She said Yes!

That's right folks. Somehow I have managed to convince Mary to marry me. After much begging and pleading and downright groveling, she finally agreed to let me marry her :)

So Mary and I have been talking about marriage for a few weeks now. And it's probably a good thing. I'm not an impulsive person and the idea of getting married has always been in the hypothetical future. "Someday I would like to be married..." But when in a serious relationship, the possibility of that hypothetical future becoming a reality scares me. So it's taken some time for me to warm up to the idea.

But once I made the decision, I knew I had made the right choice. I wanted the evening to be really special. Mary and I had plans with Mary's sister, Mindy, to organize wedding stuff. (Funny that we're doing stuff like that without having actually proposed and accepted.) So I got Mindy to occupy Mary until about 6:30 or so, when they would come back to Mary's apartment to plan. When Mary got home, her apartment was clean and there was a rose and a card waiting for her. The card said some romantic things and let her know I would pick her up for dinner 7:45.

When I went over there, Mindy was just leaving. Mary had asked Mindy to stay and help her get ready. Mindy left and Mary looked amazing. I told her I had something for her. I pulled out a small wrapped box. She thought it was the ring. It was actually a pair of pearl earrings. She put them on and we went out to dinner at her favorite restaurant, Tucanos.

Dinner was excellent. We played our little game of favorites. Basically, one of us asks the other one about a favorite. Then that person answers the question, and the asker also has to answer. And it just goes back and forth. We did that all through dinner. It's probably a sign that we know a lot about each other when it's hard to think of favorites that we don't already know. Before leaving I "had to go to the bathroom" and I called Andy.

After dinner, I took her to the Provo Temple. We walked a bit in the gardens and sat down on a bench and talked some more. It was a very pleasant evening. There was a slight breeze and the stars were out.

Meanwhile, my phone call to Andy was his cue execute his mission, which was to go over to Mary's and put down a bunch of rose petals, light some candles, and turn on the music. So he, Shawn, and Mom went to do that and to put the ring box on top of the entertainment center.

After some more favorites talk with Mary, Andy called me back and asked me a random question, which was my cue that they were done. So I told Mary I was getting the chills (yeah ... right), and went back to the car and we drove home. Mary was still very happy, but I could tell she was trying to figure out what was going on. As I opened up the door, her eyes lit up.

The candles were glowing, one of our favorite songs was playing, and there were rose petals everywhere. Mary was smiling from ear to ear. We danced and kissed for a while (our first dance actually) and I said some more romantic things to her. Then I reached up on top of the entertainment center to grab the box. I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me.

And she said yes.

We danced and kissed some more. Then she called her dad to tell him to good news (he already knew).

That's pretty much it. She absolutely loved the whole evening. She's been bragging about it all morning to everyone. So our wedding date is probably going to be on the weekend of October 17th. That's the best we can to do with family member's schedules. So it will be a hectic 7 weeks but it will be worth it.