His Side:

Finally, the day was here. I had been secretly planning to propose to Sabrina for about an entire semester. I had some vague brush strokes regarding a plan, but nothing was really planned in great detail. My original plan was lame. There was no story, no pizzaz, no pop! Steve had pointed out that a woman really loves a great proposal story to tell others. So working with that in mind, we thought about what she likes.

I knew that Sabrina and I love coffee. Well, she loves coffee, but she loves the Starbucks Christmas cups. She considers the cups aesthetically pleasing (read: pretty). Knowing that, I took one of their Christmas cups and headed to my favorite screen printers: DVI.

The plan was to take the Starbucks cup, and form some type of adhesive to place over the cup so that it looks and feels like the original cup, however, with one major difference. Instead of some pithy quote, I was going to replace it with my proposal to her. The folks at DVI went above and beyond service! Jared spent a lot of work on the cup and it totally looked and felt like a regular Starbucks cup. In fact, with the cardboard sleeve on it, you couldn’t tell the difference between my cup and an average cup! Thanks Jared!

The overall plan was starting to take shape. The day would start like any other day and the goal was to imply that this day wouldn’t be any different. We would go to dinner (for our dating anniversary), then get coffee and I would propose to her at her apartment.

Well, like the saying goes, the best laid plans…something..something. Any way, the first half of the day went off without a problem. The overall tone was set: it would be an average day. In hindsight, perhaps that aspect went too well.

Well, we studied at Barnes and Nobles and then went to dinner at Ruth Chris’ Steakhouse. The plan was to finish dinner by 8 and then go get coffee at the local Starbucks by 815. I’d propose to her and then I’d whisk her off to the clubhouse to meet and greet with joyful friends and family.

It didn’t go that smoothly.

Dinner took longer than I expected because at these fancy-smancy places, the waiters give you time to eat and to savor your food and they generally leave you alone to enjoy yourself. We didn’t finish dinner until 9pm. Steve, my accomplice, was at the Starbucks patiently waiting for me to give him the word that we were coming. Once I paid the bill and left for the Starbucks, Steve informed the Starbuck workers and described my appearance and the cup to use.

We got to the Starbucks and it was a pretty empty night. We walked up, in our fancy clothes, to the counter and the three Starbuck workers crowded the register and looked with restrained amusement and joy. I ordered the coffee and Sabrina ordered her tea. As I ordered the cup of coffee, the male worker looked at us and grinning said, “Good choice. The coffee is good. Really good. Good choice.” Er. Thanks?…Sabrina didn’t even notice. *phew*

We went to her apartment and I made a lame reason for her to go upstairs so I could setup downstairs. I asked if she could get me dental floss from upstairs. What I had hoped was that she would’ve went upstairs, I would’ve scrambled to setup and then bam! have her read the cup and propose. At this point, things were getting a little crazy. Sabrina was insistent on me coming up to get the dental floss. I resisted, I whined, I even strongly suggested that she go up to get it for me. Any way, she reluctantly went upstairs and I ran over to the sink, tossed the coffee out of my cup (it was melting the sticker!) and began to setup. I waited downstairs. Patiently. *tick tick tick tick*. I was tapping my toe on the floor, asking, “What is taking so long??” I yelled to Sabrina, “Hey, what are you doing? Come downstairs!! Hurry!” From upstairs, I heard, “What? What’s going on? Come upstairs to get the dental floss first and then go back downstairs while I change to my PJ!” Er. No. This is not going well. I quickly replied, “No no, come downstairs now. Hurry. Just come down.” She came down, holding in her one hand her PJ’s and in her other hand, the dental floss.

As she came down the stairs, I told her not to change yet and just sit down next to me on the coffee table. She put the PJ’s down, came over near the coffee table and I said to her, “I think your cup says something interesting. What does it say? Read it.” She read it and was…utterly confused. Her first words were, “How..??” I got down on one knee and proposed to her and asked if she would marry me. She looked into my eyes and said, “How’d you do this?!!?” I looked back and said, “If you say ‘Yes’, I’ll tell you.” Any way, she said “Yes.” Awesome. Joyful. Happy. Praise the Lord.

We ran to the clubhouse and opened the doors and we were promptly greeted with cheers, clapping, laughter, smiles, tears, and joy.

So it didn’t go according to plan, but hey, it’s okay. She said “Yes” and we hung out with family and friends. We were blessed that they could be there and be part of our special day.