"I may have told you to be my girlfriend, but this time I'm asking you to be my wife."

For those of you who haven't heard the story yet....or who just want to hear it again and again and again and again....(because you know you do….)

I never assume things.  I have never gotten flustered or excited or freaked out about things and I have never let my mind get carried away with itself.

If you know me at all, you know that what I just said is one gigantic lie. I sure wish I could keep my head on straight when it comes to the unknown, but lucky for me, God has blessed me with the gift of creativity, so that for every event in my life I am able to come up with a million and one scenarios of how the event will play out, no matter how fantastic or how ridiculously tragic.

So when I stepped out of the shower on Friday afternoon, wrapped in a towel and saw on my phone a message from Ian telling me to look outside my apartment door, then stepped outside to find a rose with a note tied on it telling me to go to the place on campus where we met, obviously this could only mean one thing:

He was going to propose.

And I was naked.

I flung open my closet door, looking for the outfit that I was going to be proposed to in. Because this is a big deal, right? I had always imagined looking effortlessly beautiful in a summery sundress when the man of my dreams got down on one knee, catching me totally off guard (because really, I just happen to look that stunning ALL the time). As I threw some mouse into my hair and some makeup on my face, I stuck my head into the room I share with my roommate, Hannah, who was on the phone with her mom, subtly trying to indicate that I had to go, because I think, but I’m not entirely sure, I could be wrong, but maybe Ian’s gonna propose?

After some squealing, deep breathing, and a promise to text Hannah as soon as anything happened, I set on my way to the Spiritual Center, not even caring that it was not at all summer dress weather—the sky was gray and it was starting to rain. (So much for good hair.) As I was power-walking and trying not to psyche myself out, naturally I called my mom.  After promising to call HER if anything happened, I immediately called my other friend Courtney, who I can always count on to calm me down. Before I began broadcasting to the entire world events that hadn’t even happened yet, I arrived at the room where Ian and I met, to be greeted not by him, but by a bunch of international students milling around. I was a little perplexed. Was it a multicultural event that he thought I should go to? Were they all going to collectively start singing and dancing, Bollywood-style, to mark the occasion? I must have looked a tad out of place (aka a flustered white girl), because next thing I know, like it was straight out of a movie, some smirking Indian dudes said, “Ooooh! You are looking for the rose!” I looked on the table, and there was another rose with a note telling me to go to the bench by the HUB where we spent our 2 ½ year anniversary.

As I approached the bench and saw him sitting there, I did everything I could do not skip over to him. After a giggly hug and kiss, he pulled out MORE flowers! It was only a matter of minutes before Ian would be my fiancé. But after I read the note on the flowers, I was yet again perplexed:

Wait. What?

“I wouldn’t want to get engaged on a cloudy day!”, he said.

What?

“I brought you a football jersey!”

What?

Then we went to Football Eve at Beaver Stadium. And I wore a football jersey over my dress. How was I even supposed to react to that little scheme? Surely he had known that that’s what I was expecting. But a scavenger hunt with roses? I guess it was a sweet thing to do! I flip-flopped back and forth between being disappointed and then sad and then feeling bad for feeling sad. My emotions were all over the place, and I finally broke down and gave him a piece of my mind! Leading a girl on and making her think you were going to propose, and then not? A little bit rude! Apparently it’s a common rule among the male kind to fake ‘em out the first couple times….

Fast forward about an hour. After informing the friends and mother of the big ole fake out, I came back to the apartment to cook us some dinner while Ian went home and got changed for the evening. When he returned, he suggested that we go on a picnic since it was a warm night. We packed up our corn on the cob and squash, and trekked across the street to the Alumni Gardens, one of the most beautiful places on campus. We found a spot on a bench on the bridge, and gnawed on our corn while we talked about our usual goofy things.  After we were done, he put his arm around me and we sat, basking in the stillness and quiet of the gardens. We were the only ones there, the sky had cleared, and a full blanket of stars coated the sky. After he asked me what my favorite memory of being boyfriend and girlfriend had been, we begun reminiscing and talking about how incredibly special our relationship is. I could feel him fiddling around with his pocket, but each time his hand came up empty, until the next thing I knew, he was down on his knee. I wasn’t about to believe it, until I saw a mighty snazzy ring glistening in his hand.

Like a broken record, all I could say was “Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod”. Until I began bawling, of course. And then said YES, of course.

So I would say that was a good end to the evening. :-)

Here's to a year of funky junk and WEDDING planning!

-Bren