Jeff Houghton and Michelle (that’s me) started dating long-distance in the fall of 2001. I had gone to visit him "as a friend" in Iowa and had traveled 7 hours to see him in a small town there. The night I got there he took me on a suprise date to a movie theater… but it wasn’t just any movie, he had rented out his favorite "romantic comedy," Say Anything. At that point, I became hooked, and we started dating. We dated over four years until the night of Dec 11, 2005.
Jeff told me that he had my Christmas present to give to me that night, and that we were going to do something special for it. My week prior to that had been pretty hard, as I had made it no secret that I wanted to marry him, and the Thursday before the 11th my best friend of 15 years suprisingly got engaged. Oh yeah, and the day after that my childhood dog died… He knew I was having a hard time, so I figured that was what the suprise was for. Honestly, I had given up all hope of an engagement…
That night we went out to dinner, and I awaited whatever the Christmas suprise was going to be. He took me downtown (we are down there all the time, so no suprise there) in Springfield, MO, and eventually told me that he had rented out the Moxie Independent Movie Theater, and that we were going to watch our first-date-movie, "Say Anything." Dumb as a rock, I didn’t expect anything…
We watched most of the movie, however, about an hour and a half into it there is this famous "romantic" scene. John Cusak holds up a stereo playing "In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel outside his love’s window in the morning. I have seen it before, so I was expecting that. This time, though, it was JEFF holding the stereo, complete with the trench coat and sneaker outfit; he had spliced himself into the movie! "Michelle, will you marry me" splashed across the screen after a few confused seconds, and Jeff dropped to his knee while the lights went up. I started screaming, crying, and laughing all at the same time… by the way, I said "yes"
Proposal Story By:
Michelle Seifert
Springfield, MO
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