How Mr. Right Proposed

Marcy over at the Glamorous Life Association - a lucky groom-to-be needs our help! He's asked for everyone to post their romantic proposal/wedding stories to assist him proposing to his girl. GLA is glad to assist.

Here's mine...

I knew the day would be special when the sun gently awoke me around 7AM. Or else I just woke up and couldn't go back to sleep. Either way I went ahead and got showered so that I was mostly ready when it was time to head downstairs and enjoy the breakfast part of the Bed and Breakfast concept.

Our hostess seemed delighted to fix us bacon and scrambled eggs. She was even more excited when she sat down at the table and started talking politics. After waiting for the conversation to naturally come to a close and finding no such opportunity, I excused myself to come upstairs and finish getting ready.

Mr. Right: Skip to the part where I ask you to marry me.

Brooke: I'm getting there, be patient.

After putting the finishing touches on my makeup, and curling my hair, Mr. Right was still downstairs. His phone started ringing and I thought that would be my golden opportunity - I would take him the phone, he would pretend it was terribly important and excuse himself and then we would be home free.

The caller, his neighbor Kevan, didn't realize we were on vacation and felt bad for bothering him. I tried to convince him he was a godsend, but I don't think he quite understood my desperation. And Mr. Right didn't get the plan either. So about 10 minutes after the phone call I just had to go downstairs and tell him that we needed to leave soon.

We walked to the bus stop and saw that the next bus wasn't due for another 20 minutes, so we decided to drive again and park in a municipal lot. Unfortunately for me, the lot closes at 10 which means we wouldn't be able to see a Broadway show. I could just see the disappointment in Jay's eyes, but I promised I'd find a way to make it up to him.

Since we were getting such a late start, when we got off the ferry we decided to take the subway directly to the Tavern on the Green. Our reservations were at 12:30 and we didn't want to be late. We were actually about 30 minutes early, so I decided to make good use of my time and petition ABC to bring back Boone, Charlie, and a message board that works properly.



After my work there was done, we took a stroll through the sheep field and learned that the Tavern use to house sheep before it was converted into a fancy restaurant.

Mr. Right had made reservations for us Easter weekend, and although we were still a few minutes early we were escorted directly to our table. I was afraid that the food on the menu would be too fancy for me, but they had fish and chips as well as a bacon cheeseburger. I got the fish and chips and ordered a peach bellini. It was the most expensive drink I've ever had, but it was delicious. Wanna see what a $12 coctail looks like?



My fish and chips were served with a individual sized glass bottle of ketchup. Since I didn't use it for my fries/chips, I threw it in my purse. And might I say its quite a magical purse. I got it for $1 at K-Mart on Christmas Eve and it seems to be the bag that won't quit.

At any given time today I had the following items: 3 cell phones, one large camera, a wallet, a bottle of ketchup, a bottle of hand sanitizer, a framed picture from the Tavern, a calculator, chap stick, lip gloss, a mirror, and feminine hegine products.

So while I didn't get my father a rock from Central Park - he does have a bottle of ketchup to add to his collection. Fancy ketchup at that.

After finishing up our meal we headed outside to get a few pictures of the garden.



Right outside the restaurant there were several horse drawn carriages. We went past the building where John Lennon was killed and then turned into the Strawberry Fields portion of the Park.



A note on the carriage reminded us that tips were "customery" and appreciated. Jay commented that proper spelling on official signs is also appreciated, but that certainly didn't get us any where.



We scouted out the map, then headed north toward the lake and Belvedere Castle.



The note on the door entering said "no food, drink, animals, or weddings (proposals only). Hmmm...I wondered to myself...foreshadowing of what was to come?? Nope. We went up to the tip top, took pictures, and walked back down.

I needed to find a bathroom, but none were easily accessible from where we were in the park. As we were headed out to the park, Jay mentioned that he was tired and he wanted to rest for a little bit from all the walking and sit down on a secluded bench. I thought it was odd that he was tired when I wasn't, but I didn't say anything.

