It's been years since I considered myself a blogger. My last post had something about being single for the first time in a long time and here I am writing this as someone who has left single life behind for good.
The backstory:
Coming up with a proposal granted me an opportunity for
creatively showing my love. We had
already discussed marriage at length; the potential for surprises came not in
the fact that it was going to happen but in the where, when, and how it would
happen. My desire to do something unique
and unexpected led me to decide to tap into our collective love for music by
writing and performing a song. Despite
never having written a song and not being a very experienced guitar player, I embarked
on a quest to write a musical proposal.
I wanted a way to record it all, so doing it at a beach or a park was
out. My house where any recording device
would be easily noticed also seemed like a bad idea. We met at Crossbridge church and that is
where we had talked about getting married.
They have a recording studio there which meant that any sort of
recording equipment would be a natural part of the scenery.
How on earth do I get Xiomara to come into a recording
studio to be with me while I play an instrument that she’s never seen me play
before? In comes Marcus. Xio and I had discussed asking Marcus to officiate
our wedding ceremony so it seemed appropriate to include him. It was further fitting because he is the
worship music leader at the church so it would make sense if he was involved in
a “recording session.” All I needed to
do was to get him to request my presence for a false recording session to which
I would invite Xio. We met a few days
before and came up with a story about recording some background music for a
promotional video. The bait was set.
The day of:
It was important to me that I gently encourage her to come
to the church for this “recording session.” I would rather put off the proposal an entire
week than insist that she MUST be at the church despite her very valid argument
that it wouldn’t make logistical sense.
Because of this, I had only dropped a couple offhand references to a
recording session by the time the afternoon had rolled around. The two of us had somewhere to be at 7 and I
had managed to pull off an intentionally early dinner. Just as dinner prep was finishing, I casually
cast my request: “it would be great if you could come to the recording session
even if you just hang out and do your own thing.”
She wasn’t having it.
She told me she wanted to get her nails done instead. I listened to her over dinner while she
talked about her day, secretly trying to come up with a way to get her to the
church if only for a few minutes. After
dinner I suggested, “what if you leave a little early to get your nails done so
you have time to meet me at the church and we carpool to our evening plans?” I was then told, “we can play it by ear but
if I run late I’ll just meet you there.”
My proposal plans were being taken over.
By a manicure. I tried one
desperate last ditch effort, trying not to cross the line of forcing her to be
somewhere against her better judgement.
If this didn’t work, I was going to have to push everything back another
week.
“What if you leave right now?”
A little put off that I was kicking her out so soon but
fortunately not looking too far into it, she agreed and went on her way. I met up with Marcus at the church where we
got everything set up and then we waited.
And waited. And waited. It’s amazing how antsy you get when you’re on
the precipice of engagement. We waited
some more. She wasn’t running that far
behind but when you have one of the most special performances of your life and
you’re more than ready to make it happen, it’s amazing how slowly the clock
turns.
Finally she arrived.
With a quick hug I shuffled her into the studio, shut the door. It was so unusual that I would play guitar
that I didn’t want to give her time to think about it so I started playing
almost immediately.
While still strumming and singing the closing lines of
“marry me, Xiomara,” I pushed the stand away and got down on one knee. After the final chord, I pulled the ring out
and asked her to marry me. After the
unexpected response of “you’re ridiculous,” she then accepted. So here I am, a ridiculous fiancé who
couldn’t be more excited to take this wonderful woman as my wife.
