The Sweetest Surprise

During the December of 2006 about 3 years and 6 months of our relationship, hubs decided he wanted to propose.  I had no idea but my sister kept asking me what style ring I would like and I thought she was asking just in case he ever decided to.

In May 2007, hubs had asked my sister to arrange for him to meet with my parents to ask for their permission to marry me.  My sister lives in Virginia so she came home one weekend and we treated ourselves to hair appointments.  While I was at the appointment, hubs met with my parents and received their permission and left before I knew he was even there.  hubs waited at a local starbucks until I got back and told me that he was coming over to my house as usual and waited for about half an hour so I wouldn't get suspicious.  It worked and I never knew what happened that day until after the proposal.

I was a little sad that year since hubs kept insisting that we couldn't go on vacation since he needed to pay off some debt so I had asked hubs to plan something for our 4 year anniversary in June instead.  I was thinking it would be a nice dinner out in the city.  What I didn't know was that he was planning a surprise trip to Aruba, where we were originally trying to go to that year.  About 5 days before we were suppose to leave for our trip, I asked hubs what we were doing for our anniversary.  hubs told me to make sure not to accept any work meeting invites and that I wouldn't need to take time off.   Unfortunately for him, it's impossible for me to decline a meeting without knowing why if I'm not out of the office.  So after a bit, hubs  told me we could play twenty questions.  So I asked if we were going somewhere and he said yes.  My next question was if I would need to take time off and he said no.  I asked if we were going for more than a day and he said yes and I was instantly confused.  How do I not need to take vacation time if I'm going to be away for more than a day on a week day?  After reaching my 20 question limit, hubs decided to give me a clue and gave me a code with numbers and letters.  My heart was pounding as I copied it into the jetblue website.  Once I hit ok, a confirmation for two passengers to Aruba for 6 days appeared.  I was ecstatic but still confused on how I didn't need to take any vacation time.  It turns out hubs contacted a coworker of mine back in April for my manager's email information so that he could request vacation time for me.  He told my manager that he would like to propose to me and asked her to keep it a secret.

The trip was incredibly relaxing and romantic.  Usually I'm the planner but this time I didn't have to think about a thing.  Hubs arranged for us to have a couple's massage, take a jeep tour of the island, attend a latin show at night and relax on the hotel's private island.  On June 21, 2007, exactly 4 years since we've been together, hubs arranged for a surprise dinner on the beach.  While we were sitting by the water for our dinner, a photographer came by and asked to take a few pictures.  I thought it was nice but a little suspicious when she kept taking a lot of pictures of us.  I figured it was just our anniversary present since hubs knows I love pictures.  After a bit, hubs and I were standing by the water watching the sunset and he turned to me and asked me "Isn't this beautiful?" and I could only nod as I was starting to slowly realize what was going to happen next.  Then hubs said that he had something for me and proceeded to get down on one knew and pull out a box from his pocket.  Hubs tearfully asked if I would marry him and my reaction was "oh my god!  yes!" crying as well.  After the excitement, Hubs then revealed all the details of how he arranged the trip, the ring and the photographer.  He learned from my sister that I wanted to have pictures capture the moment of the proposal when it happened so Hubs arranged to have a professional photographer come by our table during dinner and pretend to be a hotel photographer.  It worked extremely well and we now have pictures to remember it forever.