- 1 -

Laura had been wondering for months when I was going to pop the question, she even wanted to pop it herself, but I told her that was unacceptable since I am a man of tradition. Anyway, I refused to hint to her any of my plans. I actually began designing the ring back in early December of last year. After several visits to the jeweler in the next 6 months, I finally had the finished ring. The only question was when and how to propose. A little background info... Laura's father moved to Vegas at the end of this past February. His first visit back was on July 25th for a week. I had realized that it was important to Laura that her father be in town when the big announcement was to be made. I again refused to give Laura any hints to my plan, but I immediately thought that the Saturday during his visit would be perfect. Now the how... Being in the video business I had originally thought I'd do something on video, but I decided that was cute, but not necessarily romantic. So my idea was this; pick Laura up on Saturday for lunch in a white stretch limo filled with 4 dozen red roses, and me in a suit. That's the short version. Here's how things went down...

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On Thursday, June 29th, Laura and I left for work at the same time (7:20a), but unlike Laura, I never made it to work. I simply turned around and came back home. I waited until a little after 9am and made my way to the jeweler. This was the first time I saw the ring completed. I was most pleased. From there I went to get the ring appraised and then I dropped the ring off at my bank's safe deposit box. It was then that I drove in to work around noon.   Roughly three weeks before the actual proposal date I called and made reservations for the white stretch limo, at the time I did not know where I was going to be picked up. Also at that time, I ordered the roses. With those plans completed all I had to do was wait. Now it's one week before and I am picking up my parents mail since they have been out of town. I also take this time to bring my suit over to my parents explaining to Laura that I wanted to bring it to the cleaners but ran out of time, I had to get to the health club for racquetball. Anyway, now I had my suit at my parents and to make things easier I had decided to have the limo pick my up at my parent's, although they knew nothing about it.

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During the next few days leading up to the "BIG" day, I secretly put my dress shoes, socks, belt, watch, tie and tie tack, into my workout bag. The story for Saturday was that I was going to stop at my parents and then maybe play racquetball, but I told Laura that I would be back around 12:15 so that we could go to lunch. Laura's sister Debbie was having a BBQ party Saturday night and Laura was planning on making a cake. That morning I convinced her to make it in the morning before going for her allergy shots because I wanted to make sure she would be finished with it when I came to get her for lunch. While she was making the cake I snuck out to my car and placed my workout bag in the trunk, by this time Laura knew that I wasn't going to play racquetball so I didn't want her asking why I was still taking the bag. I left the house around 9:15a and immediately went to the bank to get the ring from the safe deposit box. From there I went to the florist and picked up the 4 dozen roses. Being ahead of schedule at that point, I stopped and picked up a new white dress shirt. Now I was off to my parents house, it was close to 10:30a. I didn't let on to my parents what was going to happen that afternoon until about a half hour before the limo was to pick me up. I first told my dad and then, after I had my suit on, went to tell my mom. She of course was very excited and even wanted to see the ring, but I told her not until I give it to Laura. (By the way, you're probably wondering why I told my parents before the proposal. Well, fifteen minutes after the limo picked me up, they left to go out of town.) Anyway, at noon, the limo showed. I laid out the four dozen roses, called Laura and told her I'd be home to pick her up soon. I called her again just as the limo was turning the corner onto our street. She was looking out the window and said, "Are you in the limo?". And I replied, "Of course not, I'm still on the highway." Which she didn't buy for a minute. I told her we were going for lunch so she locked up the house, still not sure what I was up to, and came outside. The limo driver opened the door for her and there I was waiting for her in my best suit, roses all around me. I sat her down, not on the roses of course, and told the driver to raise his partition. As he drove away I got down on one knee and proposed. She said yes of course! Our first stop after becoming engaged was to her mom's place to surprise her with the news. From there we stopped by my best friend Dave's place to tell him and his wife Rachel, we even convinced my best friend Pete to come by so we could tell him too. After all the congratulations, we limoed it back to my parents and bid the limo farewell.