It was a dark and stormy night...

An interesting beginning sentence to tell about "the proposal." But it had rained all day and been very dark and stormy. It was very cold after sundown, although the rain had mostly stopped. Now on to the proposal. Ron first asked me to marry him about a year after we started dating... over the next year, he asked several more times. Finally, he said, "I don't want to try to talk you into anything you don't want, or for you to say yes because I've worn you down. You know I want to marry you. You let me know when." It was probably around springtime last year when I decided I was ready. And since then, although the date has changed a few times, we (I) have been planning the wedding. We found the perfect engagement ring and put it in layaway July 2006, and Ron has faithfully and steadily been paying on it each month. I knew the final payment had been made because I had to go down to have my finger measured so the ring could be sized. So I knew it was coming- just not exactly when or how. When he called me Thursday night (April 19), he said he had made dinner reservations for Friday night and I probably wanted to bring my camera ... so I kinda figured I would be getting my ring. At 6:30 Friday night,April 20, he picked me up and we went to dinner at a quaint (and very expensive) restaurant in Redlands. We had a wonderful dinner, but he seemed distracted (even for him). I had already had our waiter take our picture at the table, although you can barely see us cuz he took it from across the room - why do people do that? Anyway... after Ron paid the check he took the box out of his coat pocket. He gave it to me to unwrap, but then I gave it back to him to open up the actual ring box. When he did, he simply asked, "Will you marry me?" I think I said yes, but I really don't remember. I did, however, take a picture of him putting the ring on my finger, so I must have said yes! Then the waiter came over and congratulated us, and took another photo. Then as we were leaving the people at the table behind us said congratulations. Our waiter followed us to the door and offered to take another picture of us in front of the restaurant and congratulated us again. The funny thing was how calm I was and how nervous Ron was! He said he'd wanted to make the proposal really unique and special, but he was so nervous, all he could say was 'Will you marry me?' and that was enough, of course. The ring is beautiful! And now, with the wedding only 70 days away (as of the date I got the ring) - I am officially engaged!