9 years ago today I proposed to Lisa.
I found our engagement story, which has been described to me containing "too much happiness." It's still fun to read 9 years later!
April 2004
Hey everyone,
I promised a more detailed story soon - here it is. Lisa and I
teamed up to write how we got
engaged so prepare for frequent shifts between storytellers!
We met in February of last year (2003) when we were paired to work
together for our stake's
youth conference. We got to drive all over the stake visiting wards
together. It didn't take long
for me (Bryce) to realize how great Lisa is. She is creative,
artistic, genuinely optimistic and very
enthusiastic. However, it did take me until her birthday (September 30)
to finally ask her out. Our
first date was to the circus, where we sat underneath the "whirling
wheel of death" and next to
the "angle of insanity!"
(Lisa) By March, we had talked about getting married and Bryce
started doing these really
thoughtful, creative surprises. I (Bryce) decided that I was going to
ask Lisa to marry me on
March 30, her half birthday and our 6 month anniversary. Before
proposing, I wanted to tell her,
in a way she would never forget, 4 things that we had told each other
as the relationship
progressed.
(Lisa) It all started with a visit to KaBloom on our way home from
work one Tuesday evening.
Bryce managed to casually work the
let's-stop-inside-the-flower-shop-on-our-way-home idea into
our conversation, so I wasn't suspicious at all…until he suggested
asking at the counter if there
was anything on hold for me. "It's such a fun game! Because I mean,
really, what are the chances
that they would actually have something on hold for you?! LaPierre and
Moorhead and both
pretty uncommon names…I think we should just check…" And wouldn't you
know it - they had
something for me! A huge bouquet of yellow Gerber daisies with an
envelope tied to each stem.
Once I'd opened all the envelopes I found the message, "Illness lingers
in kittens entering your
opulent universe." That's Bryce&Lisa-ese for "I like you." Awwwww,
sweet. (Bryce) You should
have heard the florist's reaction when I told him what to write!
The next week, Lisa was taking a week-long intensive class at
Simmons, and on Tuesday her
class was on a field trip downtown. I (Bryce) dipped handmade
chocolates for her and her
Professor (an emeritus dean) agreed to deliver them for me. (Lisa) In
the middle of lunch my
professor came over and "on behalf of Bryce and the Harvard Business
School" presented me
with a bag from L.A. Burdicks Chocolates. Inside the bag I discovered a
box of homemade
LaPierre chocolates (see website)! On top of each chocolate was a
letter and in the box was a
note that said, "It's plain to see while sitting here I cannot get you
off my mind. If you these
letters rearrange the reason you will find!" I waited till I got home
that day and then unscrambled
the message - "You are awesome." J My professor had a hey-day with that
surprise - made
several comments in class each day after that involving chocolates and
Bryce.
The message I'd (Bryce) chosen for March 16th was "YOU ARE A BEB."
Since Matt and Marci
(her brother-in-law and sister) sing this to the Blue Danube Walt, I
wrote Lisa a letter on music
lined staff paper, where each word was a note in that song. In order to
make its delivery a
surprise, I told her I had to work late. (Lisa) I'd just put in a load
of laundry when JaNeece called
me into the living room. I walked in and there was Bryce standing
outside our living room
window under a big umbrella (it was snowing). He sang "When you say
nothing at all" by Alison
Krauss - the entire song! Very impressive!! After the song was over, he
came inside and gave me
a note he'd written. The message from that one was that he thought I
was a "beb" (which is
Moorhead-ese for being a cool person).
I (Lisa) woke up on the fourth Tuesday to find a red tulip on our
kitchen table with a now
familiar KaBloom envelope attached. Throughout the day I received 7
more tulips, each with an
envelope containing 2 laminated squared that had pictures on the front
and letters on the back
(see website for this document). I was dying to solve the puzzle
(lining up all the pictures) but
decided to wait until I got home from tutoring. At 11:30pm, I called
Bryce, and with his help I
finally finished the puzzle and then discovered that when I flipped it
over it read, "Lisa, I love
you a lot." Bryce then pointed out that there was 1 white tulip, 4
yellow ones and 3 red ones - a
subtle message I had missed (143 = I love you).
For the last one, I had asked my mother to cook us a great lunch at
Lisa's apartment. While
bowling with Lisa, Matt & Marci, and their mother Saturday night, I
(Bryce) invited her to be
involved in my plans for Tuesday, March 30. I needed her help to keep
Lisa from getting
suspicious - this was accomplished by having her make plans to take
Lisa and I out to lunch on
Tuesday. In reality, she picked up the flowers, and helped my mother
set up the table and prepare
the meal while we were at work. On Sunday, I finally told my parents I
was going to propose (my
mother pumped her fists in the air), and then called Lisa's father to
ask his permission.
(Lisa) I had really been hoping that Bryce would propose on the 30th
but I could not see how it
could possibly work with my mom in town and tutoring almost immediately
after work. When
Bryce paid a surprise visit to my apartment that morning - bursting
through the front door with
13 (half of 26) lemon blueberry muffins (he did the same thing on my
birthday) - I figured that
must be my "surprise" for the day and resigned myself to another week
of stifled excitement
about the proposal I knew had to be coming soon. My mom dropped Bryce
and me off at work,
saying that she'd come back to pick us up for lunch. As planned, my mom
called a little after
12:45 and said "Ok Leese, I'm here." I called Bryce to let him know,
and then got my coat and
left my office. When I got outside, my mom was nowhere to be seen…but
there was Bryce, all
dressed up and standing in front of this big SUV. Bryce helped me into
the car and we were
off…and I had no idea where.
Brian Sweeney (Bryce's friend) was our driver/chauffeur and played
the part beautifully. He took
us back to my apartment where my mom answered the door. She ushered us
to a table set up in
the living room with plates, plastic utensils and goblets all cut in
half for my half birthday. There
were also roses (a half dozen), a candle, and 6 different colored
envelopes on the table (see
website). Inside each envelope I found 3 or 4 little squares of paper
with a letter written on each
one. Sorting the squares by color was not that hard to figure out, and
I found a few key letters that
tipped me off to what the message was going to say. When I finished, it
read, "Lisa Moorhead
will you marry me?" Suddenly, Bryce was down on one knee and asking me
to marry him. (Bryce) It went faster than I thought - Lisa was leaving
spaces for the letters that were missing!!
Once she finished, I produced the ring and dropped to one knee, telling
her how much I loved
her, why I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her, and asked her
to marry me. She said yes!!
(Lisa) We both ran into the kitchen to tell my mom and when I got
there I discovered that Bryce's
mom was there as well! It was perfect - they were able to meet and it
was so fun to have them be
a part of the day. In addition, the food that Bryce's mom made was to
DIE for (shrimp fettuccini,
asparagus with sautéed peppers, this great spinach salad, bruchetta as
an appetizer, rolls and a
chocolate dessert to end all chocolate desserts! Oh! And this butter
molded into the shapes of
flowers and hearts - so cool!). Marci (my sister) showed up shortly
after lunch to take my mom to
the airport so we talked briefly about wedding plans, but all I could
do very much of was stare at
my left hand and hug Bryce… SUCH a fun day! Bryce is the BEST!!
Lisa and I are VERY excited and hope that you will all be able to
join us this fall in Boston on
October 9 to celebrate our wedding! We'll have more information on that
party later! Until
then…happy spring!
Love,
Bryce & Lisa
