The Proposal

I suppose it's my turn to contribute to the blog so it can correctly be termed “our” blog. I feel like I need to write down how the proposal went down before I forget all the fun little details of that wonderful night. So let's start with a little history:

We started talking about marriage long (relatively speaking) before we actually got engaged. We actually started planning our wedding and figured out a bunch of stuff before we were official. Kind of weird, I know, but weirder things have been done before right? I wanted to get Ally the perfect ring, and she sent me some ideas of what she liked and left the rest up to me. I don't even know how much time I spent researching rings and diamonds – like that clarity, color, cut nonsense. I can say today just as much as I did while I was ring shopping that I have a hard time telling the difference of all those nit picky things and if you need a 100x magnifying glass to find a problem with a rock, then it shouldn't be that big of deal. But, I played by the rules that I think are a little ridiculous and picked out a diamond and ring that I think fit Ally perfectly. (By the way, I know the best ring guy in the state of Utah – highest quality for the best price. I'm a believer. Anyone who wants his contact information can send me a text! ha)

Anyway, the only problem was I had some custom ideas for this ring and it was being made in New York so it took a few weeks to get it in. In the mean time, Ally was on edge every time we went on a date because I told her I was going to surprise her or catch her off-guard and it was my whole goal to make sure she didn't know it was coming right up until the very end. So let's fast forward, I've been rambling on long enough, Friday, Feb. 22, here we come.

I liked the idea of going back to a bunch of our previous date spots before asking Ally to marry me, so the real trick was telling her what we were going to do without giving anything away. But then I came up with an idea that was totally fool proof and if she got any ideas about me popping the question it would only add to my set up to catch her off-guard. The thing as a whole went almost exactly according to plan so you'll see how brilliantly (I'm still kind of proud of how well it turned out. Haha) the plan worked as the story goes on.

The part of my plan that got changed a little bit came at the very beginning, when I picked her up at a church in Salt Lake after having lunch with an old ex-boyfriend who had just admitted he made a mistake ending things with her and had taken her to one of the spots I had game-planned to go to. Not exactly a Disney beginning to such a memorable night, but it's part of our story so I'll tell it with pride.

We started out on 8^th and A street in the avenues looking across the canyon at the capitol. We “hiked” down the trail to memory grove to dance on the steps of the meditation chapel. That place is full of beautiful scenery. The first time we went there after a jazz game, when I reached into my jacket pocket to turn on some music on my phone, Ally said that for a split second she thought I was going to pull out a ring and propose. I thought that was fitting enough to add this stop to our walk down memory lane. We danced to three or four songs and left for ensign peak.

Ever since our first date I wanted to hike ensign peak with Ally and thanks to winter, it never happened. But, it was just warm enough and just clear enough of snow that we made the long and treacherous ten minute walk up to the look out point near the base of the mountain. It was neat to look out over the valley with her and see the temple, our temple, where we'd be sealed. Yes, we already had an appointment at the Salt Lake temple before we were officially engaged. We snapped a picture, enjoyed the view and the cool february air before heading down to the park to swing.

If you didn't know this already, Ally loves to swing. That's the first thing we're putting in our backyard when we have our own home so she can swing just as much as the kids. That's another thing we've done a lot of, just randomly swinging at a random park between her house and mine. So, of course that had to be on the trail of nostalgia. There was definitely still snow on the ground – a few inches – and only one swing, but it was still way fun and way funny to swing on it. I just about broke it trying to swing as high as possible while we were both on it, and a few minutes later a car drove by and some girl yelled “Yeah girl!” to Ally. Hahaha I laugh just thinking about it. I knew Ally wasn't going to expect a ring there, so we moved on to where it might happen.

