected, and proofread my story to my roommate Kevin. After a few small changes, it was ready. I printed it out, then cut out each story's explanation and put it in an envelope with the pieces representing that scene. I then labeled them with the times, 12:00, 2:00, 4:00, and 6:00. I included all but one of the pieces in the envelopes. Then I went to bed.
The next morning I woke up pretty early simply because I was so excited. I had planned with Jenny to go to breakfast in the morning and then take her to work (so that I could pick her up and go propose!). Before I went to go pick her up for breakfast though, I drove to her work to deliver the envelopes. I talked to her boss briefly and told him the plan. He asked if I'd propose to him as well, and I replied that I might propose lunch with him someday. I left and went to go get Jenny.
Breakfast was good. Honestly I don't remember much about it because my mind was definitely elsewhere. After breakfast I took her to work and we had a few minutes so we sat there talking. I started grinning around the time she was about to go up to her office and she asked me why. I told her she'd find out soon and she got so mad at me! She kept asking if I was going to play a trick on her or if there was something on her that would make people laugh. Finally, to avoid further anger from her, I finally admitted that she had something waiting for her. I wished her a good day at work, and left.
Immediately upon leaving her office, I went to Sierra-West. There I was informed that the ring wouldn't be done until Tuesday. SHOOT! I had already started things in motion with the envelopes! In hindsight, it was pretty dumb of me to start everything before I had the ring, BUT to my credit, I had called a couple days before and verified the Monday pick-up date. Now I had to figure out what I was going to do. I thought about going to Walmart and just getting a cheap ring until we could pick up the real one on Tuesday, and I was still trying to figure out what to do when I went to work.
I work at the MTC, and the missionaries are SO interested in the personal lives of their teachers because frankly, as a missionary, you don't have a personal life. They had known that I had a girlfriend, and at the end of my shift I took some time and informed them of my plan to propose and my predicament with the ring. As I was talking to them, I noticed a voicemail on my phone. I told them I thought it might be the ring place to which they quickly and excitedly shouted, CALL! I called my voicemail and the ring was in fact ready to be picked up. So, at around 5:40 I picked it up and it was beautiful! I was so pleased with the work they'd done, especially in having it ready for me to propose that day. Thank you Sierra-West!
After that I ran home and changed and then headed to pick up Jenny. She'd be getting off work around 7:00. I had scheduled for her brother and his girlfriend to be at the place of proposal hiding around 7:15 to capture the moment. Well Jenny was able to get off a little bit early, so I made sure her brother would still be able to get the pictures, then headed to go pick her up.
When I got there I didn't want to leave the ring in the car, so I put it in my pocket, but then I had this bulging box protruding from my leg. I did my best to keep my hand in front of it and went up to her office. I set there for a few minutes with her, then we came down and were on our way. The night before, I had asked her to have dinner with me and she suggested Applebee's which is where we had our first date. So that's what she was thinking the plan was. As we drove out of her work's parking lot, I told her I knew it'd drive her crazy to not have the final piece of the puzzle until after dinner, so we'd just go find it then.
We began driving to the Y parking lot, and on the way I pulled behind a car that had written on the back window, "Just Married (Almost)" How perfect, right? I said, "Hey, look at that!" and Jenny started to freak out. I hadn't planned this in the least bit; it just happened that way, but I wasn't complaining. As we began following this car I was secretly hoping they had planned to go up to the Y too. Jenny caught a glimpse of the driver and said, "I don't recognize them!" I told her that she didn't know all of my friends and continued as if it was all a part of the plan. :)
Eventually we had to turn away from following them in order to make it to our real destination, but not before I honked at the driver. On the side window was written, "Honk if you're in love!" so I figured he'd at least understand why I was honking and give me a smiling wave. He didn't. He looked very confused and kinda waved towards me...which told Jenny for sure that it wasn't the plan. Haha. It was quite the addition to the ride though.
We made it up to the Y, walked over to a rock overlooking the city, and I gave her the last piece to the puzzle. Meanwhile Jake and Taylor are taking pictures. I read to her the last bit of the story I had written, got down on one knee, and proposed. She was crying but quickly said yes. We kissed and Taylor took some great pictures. We then called our families and went to Applebee's for dinner. It was quite a wonderful night.
So there is my half. It's a bit longer than hers, but I was the one doing all the planning. And in the end, I think I lived up to my own standards. She loved it, and it'll be a story to tell forever.
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