I manned up and finally put a ring on Julie's finger!
Yep, that's right, after two years of dating, I decided it was time to make Julie my lifetime roommate. And wife. Many people have asked for the full proposal story, so here ya go (delayed).
For months leading up to the engagement, I convinced Julie that before I actually proposed, I was going to fake her out one day by getting down on a knee and giving her a Ring Pop, instead of a real diamond. So suffice to say, Julie had no idea when it was coming.
Many people close to us expected me to propose while we were in Jamaica. Although a prime opportunity and beautiful setting, my one guiding rule was that I would not propose to Julie if I thought she might be expecting it. And let's face it, that thought would have crossed every girl's mind while standing on the white sand along the shores of Jamaica.
Upon returning from Jamaica, I began my planning for the proposal, and waited for an opening. On the morning of Sunday, September 18th, we made plans to go to the beach after Julie had gone for her run and we met her mother and grandmother for brunch. Perfect, I thought...the plans had been set. But upon getting home from brunch, Julie felt tired and told me she wanted to take a nap. FOILED! So I spent the early part of the afternoon watching football and wishing Julie wasn't such an awesome runner all the time, while she slept next to me on the couch.
As soon as Julie awoke, I wasted no time saying "Do you still want to take our cruisers down to the Farmer's Market to get ice cream sandwiches?" The response was an obvious "yes", as anyone that knows Julie can attest...the girl loves ice cream. So we jumped on our bikes and I casually said "Let's check out the waves cuz I might want to surf later." Julie agreed, so we rode down to Julie's favorite reading steps at Fletcher Cove. I told her I had been working on our famous Halloween Party "Evite" invitation, and wanted to hear what she thought. So I pulled out my phone and read her what I had written so far.
(*IMPORTANT NOTE - For anyone that doesn't know, Julie is obsessed with Halloween. The girl would trade in every holiday (excluding Christmas) to have another Halloween. I have never seen someone so head-over-heels for Hallow's Eve, and I knew that this was my ticket...)
Anyway, while I read the Halloween poem, Julie sat there oblivious to what was going on. She listened intently to the poem, thinking to herself what changes she would make and what lines she didn't like...which was even better considering I was worried sick that she would notice the giant square ring box in my pocket.
At the end of the poem, I had made an alteration to the Evite, and as I got down on one knee, I read the following closing lines:
If I could say one last thing,
Before they bury me,
I would get down on one knee and say,
Julie Ray, will you marry me?
Shocked about the ending, confused why I wasn't holding a Ring Pop, and with tons of mental Evite edits gone to waste, Julie buried her face in her hands, then looked up and mustered up the word "Yes". We began staring at each other in shock for about ten minutes and temporarily lost the ability to speak. But we finally started with the nervous laughter and jokes, and haven't stopped smiling since.
Later that night, I looked at Julie and could tell something was wrong. I asked her what was bothering her, concerned she was getting nervous already. But instead she kept the frown on her face and said...
"I never got my ice cream sandwich."
