What a busy, yet amazing weekend! We just got back from Disney late last night. It was a truly magical weekend - and I have to thank Barry from Excel Diamonds for going above and beyond our expectations.
On Thursday morning, I had no clue if I was going to have this custom ring by Friday (we had to drive 4 hours on Friday to get to Disney). My plan was to propose on Friday night in the rose garden beside Cinderella's Castle after eating dinner at Cinderella's Round Table, during the fireworks (if not then, immediately after the fireworks).
Well, in ordering custom pieces, one should allow enough time (e.g. more than two weeks). I was on a tight schedule and could not. Barry was a great help, and actually shipped the ring to a FedEx in Orlando on Saturday. So, I didn't have the ring on Friday before we left....
I changed the plans many times throughout Friday and early Saturday, and I needed a way to get away from my girlfriend for about an hour to get the ring from FedEx, without her suspecting... Here's how it went down:
8:30 AM - arrive at Magic Kingdom
by 12:00 - rode just about every "good" ride in the park. This is unheard of, but there was absolutely nobody in the park.
4:30 PM - leave park and tell Erin that I have a something planned for 5:30 PM. I took her back to the hotel, and she got showered, but I did not.
5:30 PM - took her to Saratoga Springs Spa, and she had a full body masque thing done. I had no clue what this thing was, but I needed something that I thought she'd enjoy for an hour while I ran to FedEx.
7:00 PM - Picked her up from the spa, and we needed to rush to get to dinner at Cinderella's castle at 8:10 PM. By this time, she pretty much knew what was going on. She didn't know the specifics, so there would be many suprises left in the evening for her.
The rest of the evening was a blur for me, but it went something like this... We got to Cinderella's Castle, put in our name, went out to see the fireworks, the fireworks ended, and then we walked over to the rose garden. I told her something about holding her hand for minutes, the first time I seen her, 8 years ago (to the day), and how I didn't know what was there, but something was. I went on to talk about "Wishes" (the fireworks display is called "Wishes" and is centered around wishes). I told her that she could make my wish come true shortly, because I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. At that point, I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me. The first thing out of her mouth was, "What a beautiful ring!". Then she took the ring and placed it onto her own finger. I was waiting for a "yes, I will marry you", but I took her actions as saying, "yes". A minute later, I asked her what her answer was, and she said, "Are you crazy? Of course it's yes!"
We went back to Cinderella's Castle to eat some prime rib. It was a great dinner, and afterwards they brought us over desert that had a white chocolate "glass slipper" in it. I guess alcoholic beverages are not permitted in the Magic Kingdom, so we couldn't order champagne. There were a couple minor issues with dinner reservations at the castle, so they treated us to a couple things that seemed to be above and beyond what they normally do. Before desert, the waitor came over and said, "This is from our manager" and handed us desert. A couple minutes later, he came back with two champagne glasses full of bubbly, and he said, "This isn't from the manager. This is from me". He would not say what it was, and I won't either
At the end, he brought over a box with two champagne flutes with "Cinderella's Castle" engraved on them.
If this wasn't enough, we get back to the hotel, and I had the florist come in and sprinkle rose petals all over the floor and bed, and leave a bottle of wine, cheese, crackers, and chocolates in the room.
On the last day we went to Epcot. It was a blast. I'd go into detail about this, but this is a long message as it is.... And I know everyone wants to see the pics.
-Jarrod (Hawkwind)