Here's the rest of the story :)
...My only other concern was making sure to not let her see it
coming. We came up with the idea of a diversion. I told Audrey the night before
to keep her Saturday afternoon and evening clear as I had a fun date planned.
It wasn’t really anything out of the ordinary as I had done this sort of thing
before. Just before 2pm, I went to her house to pick her up. We went out to the
car and I blindfolded her. Again, this didn’t give it away because she had
blindfolded me for my birthday. We went to Seven Peaks and ice skated with Amy
for two hours. If she had thought anything was going to happen, which she
didn’t at that point we were hanging out at the ice rink and skating.
After when we were done skating and returning the skates,
Amy was like – well I guess I’ll head home. Looking back, Audrey says that
seemed a little odd the way she said it and wondered if something was up, but
she didn’t pay it any notice. We went out to the car and I told her to put the
blindfold back on. Audrey said, “Are you serious?” I said, yep put it on.
We had been talking about wedding color options a lot that
week and had said we could go over to Lowe’s to look at paint swatches. So I
took her blindfolded to Lowe’s. This time, I wouldn’t let her take off the
blindfold until we were nearly inside the store. She was dying wearing it out
in front of everyone while we walked through the parking lot. She couldn’t
figure out where we were at until she took the blindfold off and then she hit
me and said she should have known since we had talked about going there.
At this point, I was just stalling time. I needed to wait
until it was dark so the temple would be lit up and my family with Jason and
Sarah would be in position ready at Nancy’s house. We wandered around Lowe’s
looking for the paint section wasting more time. Once we found it, I made sure
to take my time looking through all of the different colors and doing a lot of
comparisons. After a bit Audrey was done looking at them and we were looking at
spray paints that we could use on frames. After that, it was about time to go.
We went out to the car and I made her put the blindfold back on again. She couldn’t
believe it, a third time? I asked her if she was hungry and if she was ready to
eat. She said sure.
Everything was going perfectly according to plan. Even the
weather was cooperating. It was a rainy day and was raining, but it stopped
just long enough for the proposal to happen. I needed to throw her off on where
we were driving so I took a down and around back way to Nancy’s house. She
thought we were at the mall. I pulled in front of Nancy’s house as if I were
pulling into a parking spot. I told Audrey that she could not take the
blindfold off. She was keeping her eyes shut underneath as well to make sure
she wouldn’t see anything.
This time, we had to get out of the car and walk through the
backyard before I wanted her taking the blindfold off. This was why I had her
almost walk into Lowe’s with it on so she wouldn’t be suspicious. I switched
jackets that I was wearing, to get my jacket from the trunk that had the ring
in the pocket. Then I helped her out of the car and put her coat on. Then as we
did that, the blindfold came off! That just about ruined it. It was such a good
thing that she had her eyes closed tight and she promised that she didn’t see
anything. I hurried and put the blindfold back on and then started to lead her
up the driveway.
She asked, where we were and why it was so quiet. She asked
if people were staring at her. I said there are a few people around, but not
too many. No one is looking at you. I said there are some people over there,
but not by us. Afterwards, she says when I told her that she had the thought
that maybe I was proposing because this could be a proposal setting and that
those people were probably my family. But still, it couldn’t be because I
wasn’t proposing until February. We got into the backyard and onto the grass.
She asked if were at a park. I told her no, but we had to park a little ways
away and had to walk to where we were eating. I led her down the rock pathway
very carefully to the patio. It was all lit up with the flowers placed around
in a circle with the temple lit up and no rain. It was perfect. I positioned
her on the patio facing out to the temple as I quietly pulled the ring box out
of my jacket pocket. Then I got down on one knee, held out the ring and told
her she could finally take the blindfold off.
I said, “Audrey Clara Clifton, I love you. Will you mar….”
and she smiled and said “YES” before I could even finish “ry me?”. I stood up
and we hugged and kissed. Then I took the ring and went to put it on the hand
she was kind of holding out. Turns out though, wrong hand. We got it right and
put the ring on her left ring finger. We hugged and kissed again and looked up
the pathway to see my dad crouched down taking pictures. Then he left us alone
and we stood there hugging and looking out at the temple.
She was surprised by it all and didn’t really think it was
happening until we were almost in place. It was a perfect night. We went back
up to the house where everyone was waiting. Then we went back down to the patio
to take some pictures. I texted and called her parents with the address so they
could come over and participate in picture taking. It was pretty cold and
everyone else went back inside except Jason, Audrey and I. We took some more
pictures and then went into the house with everyone else. Nancy and Gifford
showed up and we all sat inside the house talking for a little bit before
helping Jason and his sister Sarah clean everything up.
Then I had really planned to take Audrey to dinner. So we
ran to her house to drop the flowers off there and started calling a few family
members to let them know we were engaged. I called my grandparents, my sister Jenna and my uncle Russ first. Then while at Audrey’s house, we decided we had better tell Linda
first before any other friends since she set us up.Audrey FaceTimed her on her phone. Linda answered and she was walking around the mall in California with her brother. We just started talking and then after a minute or two, Linda asked what we were doing as she looked away from the phone. While she wasn’t looking, Audrey held her hand and ring up in front of the camera. When Linda looked back, she saw the ring and was in disbelief. She was so shocked. It was hilarious. She started to get emotional and couldn’t speak she was so happy.
Afterwards, we went to dinner at Olive Garden and sat there
texting all of our friends to let them know we were engaged and kept calling
people for a while after dinner as well. We went back to her house and stopped
by to show her grandma the ring. It all came off without a hitch. Audrey said
yes as I expected her to and we were engaged! We are getting married June 4th
in 2 months! I couldn’t be happier, I love her and can’t wait to marry her!
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