As usual he read my mind and asked me if I was going to blog and let all my friends know that he was a sissy that tired quickly walking around in the park. Then he asked me if I remembered our first date - sitting outside of Johnny Carino's on a bench waiting to be seated.

"I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you." Then the moment happened - he got down on one knee.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Mr. Right: Brooke Middle Maiden, will you marry me?

Me: Of course I will. I love you!

At this point we're hugging. And then the bling. 23 diamonds. One marqee cut diamond in the center with rows of 3 deep baggets on the sides for 3 rows on either side and the last row with 2 diamonds. Making it all the more beautiful is the fact that the center diamond was the stone that his father first gave to his mother.



(I know it looks like yellow gold in the picture - its not. Its white gold, but if someone asks if its platinum I don't correct them.)

I have to confess that I was so impressed with the ring that I kept saying a phrase that my grandmother would chastise me for. But when the time comes we can delete that from the story to tell the kids right?

We sat on the bench for a while longer, just taking the moment in. Then he confessed that from the time we entered Central Park to the moment he asked he was on the look out for an empty bench that wasn't heavily populated. I tried to call my sister to let her be the first to know (my parents had already been tipped off by Mr. Right) but she didn't answer.

She called me back fairly quick, and it didn't take her long to confess that Mother had already spilled the beans. I'm currently taking suggestions on how to dress shop for a Matron of Honor that's 8 months pregnant when the wedding is only 6 months away.

The rest of the calls had to wait as we got on the subway and intended to head toward Filene's Basement to check out their bargains. Little did we know there was an "investigation" on the subway of a stalled train. We were forced to head Uptown to 125th Street in Harlem to board a Downtown Train back to 23rd Street in Manhattan.

After traveling 102 blocks on the subway, we arrived at Filene's Basement. After all a girl needs a new dress to coordinate with her newly aquired accessory. A mass text message went out to all my friends letting them know the big news. One of my cousins responded back "huh?" to my text.

The original message had said "a silver eagle has landed with a couple of karats in its mouth." Then I got a call from Maria - when I answered the phone she said "who is this?" It took only knowing that the text was from me for her to figure it out.

After purchasing a lovely wrap dress in the store - and talking to my Mamaw, my brother-in-law, and my niece - we headed toward Century 21 Department Store. Or so we thought. It felt like we walked forever and then walked some more.

Remember me looking for a restroom in Central Park - I still hadn't found one. Finally we found a sandwich/soup cafe that we stopped in to eat at and I headed straight for the restroom. We discovered quickly that we wanted to get in and get out in a hurry. Since the ladies room door was locked, I headed into the men's.

Out on the street we still had no clue where we were going. We were hesistant to ask for directions, but saw a group of cops on the side of the road and decided to go ahead and ask. This cocky...sonofa...pieceof...officer interrupted us with the question of directions we asked and assured us that if we turned left at Chambers it would run right into the store. Turns out he gave us directions straight to the police station....

When we turned off of Broadway onto Chambers Mr. Right said that the turn felt wrong and surely Broadway would take us there. He was right. After that detour we got back on track.

At 8 o'clock on the nose we headed into Century 21's doors, only to be turned away. It was closing time. And if that lousy, unprintable name hadn't sent us off on a wild goose chase, we would have made it. The NYPD is going to receive a scathing email from me. I'm sure he'll either be repremanded or fired.

When we walked out of the store I saw heaven across the street. Okay so it was just McDonald's, but I was really thirsty and the thought of a large coke sounded like a godsend! Thanks to Mr. Right and google map (accessed on his fancy cell phone) we walked a few blocks down and got on the subway to finally head home.

I was exhausted and took my shoes off on the ferry ride back. I think I got an evil look from a young girl as I was complaining about my feet hurting. So because she walks with a cane she thinks she can judge my aching feet? Yeah, I felt pretty bad about that.

When we got back to the B&B my fiance (its really fun to say that) gave me a wonderful footrub. I'm a lucky girl.