February 15th, 2016 - Jenna and I were to celebrate a "1-Day Late Valentine's Day" that Monday night. The story I completely made up began when I had my brother and sister-in-law text us 10 days previously and inform us that they were invited months ago to participate in a "Lovers of La Caille" promotional video project on that same day, but due to unforeseen conflicts at school and work, they sadly wouldn't be able to participate in the video anymore. So, they extended the invitation to us, which we gladly accepted! Her words, "Um, of COURSE we will be in the video if they are going to give us a free meal and $75 each!... This will be awesome to be able to eat at La Caille on the day we celebrate Valentine's together!" (Colby and Lauren then emailed us all the "official release forms" and documentation for the video project which I had written up and first sent to them the day before).
My buddy Alex (whom Jenna had never met before) and his friend Cade greeted us for the "video shoot" and acted as the "La Caille Videography Crew" who directed us where to go, what to do, etc. as we walked around the beautiful grounds prior to sitting down to our dinner.
After enjoying our first three courses of the four-course meal, Alex told us that he needed to get a bit more footage of us and the garden areas before sunset. So, we got up and followed him out to the side of the restaurant where I had placed rose petals and candles on the walkway leading to the gazebo area. Jenna at that point said "Wow, La Caille really made this place beautiful for Valentine's Day weekend". I then laughed and said, "Actually, this was me. I just wanted to make this day really special for you". (She was shocked but still had ZERO idea that I was about to propose to her... she thought it was a really nice Valentine's Day gesture I was making).
At the end of the walkway by the gazebo, I had set up a table with teddy bears, a dozen roses, Reese's hearts, candles, a picture book, small gift and an envelope. I first had her open the gift which was a pearl necklace. Then, I opened the envelope and read a poem I had written to her before asking if I could dance with her under the gazebo in the beautiful sunset lighting.
After we danced to "Hey Pretty Girl" by Kip Moore, I had her open another gift (Large Red Box) which was placed next to us under the gazebo. She opened it and found a small piece of wood cut from what I had called the "Finnish Tree of Love" (made that up last second... haha). It had our initials engraved in it and Jenna thought it was cool, but didn't really understand why I would give her a block of wood cut from a tree...
**Side Note: At this point, she had no idea what was going on since it definitely did not look like a typical ring box and she was entirely convinced that it was going to take me at least 8-10 weeks to save up for a ring and we would get engaged sometime in April... matter of fact she had even showed me her "Perfect Engagement Rings" on Pinterest this same morning (for the 10th time) to which I replied, "Jenna, those are gorgeous, but I won't be able to save up enough money to buy something like that for a very long time" **
So, you can imagine her complete shock when I then twisted this "block of wood" open and inside was sitting the same engagement ring that she had been looking at on her Pinterest boards for months and months.
She said "Yes!" It then took probably a good 30 minutes afterwards while we were enjoying dessert together back inside the restaurant to cover up all the "half-truths" I had told her the last several weeks and to explain how the entire evening was planned out for our engagement. (She had no idea about any of my planning, nor that I had met with her Dad way back in January to ask for her hand in marriage).
A funny surprise to the both of us was when we walked back into the restaurant to our table for dessert, and got a round of applause from all the other guests eating dinner there. (Apparently they had noticed what was happening through the large glass windows of the restaurant from above us...).
All in all, it was a night we will remember forever and are so excited to get married this summer and begin a new chapter in life.
Ty
7 сен 2024