I had already scheduled a dinner reservation at “the Garden,” a restaurant on top of the Joseph Smith building that over looks the temple. I requested a window table when I called ahead and the man said, “why yes, Mr. Hayward, we can reserve a window table for you.” I felt really cool when he called me Mr. Hayward, but the table that sat us at was more like a column table than a window table. But, who cares, I wasn't exactly looking out the window if you know what I mean... :)

Did Ally think it was going to happen up there where so many other people had proposed before (my father being one of them at the restaurant across the hall)? No, because she didn't want it to happen in a public place and I totally agreed with her. So we went down to walk around the temple grounds. We had been there before. On one of our first dates, actually. Maybe we would find a quiet corner and it would come out? Nope. Not here. So we move on.

Energy Solutions Arena came next. We have spent so much time there doing our part to cheer on the rather pathetic Jazz this past season. Out of five games we went to they won one. Strangely, the score wasn't the biggest thing on my mind at any of them. Ally was. This was also the site of our first date. We looked at the Stockton and Malone statues and Ally compared her feet to those of their footprints. I think about two of her feet could fit into Malone's shoes. Ha.

It was cold, being february, and for my perfect plan to work perfectly we needed to kill about two hours, so we went to my house and watched a movie. I was going to play her a few songs on the guitar but between preparing other stuff for the night and my chemistry night course the night before, I just ran out of time to practice my ideal set list and since she didn't ask me to play, I just let it pass.

Finally, if you've stayed with this probably over detailed story, we're to the good part. It was late enough that it wouldn't seem weird if I took her home, so that's what we did. I walked her to the door and kissed her good night just like everything was usual. I was really hoping that when she got inside she would be super disappointed that it didn't happen that night because she thought I had set it all up for one perfect moment after the next to ask her to marry me. At least from what she told me, it didn't quite swim like that in her head. Oh well. When she got inside her mom – by design on this night – started talking to her about the night. She had agreed to stall Ally upstairs for ten minutes. Right after the door had closed on me, I walked back to the car then hurried and pulled it into the other drive way and did my very best James bond impersonation across the yard to not be seen, though I probably looked a lot more like Chuck Bartowski. However, I still made it back to the house and in the basement door without being detected. Earlier that day I had taken over a suit and tie, the ring, and a calla lily (Ally's favorite flower). Ted, Susan and I set up three GoPro's in the family room that after noon too. I had such an adrenaline rush I flew through changing my clothes and got the ring, tried to James Bond it down the hallway and into the family room, again probably looking more like Chuck, got the door closed silently behind me, turned on all the cameras, sat down and looked at the timer on my watch. Three minutes and fifty seconds had gone by. I thought for sure it would take around eight. So there I waited. Palms sweaty, heart racing, going over and over what I was going to say to her in my mind, adjusting my tie a million times, and waiting. After we had been hot for six minutes I texted her and told her I was home. (Gotta keep everything normal right? ;) Still waited. We had been hot for ten minutes and I felt like an eternity had gone by waiting for Susan to subtly get her in the room. Turns out they were having a really good conversation upstairs while I was fidgeting my way to a slimmer waist-line down stairs. Finally when we had been hot for a little over fifteen minutes I saw the door open slowly. When Ally saw me sitting on the couch she jumped, which was kind of humorous to me. She asked me what I was doing there, and I could see the light bulb go on while she was asking the question. We just stood, blissfully embraced, for quite some time. We both knew what was coming. At some point during all of this, Susan James Bonded it to Ally's room down the hall and left the flower with a note attached on her pillow. I finally got down on one knee and said, “Allyson Harris, I love you. Will you marry me?” Of course she said yes and I jumped up and gave her a huge hug then she said, “Are you going to put the ring on my finger?” Oh right. Forgot that little part. Haha.

Afterwards we went upstairs where Ted and Susan where waiting to congratulate us and take pictures. My parents were waiting just up the street, so I called them and told them it was time to come over. We took some pictures with each set of parents and it was one of the happiest nights of my life. My parents left shortly after that and we just went back down stairs to the place of our first kiss and proposal. We talked, we laughed, we kissed, we sat, in pure unadulterated joy that night as we were finally official in the embarkment of the greatest adventure either of us were ever going to go on. When it became way too late, I some how found it in me to leave, though I didn't want to. And Ally went to bed to find a flower with a note that said, “Thank you for saying yes.”