Erin has been living in Indiana since early December, so that left me with few windows of opportunity to propose to her. Also, I wanted to make it a surprise. This would not be easy. I knew she would be in Chattanooga from the evening of December 9 until the morning of December 12. Aside from then, I knew would also see her for Christmas, and then on Valentine's Day. Waiting until Christmas would have been too long, and waiting until Valentine's Day would be far, far too long, because we knew when we wanted to have the ceremony. May 6 has been in our minds for a while because we cannot reasonably get married before I graduate, and if we wait until after that, our friends from Covenant would not be able to join us.
So I knew I needed to propose between December 9 and 12. Narrowing that down futher, I knew that I could not do it the night of the 9th, because she was driving in that night after having worked 8 hours, so I knew she would be exhausted. I also could not do it on the 12th because I had an exam that day and she would be driving back around noon. That left me with the 10th and the 11th. I did not want to do it on my birthday, so it had to be the 10th. Erin knew this, too.
Since she had a really good idea of what day it would be, making it a surprise prooved difficult. I decided to put together a full day of events to make it special as well as throw her off the trail. First, we went to the Hunter Museum of Fine Arts and walked around for two or three hours. This was a special place for us because we went there a couple times before we started dating and it was an opportunity to get to know one another and find out that we wanted to date. She expected me to propose at any point while we were there, but I didn't. After that, we had dinner at The Back Inn Cafe. It's a lovely restaurant in the same art district where the museum is. The whole time we were there, she was expecting me to get down on one knee or be hiding a ring in her food or something.
Finally, we went to the Tivoli to see The Nutcracker. By this time, she was not expecting a proposal, so it was the perfect time. I let her out at the front door and then parked the car. I put the ring in one pocket and a scrapbook I had prepared in another. While walking to the enterance, I called my friend who was waiting inside to take pictures. Everything was set. I walked in and found her in the foyer, and then we walked around a little. We were there early, so I suggested that we take a look around. After taking a quick look at the second floor, I asked her to sit down on the steps to take a look at something. Of course, at this point she was getting suspicous.
While we were looking through the book, I fiddled with the box with the ring in it so that I could get it out easily when I knelt down. I adjusted it several times and brought my hand back into view. While this was unintentional, it made her think that I was just itching something rather than getting a ring out. Once she got to the last page, she saw the picture of me kneeling down, holding out a little box. So I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me. She said yes and jumped up and hugged me.
After that, I told her that there was a photographer taking pictures of all of this, and we had him take another picture or two. She called her mom to share the news, and we watched the ballet. During intermission, I sent text messages to a couple dozen of my friends with cell phones. It was a wonderful evening. I think I must say, it was the best day I've ever had.
- Kevin
