I knew that if I waited too long, Joy would be expecting my proposal at every turn, at every outing etc. and I wanted to avoid this by proposing way before she would suspect it.

However the process of getting her ring custom-made, combined with my embarrassing inability to operate a fax machine ( :-P ) set me back until well after Joy had begun to hope I would propose...

I had a handful of different proposal ideas in mind; and the one that I liked the most involved something I found on Ebay- a large wooden chest made in Ireland. (Joy loves old wooden chests...)

What I wanted to do was get a friend to place the chest in the sand at the beach, probably Crystal Cove where Joy and I like to go a lot. The friend would of course have to be someone who Joy didn't know, so that they could stand guard a slight distance from the chest and intercept any curious beach-goers who might make off with the "treasure" before Joy and I got there...

The idea was that Joy and I would walk down the beach towards the chest, and the friend would see us coming and step away to pretend like the chest wasn't theirs. Joy would see the chest semi-buried in the sand, open it up and find her engagement ring inside. Hopefully there would be no people around, except maybe the friend could have a camera and secretly take a few pictures of the whole thing...

Of course by the time I got the ring, Joy would have totally suspected something if I were to suggest a trip to the beach, and besides that the celtic chest was nowhere to be seen. I waited a little in hopes that the chest would arrive AND Joy would magically suggest going to the beach HERSELF, but of course that was a long shot at best, especially considering the preparation that would be required and the extremely last-minute conditions in which my friend and I would have to spring into action.

Soooo, after a while I decided to just go for it the next time we were alone together in an acceptable location. I also wanted to prove to Joy that I could plan something elaborate. We were going to go to the renaissance festival on May 6th, so I started thinking about how to create a proposal there.

I called up my photographer friend Dan and had him drive out to the festival an hour ahead of Joy and I, to look around and see what situation might work. Then I got the WILD idea to have Dan employ one of the "actors" at the festival to accost Joy and I, and somehow set me up to propose. (The actors all speak some form of Shakespearean or Elizabethan, always saying "thee" and using words like "fair maiden" etc. etc.)

(Of course upon hearing this idea later, Joy said she would have been mortified / extremely embarrassed if I had proposed that way, so it's a good thing I didn't!)

So when that didn't work out, (thankfully) we simply wandered around and watched the shows, feeling relaxed and tired. (We had both worked very late the night before...)

At around lunch time, we sat down in a grassy area underneath some trees to relax and have a "toad-in-a-hole", one of the tasty reasons for going to the renaissance festival in case you have never been before or never had a "toad" before. It's sort of a a sausage, except it's not made out of the "leftover meat parts" like a real sausage is. A toad-in-a-hole is made out of normal, GOOD meat, the kind that goes into hamburgers and steaks maybe? I can't exactly remember how they described it...

So anywho, I went to go get some food and water but also to locate Dan and let him know what was up and where we were etc. etc. Joy waited for me at our spot, which was sort of tucked away to the side of a stage where a celtic band was playing. Even though Joy couldn't see us, Dan and I were had fun playing detective / spy / secret agent, talking to each other in the food line while standing a couple people apart and being covert etc.

But I digress. I got the food and went back to Joy while Dan hung off at a distance, photographing the band but keeping an eye on us. Joy and I finished eating and then just lazed around for a little, laying on the grass.

Joy didn't suspect anything at all, but the setting was perfect so I slowly reached into my pocket for the ring. Joy was laying perpendicular to me with her head / shoulders resting on my chest, eyes closed.

Just as I was about to mention that I had a question to ask her, she quipped something along the lines of "you know, if you had *planned ahead,* you would have *a ring* with you and right now would have been perfect for *something* special!"

Well she still had her eyes closed, and I was actually holding the ring out in the open, right near her waiting finger...

"Oh my goodness, why is your heart beating a million miles an hour all of a sudden?" She asked. I slipped the ring onto her finger as I "popped the question."

Of course she said yes, and so we hugged and prayed together to consecrate ourselves to God, and then rested a while longer.

That's when Dan strolls up with his Hasselblad and says "alright guys, portrait time!"


That's all, folks!
:-D

Joy's middle name is Kathryn, by the way. And I bought the ring from titaniumrings.com (the titanium workshop) and I couldn't have been happier with the purchase or with the service from the people at the workshop. Like I said I had "issues" operating a fax machine, but they were SO understanding and kind, which really put me at ease...

I highly recommend the Titanium Workshop, and we'll be buying our wedding bands there too!

(BTW, it's called a tension setting if you are curious about the unique design. And no, that diamond is not going ANYwhere. A cubic zirconia or any other normal gem would eventually crack and fall out though, so "rocks" in tension settings like these have to be the real mccoy and as close to flawless as you can afford...)

(Side note: I'm not sure how well moissanite and other "synthetic diamonds" hold up in tension settings, but be sure to inquire and survey all your options before you buy!)

Afterward, we came home, shared the good news with our families, I enjoyed saying the world "fiancee" a lot, (hehe) and then we went to Disneyland for dinner and fireworks. (Joy and I have passes, and Joy knows a lot of employees there so she can get a few friends/family in for free every now and then...

It was nice to finish off the evening with $33,000 worth of fireworks! Thank you, Disney!