Well to start off, I’ve been dating my fiancée since February. I’m 30 years old, and she’s 26. I’ve been looking for the right one all my life. Within a few weeks of knowing her, I knew she was the one for me. All my life I’ve been trying to come up with a way that I’ll propose to the one I love. So when she called me "Her knight in shining armor," I knew what I would do. I’ve also wanted to do it on a day that meant a lot to her, and had special meaning.
Since I’m a traditional man, I had to ask her parent’s first. On Father’s Day 2001 I took her parents outside their house so she wouldn’t hear, and I asked her parents for their blessing. For the time that I’ve known them, I’ve become real close to them, and honestly love them dearly. They were surprised, but knew it would be coming, and of course they said YES!
I had to ask them, not only because it was the proper thing to do, but also because I couldn’t pull my plan off by myself. So I had to have her parents do a few things. They live out in the country, and we live two hours away from them, so we go and visit them quite often. What I had them do was ask around town to see if someone had a horse that I could rent for a few hours. Also I had them get a dozen roses so I could give them to her. Since I didn’t know what kind of ring she’d like, I had to borrow her mother’s wedding ring to use as a prop.
The next thing was the day I was going to do it. Her parent’s got married on July 4th, 29 years ago, so I knew that would be the day to propose, since I knew her parent’s meant a lot to her. It would also be a present to her parent’s on their anniversary.
We went down to her parent’s the day before to spend the whole week with them during the holiday. On July 4th, I woke up at 6 a.m. I couldn’t sleep, because I wanted everything to go smoothly. We had scheduled the man with the horses to come at 9 a.m. Her dad was on call until 8 a.m. that morning, and when he came home, he told me that they man was already there, and this was about 8:20 a.m. So, I had to rush to get ready. The excuse I gave my fiancée was that her brother and I were going to get some ice in town for the picnic we had planned for that day. She wanted to come also, but her mother said to let her brother and I bond. So she said OK. My fiancée had just bought a sun dress, and was showing her mother the dress, and was about to take it off to change in something else, when her mother said it looks cute on her, so keep it on. So she did. Her mother took her out on the porch to have a quick game of scrabble, because my fiancée like to play scrabble.
During that time, I drove up the driveway, away from the house to meet the man with the horse. I had to have her brother help me put on my suit of armor that I rented. The neighbor was holding the roses in his fridge, so my fiancée wouldn’t see them and ask questions. He gave me the roses, and I had the ring, and I got on the white horse and descended back down the driveway toward the house.
As I rode the horse, the dogs that her parent’s had at the house began to bark at my arrival which caused my fiancée to turn her head from playing scrabble to see what was all the commotion. As she saw me ride up, she was wondering what was going on. She thought that her dad did something really romantic for her mom since it was their anniversary. She came outside to watch, but didn’t realize that it was for her. When I dismounted, and approached her, she thought what the heck was going on. Then when I got down on one knee and began to speak, she knew it was me. She was so flabbergasted, that she wanted to cry and laugh at the same time. When I finished my speech, all she could do was ask questions. So I asked, "Are you going to answer me or what?" Of course she said, "YES, YES, I’ll marry you!!" and gave me a big old kiss.
After that I got undressed, because it was an oven in the suit. The guy with the horse ended up bringing three horses, so my fiancée and I could go riding in the woods after the event. He also let everyone else ride the horses a few hours more. She asked me how I came up with this idea, and I said that I’ve been planning this all my life, and she just about melted in my hands. Her dad was there video taping the whole event, and taking pictures as well. It was definitely an event that everyone will remember for the rest of our lives.
Ante, Colic
St. Louis, MO
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