…..So you live with her and her parents?  Do you have a ring yet? What’s the plan? When’s the wedding date?  ….. All the regular questions I’d hear from day to day.  Mandy and I developed our own unique ‘code words’ for different things: sparkly things -> engagement ring, update Facebook status- > being engaged.  From time to time we would discuss our future together using these code words, during which I would ask what I hoped were small questions to collect just enough information to find and plan the engagement Mandy had always pictured.  Shopping for “sparkly things” had been an ongoing process for quite some time.

I finally put the pieces together and found the perfect ring.  I picked it up on a Wednesday, the day before I was going to spend a week in Chicago.  I knew right away that I would take the ring with me and show my family.  My first night back in Chicago I sat down with my mom and showed her the ring but did not fill her in with too many more details. With a change in work plans I was able to head back to California a few days early.  On my flight back I planned out how the proposal was going to happen.

I took Mr. Johnson out to lunch on a Tuesday, having our normal discussions of sports, politics and any other interesting topics that came to mind.  As lunch wrapped up, and he finally put down his steak knife, I finally found the words to try to explain how much Mandy meant to me and for his blessing on a marriage with his daughter.  Mr. Johnson was more than excited and offered some advice and welcomed me to the family.  We returned home and he promptly filled Mrs. Johnson in on our lunch discussion.  The big concern for was now how to keep this all a secret from Mandy for 5 days without being obvious we were keeping something from her. 

My plans came together over the next few days. I picked a spot for dinner that meant something to the both of us. It was one of the first places Mandy and I had gone together on my original trip out to California.  It was a place we would return to frequently for dinners under a beautiful sunset. 

 

 

“Did you know he was going to ask you? Were you surprised?” These are always the first questions someone will ask me after finding out that we are engaged.

My answer: YES, I was very surprised! But, things started getting fishier and fishier at dinner leading up to it– and it wasn’t just the fish in the water under the pier.

Background

The weekend before we got engaged was our three year anniversary. Chris had to be in Chicago for a friend’s wedding, so I was left on my own in California. 

 

Traditionally we make a big deal out of anniversaries and go to our favorite tapas restaurant downtown Chicago, National 27. We also have a goofy tradition of writing our annual “dating contract” on our anniversary.  The contracts were written on table napkins and mainly focused on how we were growing in our relationship and we wanted to continue that growth for another year.  I told you, it is goofy.  Therefore, since Chris was gone on our anniversary (August 2), I was left to float around the pool on our “couples” raft (made for two people), by myself. Sad. Missing him.

The week leading up to our engagement I had to work one of our biggest events of the year, Waterman’s Weekend.  (Think crazy golf tournament Thursday and a huge surfer’s ball at the Ritz on Friday night.)  Chris had told me that he wanted to go out that Saturday night to celebrate our anniversary since he was not in town the previous week.  However, as you can imagine I was exhausted and was being a pill about going… but he persuaded me by tempting me with good food.

Dinner

I got ready for dinner and did not think ANYTHING of it. We went to Fisherman’s on the pier in San Clemente, ordered a TON of food and spent our time talking about the past year, how we had grown, and where we hoped to be going. Once the main course came, Chris took two bites, pushed the plate away and announced he was full. Then one of the servers walked by with their famous mud pies and I said we had to get one.  But Chris brushed the idea off by saying the mud pie looked gross and I shouldn’t eat it.  Side note: Chris and I always get dessert.  So that was weird thing #2 of the meal.  Chris asked for the check and I asked “what about our annual contract?” Chris promised me that we could get dessert later, but that he wanted to write the contract in the sand on the beach while the sun set.  I took the bait and continued with the plan. I had a feeling like something was up, but I kept telling myself, “Nah. He is just trying to be nice because he missed our anniversary.”

Lifeguard Stand #3

Once we got to the sand it was packed.  We walked down a ways and found an open area. Chris got out the camera and started taking pictures of the sunset. He then said, “Wouldn’t it be cool if we had someone take our picture?” Chris then spotted “a guy” that “just happened” to be set up with all of his professional gear taking photos of the sunset. Chris asked the guy to take the picture with our camera and then after he took the first photo, Chris said, “One more.” I turned to pose again and then realized something was different. Chris had gotten down on one knee!!!  He was smiling his, “I am doing something that I am really proud of” smile. He said a very short, to the point, Chris-type speech:
“I love you.        
I want to spend the rest of my life with you.
Will you marry me?”

During this time the photographer ran back to his tripod, grabbed his camera and started shooting away. Now, I am not going to lie. I probably should have rehearsed being proposed to, because I had NO idea what to do. I uttered the word “ok” a million times, tried to instinctively just grab the ring, asked Chris if he was serious, hid my face with my hands, and tried my hardest to get a grip on the situation. Chris even had to ask me, “Is that a yes?” 

Chris then introduced me to our photographer for the evening, Jason, and he continued to get some amazing shots as we watched the sunset on our dating days and talked about our future.  As Chris said – Eternity. We walked in the water, jumped on lifeguard stand #3, sat in the sand, and stood in front of the beautiful pier. 
We then called all of Chris’ family in the car on the way back to my parent’s house where my family was anxiously awaiting.  We toasted with champagne, called friends, and talked about adding Chris to the family.

It was the perfect night. Chris did an amazing job planning it all and surprising me. I cannot wait to spend the rest of my life with him as husband and wife!

We love Spark. She is perfect. She is everything Mandy dreamed of and she is personally designed by Chris.  Now why do we call her Spark do you ask? Two reasons:

2. 1. Before we got engaged we were really shy about bringing up the big topic and therefore had code words for the next step in our relationship. “Engagement” was “updating our status on facebook.” “ Engagement rings” were “sparkly things.” And Chris would always say he would have to start opening a lot of “Cracker Jack Boxes” to find a “sparkly thing.”
4. 2. She sparkles like crazy. She just cannot help but show off. She loves the sunlight, bright lights, flashing lights, and catching your eye.