The Wedding Blog

Have you ever read a story about a couple of people and wondered to yourself what that same story would have sounded like if the other character had written it? Well, my friends, I am pleased to announce that all your wondering has paid off.

My fabulous fiance has finally gotten around to writing out his version of the engagment story, and rest assured, it was worth the wait. So, take a few moments to refresh your memory if you like, and then grab a cup of hot chocolate and a warm blanket and enjoy our engagement story from the other side.

Here’s the link.

This weekend was my champagne birthday, and to celebrate, Darren and I flew to Edmonton to visit my family out there. I remember commenting to Darren on the plane that I was sad that my sisters wouldn’t get to see my ring. His response was, “Don’t worry. I’m sure they’ll get to see it eventually.” I didn’t realize that eventually meant that very night!

Just before boarding the plane, I warned Darren that my ears have a hard time dealing with the pressure changes involved with descending from high elevations. I always experience shooting pain in my ears. To preempt this attack, I bought and took Advil with a decongestant but it didn’t take away the pain.

After beating Darren at a game of Phase Ten and almost eating someone else’s dinner, I dozed off and on throughout the showing of The Island. I was awakened by the Captain telling us the descent had begun, only to discover that the vision in my right eye was blurred. Immediate panic set in — this was the first time I had flown since my eye surgery. I was already disoriented that the movie was over (I hadn’t seen the end), and then my ears started to send those anticipated sharp pains into my head. I spent the next 20 minutes with tears rolling down my face. All the while I’m sure Darren was panicking, thinking that all his plans would be ruined since this blinded, deafened, face-streaked girl wouldn’t want to think about marriage.

We pulled into Alicia’s driveway and Darren took our luggage into the house. She seemed very interested in showing me her new Mitsubishi Outlander, so I obliged her. In the carseat there was a beautiful bouquet of flowers which Alicia said Darren wanted to be there. She also told me I should unwrap them there in the garage so she could throw the paper directly into the garbage bin, at which point I called her the most unromantic person in the world. (I have since apologized; buying time for my boyfriend to get ready to propose is anything but unromantic.)

As we headed toward the door of the house, Darren came out to bring me in. I said something very eloquent like “Look at these nice flowers.” He didn’t really respond…too much on his mind, I guess. He led me through the hallway lined with tea lights and into the family room. My sisters had emptied the room of all its furniture and hung pictures of Darren and I all around the room. The room was so beautiful, all warm and candlelit.

Darren brought me to the blanket that was laid on the floor in the corner of the room. (I stopped to put down my jacket, purse, water bottle and flowers, by the way.) Neither he nor I remember exactly what he said to me. What I do remember is that he wished he had prepared a speech, he was much more nervous than he thought he would be, and he got choked up while saying wonderful things about me and to me. Then he got down on his knee and asked me to marry him.

A few moments later we heard, “Can we come in now?” and we were joined by my 3 sisters and brother-in-law who had orchestrated the whole thing, under Darren’s direction. We then enjoyed some sparkling juice (2 of my sisters are underage) and cheesecake while we called our parents.

I learned a lesson in patience and trust this weekend. I had imagined many different scenarios in which Darren could propose, but this was better than all of them.

I am a curious little monkey. It’s not that I don’t like secrets; it’s that I don’t like waiting. So perhaps I’m an impatient little monkey. Either way, this has the potential to kill me.

Last Thursday Darren and I were talking on the phone, filling in the other about our days. Part of Darren’s update included going to Mississauga to run an errand. We both know what he’s talking about, but I let him finish what he was saying.

Looks like the tax return came in.

Part of me can’t believe he actually told me that piece of information, whereas the other part knows that he tells me everything so it was bound to come out. And part of me is glad to know where we are in the process while the other part knows that if I were more in the dark I wouldn’t be so curious.

Saturday I was at Darren’s place and I noticed a bag on his dresser with the Spence Diamonds logo on it. When he wasn’t looking, I picked up the bag and shook it. Thankfully it was empty. Darren’s clever enough to know that I cannot be trusted with such a blatant test of self control.

But come to think of it, I don’t know if any girl would be able to resist opening such a package, “just to be sure it fits” or “just to make sure that I still like it” or “just to see what it will look like.”

I’m choosing to believe that the bag wasn’t left in such an obvious place as a means of gentle torture. Rather, it’s Darren’s way of building anticipation. Well, it’s working.

My boyfriend is ridiculous. There are a number of reasons why this is true, but what I am referring to today is the fact that he filed his taxes less than a month ago. Regardless of what time zone you live in, that’s 5 months after the May 2 deadline. As a result, I’m sure he’ll get audited!

Here’s my theory: at tax time, when everyone files, Revenue Canada is so busy just keeping up with everything. Now they’re bored (at least the staff who doesn’t get let go when the big rush is over) with nothing to do and here comes a tax return. I can see their little mathematical eyes lighting up at the thought of being able to do an audit…in November!!

How is this related to the wedding blog? Well, this tax return includes the money that will pay for the engagement ring. Yup, that’s right; I’m privy to the information about the status of the engagement ring. I did, after all, go with him to pick it out. I did sit through the “let’s educate these young’uns about the important aspects of diamonds talk before we take their money” talk. I do know that my ring is sitting at the jewelry store just waiting to be given and worn!

The romantic side of me thinks I really shouldn’t know all this information. He should just surprise me with a grand, well-devised sweep-me-off-my-feet-type proposal. But the practical side of me thinks that of course we’re going to discuss this - we talk about everything.

I don’t feel gypped in the least having this information at my disposal. Darren is smart enough to keep specific plans to himself. I know he’s a creative guy with just enough romance in him to give me a fabulous story to tell you. Romance and practicality can live together.

So anyway, now we wait…we wait, completely at the mercy of Revenue Canada. We wait for the Canadian version of Uncle Sam to give my baby back the money that he overpaid. We wait to get engaged.