Getting Married…
I know anyone who stumbles across this post will be stunned and amazed. After donating 4+ months of fees to Typepad with not a single post, here I am with my biggest post ever.
After 10+ years of being divorced, I’ve found someone that I want to spend the rest of my life with. Suffice it to say that I took my sweet time trying to find “the one”, but I think I’ve finally done so.
Suzanne and I met last May through Match.com. I initiated the relationship by sending her an email while I was visiting Finland. To be my delight, she replied at length to my initial email. And I must say that that was a major turn-on to me. I love it when a woman takes the time and has the ability to express herself. To me, that’s a sign of good communication skills and a sincerity about the process of finding someone.
So through my week-long visit, we exchanged many emails — one night we exchanged several while I sat in my hotel room. Heck, I paid the 10 euros connection fee just for the privilege of being connected so as to receive her emails. And as the intrigue progressed, I finally asked her to leave me a voice mail message so that I could hear her voice. Though it was a strange request, she did so and I can say that I first heard her voice as I was in the Helsinki airport.
I could go on, but you probably want to know how I made the proposal. So I’ll get to the good stuff.
First, at our age (me 40, she 38), there’s less surprise in such things. We’re both established in life and so we talked readily about getting married. So my proposal was no surprise. However, the way that I did it was.
Alas, I didn’t want to be one of those slugs that proposed poorly. I didn’t want to drop to one knee at Chili’s or even at nice club. I wanted it to be memorable and intimate. And I wanted that part to be a suprise. So she basically knew when it would happen, just not how. And further, she knew when I acquired the ring and suffered as I put the details together.
So finally, Saturday April 2nd came around and it was a perfect day. It was probably 72 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. I couldn’t have asked for a better day. Suzanne arrived at my house — yes, I made her drive to my house for her proposal! But it made sense, since we were only going to Las Colinas. She lives 23 miles away from me, so logistics overrode romance in this one regard.
As we set out for our destination, she still didn’t know what we were doing. I had earlier in the week told her that it would be an outside event, so dress comfortably. During the week, her and her friends had many guesses as to what I was up to, but none guessed it right. I threw ample red herrings out — even suggested that she wear her hair so that it would look good after having worn a helmet. Needless to say, I had great fun with this to the bitter end.
Eventually we got to the Omni Hotel where we were to meet a Gondola and a Gondolier. If you aren’t familiar with such terms, just imagine the boats that taxi people through Venice. Unfortunately, our Gondola was motorized, but still very fun.
In the first portion of the cruise, we enjoyed a catered meal from Trevi’s (Italian food). We had non-alcoholic champaigne, salad, and dessert to go with our entrees. The Gondolier intermittently sang Italian love songs and some contemporary songs while we steered through the narrow portions of the canal. Suzanne and I really enjoyed the meal and eventually settled under a blanket and started enjoying the rest of the cruise.
As we did so, the Gondolier mentioned to us that he needed to get a bottle of water, so he was going to hold the boat in place. As it turns out this is when he slyly through a message in a bottle into the canal. As he maneuvered the boat away, we circled back around and could see the bottle bobbing in the distance. He pointed the bottle out and said how he hated to see litter in such a pretty canal. So he asked if I would retrieve it. So he maneuvered us to the bottle and I fetched it out of the water. As I pulled it from the water, it was obvious that it was a bottle carrying a message.
I gave the bottle to Suzanne and she opened it and read my prepared words. I had felt like the way we met was a message in a bottle of sorts. A message that traveled a long way across a pond. And since we plan to get married on a beach in Kauai, it seemed even more appropriate to factor in water into the proposal.
After she read my message, I fell to one knee, said a few words, and though she was shedding tears, I got the idea that the answer was “yes”. She accepted my ring and loved its hand-engraved setting.
After the cruise, we spent the new few hours at the Nana Grille Bar which is at the top of the Wyndham Hotel. This is a bar that we went to early on in our courting where we shared a lot about ourselves. It seemed an appropriate place to return to. We closed the night in a nice suite in the Wyndham Hotel as well.
We didn’t go overboard with too many pictures, but you can see a handful here.