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That’s right — read that again. Engaged. Now take a few moments for yourself while I read that again :)

I took Nichole out to a wonderful restaurant Saturday night for her 25th birthday …and totally surprised her with a proposal. What follows is the story of that evening from my point of view, with interjections from Nay. Enjoy…

Robert: I had been thinking about proposing to Nichole as far back as December. She is absolutely extraordinary, one-of-a-kind: a strong Christian, a strong person, funny/goofy/weird (a requirement for me), and really really really freaking hot. When she had her surgery in January — and we found out it was cancer — I think that was the wake-up call I needed to fully shove me into reality and make me sit down and think about the time that we have in this life …and that I needed to make the most out of each and every day.

Nichole: AWWWW!! How did I get so lucky? But I must interject this: I had been wondering for months when he would ask me, but he gave me absolutely no clues that marriage was in our immediate future. So almost one month ago (ironically, it was shortly after Valentine’s Day), I gave up on the whole notion- well, let’s just say I put it on the backburner. As they say, “when you’re not looking…”

R: I told my parents in mid-February that I was going to propose to Nichole, although at that point I hadn’t decided exactly when or how I would do it. I had the idea to do it at her birthday even then, but I was far from certain. As her birthday got closer, I finally decided that yes, that was when I wanted to do it — cause it presented the best possibility of setting up a really nice outing for the proposal without her suspecting something out of the ordinary ;) I knew I wanted to do it the traditional way: take her out to a nice, romantic restaurant and get down on one knee and ask her to spend the rest of her life with me. But first things first: permission from her parents.

N: I had no doubts that Robert would propose the traditional way, but as I mentioned before, I had no idea he was stirring all this up in that head of his! I had come to grips with the idea I was dating an engineer. Big decisions like marriage are to be strictly analyzed, and never rushed.

R: The previous Sunday (3/6) I had spent the afternoon with Nichole’s family (her parents and her brother, Brandon), her aunt & uncle’s family (the Lees: Craig and Linda, Christopher and Jonathan), and her cousin and her husband (Jarrod and Rebekah Autry) to celebrate Christopher’s birthday. Now, again, I’m a traditional guy — to ask a girl’s parents if you can marry their daughter is one of those proverbial Big Deal sort of questions, and I like to have Big Deal discussions face-to-face whenever possible. So seeing them that Sunday was really difficult, as I knew it would probably be impossible to get together with them face-to-face in the next few days — but I couldn’t bring anything up then either, as Nichole was around and the risk of something “popping out” and letting the cat out of the bag was unacceptable ;) So I had to wait, and resign myself to doing it over the phone.

N: My family doesn’t call me “Radar” for nothin’…

R: That Tuesday evening (3/8) I called my parents to inform them that I was about to call Nichole’s parents and ask for their permission. I talked to my ma and pa for a while, and as they have been throughout all of this, they were great: very supportive, excited, and unintentionally entertaining :D After I got off the phone with them, I paced around the office for a few minutes (yes, I made these phone calls from my work office..) thinking about how exactly I wanted to say what I wanted to say and what I would do if Mr. Jeff wasn’t home (he travels quite a bit with his job). But I had nothing to worry about, of course: they were both home, not eating dinner …and they were both “tickled” to hear the news (Mr. Jeff’s word, I swear). We talked for about 20 minutes about what I had in mind as far as when and how I was going to propose, and then about the future. It was a great conversation, and after it I was ready to handle anything else. After I made it back home, I (almost immediately) found the restaurant where I knew we would go: Anthony’s, on Piedmont in Buckhead. It ended up being perfect (more on that in a bit), but what I was most struck by was how quickly I found it online and how immediately I knew that it was the right place. When the Lord wants you to know something, He can make things pretty obvious :) I called Anthony’s to make the reservation: dinner for two, Saturday, 7:30pm. I mentioned that, if all went well over the next few days (I still didn’t know at this point if I would be able to get a ring by then or not), I would be proposing to my girlfriend that night — so to please pick us a more secluded seat and go that “extra mile” in service for us. Again, more on the actual night in a bit, but I will say now that they certainly did: it was perfect.

N: It was perfect. I couldn’t have imagined it anywhere else.

