The proposal

Having decided a while ago I was going to take the plunge I had planned the proposal in quite a lot of detail. Under the ruse of celebrating our anniversary I'd booked a package at Lords of the Manor - a lovely boutique hotel in the town of Upper Slaughter. Luckily our anniversary fell on a Sunday so we took advantage of their Seductive Sunday special - which included a meal at their michelin star resturant. We'd stayed over in Marlborough the night before meeting Al, his wife Non and their new baby Will. They had left to go back to Cardiff relatively early and we had spent the rest of the day becoming more acquainted with the pubs of Marlborough. The next day arrived and a hearty breakfast later we were on our way up the road to the hotel. Upon arrival one of the staff came out to take our bags and park Lexie, Soph's car - I'm not sure they get to drive a Fiesta LX that often there judging by the other cars in the car park.

We checked into our room, happily we received a complementary upgrade - a good omen I thought. We had some time to kill before our room was ready so we walked around the grounds a little taking in their beautify surroundings. The ring was still in my bag which I'd left with the porter - something that had me slightly paranoid as they'd seemed to have left it on a luggage rack in reception. But I needn't have worried as it was still there when we were shown to the room. I'd already managed to take the ring out of the box and slipped it into a pocket in my bag and while Soph was out of the room. So with ring in pocket it was just a case of whenever a good moment to propose came along...

First up as part of the package was afternoon tea, something of a favourite of Soph's. It was a nice start, delicious finger sandwiches and very tasty cakes as well as tea and a glass of champagne. It was a beautiful setting but it didn't seem the right place to pop the question. So my next option was when we had the champagne which was due to be delivered to our room. I'd arranged for the champagne to be rose because Soph doesn't really do regular champagne and we chose to have it in our room as I wanted to ensure we would have privacy. I'd managed to keep calm so far but only because I hadn't really let myself catch on to what I was about to do. So champagne cork popped and poured we jumped onto the bed (fully clothed) and the time was right. I think Soph sensed something was up as my hand had been in my jeans pocket for about 5 minutes - but I still believe today that she didn't really know what I was about to do. I wasn't at my most smooth when I asked the question - it was something along the lines of "baby, will you marry me?"... all my plans for a speech building up how much she meant to me, how perfect we were for each other and what a wonderful life together we had... I'm not sure I managed to say that much of it... but, finally, hand out of my pocket, offering the ring, lying on my side not quite on one knee, the question was posed - all I was waiting for was Soph to say yes. Now the title of this blog kind of gives the answer away... but she still made me sweat a little. A number of friends had proposed before and pretty much to a letter all of their wives burst into tears upon hearing the question for ages until finally blubbing out a yes... what did Soph do? She responded with "are you serious? are you joking?" over and over and over... for about 5 minutes before finally saying yes :)

The beginning - picking the ring

I remember being quite scared the day of the ring purchase, suprisingly so. But it was the first time I'd done something like this and I was taking the bold route of buying the ring without Soph's input. I had a limited window of opportunity, Soph was away for a hen do for the weekend so I picked the Saturday to go ring shopping in Hatton Garden. I'd roped my best man to come along to provide a second opinion and, bribed with a promise of bacon sandwiches and coffee, he arrived only 20 minutes late and we set off at the ungodly hour of 9.30am. London transport worked seamlessly and we were there by 10am... way too early but some shops had started to open up.

I had in my mind a no nonsense approach, go in, check the prices of a few rings at a few shops, haggle a little and then take the plunge with whoever could give me the best offer. We walked the entire length of Hatton Garden checking out windows and trying to select the "right" shop, partly on the look and feel and partly on the price of the rings in the window. In the end we were snared by Beverley Hills London - and we didn't leave until 90 minutes later and a few thousand poorer. The sales guy was brilliant - he taught me everything I needed to know and pretty soon into it I knew I'd be buying my ring from them. In the end it was a choice of two - Soph's fingers are pretty small so I didn't want to go for too big a diamond - so it between something that was pretty much perfect and another one that was actually perfect... then a voice in my head said it had to be a perfect diamond for the perfect girl - and I didn't have any choice anymore. Choosing the setting was a bit easier - I only liked one and it didn't seem to affect the price. And we were done except for the setting but I had no way of getting back to the jewellers mid-week and I doubted I'd be able to find an excuse to come back the following weekend without Soph getting suspicious, so there was only one option, wait around in a local pub until it was set...

Fortunately it was Man Utd Chelsea and the game was one of the first 3D games - we managed to find a pub closeish to the jewellers which was showing the game in 3D and started on the second half of the day, celebrating by drinking all day... the game was a suitable distraction, 2-0 to Chelsea and looked very good in 3D. Four or five pints to the good we returned to Beverley Hills London to pick up the ring - and race it home paranoid all the way that we'd get robbed or more likely lose it somehow. Back home we grabbed another beer and looked at the ring - it wasn't as sparkly as in the shop, no suprise as they have a gazillion spotlights in the shop to ensure maximum sparkle. Then it was upstairs to tuck it away in a place that Soph would never look, but that I could still get to relatively easily without Soph getting suspicious when we were packing to go away for our anniversary weekend in two weeks time... which is where we pick up the next leg of the journey

Why do this

The first question I ever want to ask someone who writes a blog is why did they or do they do it? I'm still not really sure why I decided to start one other than a random thought one day that maybe putting down all stress, frustrations (and joy) would be cathartic... we will see
Anyway back to the beginning