R: The next day (Wed 3/9) I took off from work — I needed a ring. I had, of course, been doing diamond research online for some time, just to familiarize myself with the lingo and what all to look for in a diamond, as well as get an idea of what I would be able to afford. I won’t go into all the details of the shopping that day, but I will say this: Shane Company Direct Diamond Importers is the first and last place you will need to go for your diamond needs — and in particular, the Duluth/Satellite Blvd. store. They were extraordinary. I ended up with a 1ct brilliant round cut diamond in a white gold band with .15ct of side diamonds. I had to leave it there to get mounted in the band, but it would be ready for pickup on Friday. In the midst of all the diamond shopping, Mrs. Cindy pulled off a stunning coup: she got Nichole’s ring size from Nichole — without arousing any suspicion! — and text-messaged it to me. I’ll leave the telling of *that* story to Nay..

N: So the story goes as follows: Mom calls me Wednesday morning on my way to work to talk about medical bills and whatever else is going on in my life. Then she tells me she is going through her jewelry box and starts cleaning it out (I could hear the clinking of metal in the background). She starts telling me that she is going to throw a lot of stuff away:

Mom: “Do you like anklets?”

Me: “OMG - yuck! They are SO eighties!”

Mom: “Well, what about silver earrings? I know you don’t like yellow gold, so I won’t offer that to you ..but I do have this emerald and diamond cocktail ring. It’s too big for me, but maybe it’ll fit you. What size do you wear..?”

So that was it, and I had absolutely no idea.

R: I had dinner that night with Preble (no Nay; she had to close the salon), and I just had to share the story with someone — at that point, there were only five people in the know (my parents, Nay’s parents, and me). Preble’s reaction (margarita-enhanced, but not by much) was great; wish I could do it justice here, but I can’t, so I won’t try :)

Thursday (3/10) at work: not much got done, IMO :D Finished up some proposal work, but mainly I was just trying not to explode, I was so excited. The “sanitation engineers” wouldn’t have appreciated it, anyway, so things worked out.

Friday (3/11) I went to pick up the ring, which was to be ready by 11am. It was, and it was gorgeous. Gorgeous. After picking it up, I stopped by Preble’s place-o-work and picked up him and a few coworkers for lunch out at PDK’s Downwind grill, which was a delight as always. After that, I finished up the day at work and picked Nichole up for dinner that night: Olive Garden. The ring, of course, was in my car, so it was pretty nuts to have to keep acting perfectly normal, all the while knowing that a) I was going to ask her to marry me in something like 24 hours and b) that the engagement ring was about five feet away from her in the trunk. It was great :D

N: All this time he acted so normal…I never would have suspected a thing.

R: Saturday (3/12) morning I had an early appointment at her salon to get a haircut (here’s a tip fellas: don’t propose with your hair all moppy). The stylist, Kristen, wanted to know what all Nichole and I were going to do that weekend — so when I told her that I was taking Nichole out for her birthday that night, she wanted to know where. Now, up to this point, I hadn’t told Nichole much of anything about where we were going or what we were doing. This drives her crazy — she “hates” surprises — which is, of course, a large part of why I do it: it’s far too rewarding to hear her call me names like “you big stink” and “you big bottom” :D So I finally broke down and told Kristen just where we were going, but only after swearing her to secrecy. Nichole never managed to pry that info out of her — but I’m sure it just made her more excited ;)

N: So Kristen tells Denise at the front desk (it’s a salon here- do you think people *really* keep secrets??) Denise had never heard of it, but she (and Kristen) wouldn’t give in, even after nine hours of prying.

R: After leaving the salon, I had some errands to run. First, a stop by Natural Body Spa to get Nichole’s “decoy” present, a gift certificate worth enough to get a Signature Facial (plus tip). Obviously, the point was to be able to give her something at dinner that was a nice present — but also to further add to the surprise when, just a few minutes later, I gave her something else ;) Next, a stop to pick up the cards. Again, there was more going on here than it might seem: one card was the traditional “funny” card. The second card was going to fill a dual role: it would play the part of the other traditional card, the “sweet” card — but it would also need to have wholly new significance after the proposal. Thankfully, I found the perfect card. And it rocked, if I do say so myself :) Lastly, a quick stop to get a little bag to carry everything into the restaurant in — and a single rose for Nay to carry in with her (so everyone will KNOW how precious she is: “My, she gets a ROSE when she goes out nice..”) and place next to her on the table. After all this …I had to kill time. After four pretty nerve-racking hours of World of Warcraft (insert nerd jokes here) and barely finishing my lunch, it was time to get ready.

Nichole arrived, not really in the best of humors, as the waning hours of her workday “had been poop”. I think I inadvertently led to her stress, as I told her somewhat last minute that I thought we should really dress up, ala suit/tie for me, so she was somewhat rushed to get home and get ready. Nevertheless, she was at my house in plenty of time, and looking stunning as always. Before she arrived, I had made sure to get everything ready: the ring was already in my suit jacket pocket (as was my camera, in the opposite breast pocket) and I had printed out a copy of the Anthony’s menu for her to look over on the way. I had put all of the cards in the party bag with some tissue paper covering things up; I gave her the rose on the way out the door. It was perfect.

N: Sneak. I was clueless as always.

R: Anthony’s is right off of Piedmont Road, but once you’re inside the restaurant you’d never know where you are, as it’s set well back off of the road on a nice wooded lot. As soon as we pulled in and could see the building, we knew we really were in for an evening of “fine dining”: the place had that aura of ritzy. Valets were waiting to park the car for us and everything. Tip-top. Just inside the front door, the hostess was explaining some of the items on the wall to a party that had arrived there just before us. I confess I didn’t really pay much attention to what was said or what was on the walls — I hope you can understand ;) We were seated promptly: upstairs, on the completely glass enclosed front porch, in the right (if you’re standing in front of the building facing it) back corner of the porch. The setting was very nice, but not overly so — you still felt like the place was “real” and actually made for eating inside.

N: I also want to add: right as we got seated, a fireworks display was being put on at nearby Phipps Plaza. Robert said he planned it that way ;) Also, a wedding reception was being held while we were there, and I never missed an opportunity to say things like “Hey, you know, I really don’t think I want a big wedding this time around” and “I definitely think alcohol should be served. Dancing just won’t happen without it.” It’s funny to me that Robert’s eyes always kinda glaze over when I talk about weddings or marriage or things of that nature. It’s like I’m talking about hair or something! And they glazed over then too.

R: Dinner was outstanding: Nichole had escargot as an appetizer, and I had the lobster bisque. She did the veal for her main, and I chose the filet mignon. We were recommended an excellent 2002 Clos du Bois merlot, and it was indeed the perfect wine for both of our meals (my filet had a glaze on it that actually made the merlot more suitable than a cabernet — yes, every detail of the night was really that perfect). After we had done all the damage we could do, the waiter took out dishes and wanted to know if we would like some dessert; I told him that yes we certainly would, but that we’d like to have a few minutes to “catch our breath”. Nichole, predictably, seized on this lull to “suggest” that I give her her “presments” — so I did. First up was the funny card, which she was no doubt expecting (I hadn’t realized until hearing her tell this story to other people how predictable of a card giver I had become); it got the desired laughs. Next up - the first curveball: I handed her the gift certificate, which she had expected to be the “sweet” card (see previous comment about my predictability). After opening and fawning over the gift certificate and the prospect of another Natural Body facial, she joked about me not getting her a “sweet” card. At which point, of course, I produced the actual sweet card — and it produced the hoped-for response ;) Once she was done with that, it was time: I think my lead-in was “Well, there is something else — it’s not a birthday gift really, but I’d like you to have it.” And I reached across the table and placed the gray ring box in front of her on the table.

N: As you can imagine, I was freaking out. Crying, shaking, the whole nine yards. It was just perfect. The ring is absolutely stunning and looks amazing on my finger. He really did an awesome job. I just can’t wait to be his wife!

R: I came around the table and got down on one knee — that’s me, Mr. Traditional. Nichole, as she said, was crying. The tables nearest to us were apparently watching, but I didn’t see or even realize — all I saw was my Nichole. I took her hand and told her that I loved her, and asked her if she would marry me.

And she said yes :)

This entry was posted on Monday, March 14th, 2005 at 12:43:00 am and is filed under Fam, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.