Proposal (Warning: Not for the Romantically Averse)

Chances are, if you’re here, you’re already engaged. And, if you’re like me, you never will tire of re-telling the story about exactly how the “question” was “popped.”

So I’ll do so again here. You’ll see my story has all elements of The Perfect Proposal. Personal? Check. Simple? Check. Ring? Check. I give romantic props to Fiance – a good thing, as after being together for six years with nary a ring in sight,  I might have had to do the dirty work myself. (And if you find yourself in this particular situation, here’s a handy article for reference.)

I had mentioned to Fiance once that I had never hiked Mt. Nittany, which is considered an essential thing to do before graduating Penn State University. Fiance, also being a PSU graduate, found that to be unacceptable. On October 17, 2008, we decided to go back to our alma mater for homecoming weekend a day early so that I could finally see “Happy Valley” from up high.

While I would have been thrilled to just get lost in the mountains all afternoon, Fiance had thought it would be fun to bring our recreational GPS and try to find a few geocaches. (If you aren’t familiar with geocaching, it’s a game in which we use modern technology to find “treasure” that other people have hidden for us in cool locations and posted their coordinates online. A bit nerdy, I’m aware, but tremendous fun.) Fiance was very insistent upon finding a particular geocache. As the GPS indicated we were almost upon the hidden treasure, he directed me to look around a small cluster of trees on one side of the road, while he thoroughly inspected the other. After a thorough search, I was just about ready to give up, when Fiance shouted that he had the geocache, and he turned around with a plastic container that seemed to be covered in white fur. Confused, I took the container from him and saw that the white fur was actually a beautiful white teddy bear.  I couldn’t understand why someone would leave something so nice inside a box in the woods. For those of you who are a bit more quick witted, you probably already guessed that Fiance put the bear in the box. Don’t worry, I eventually figured that part out.

Fiance, the bear, and I continued on our hike to our destination – a stunning lookout over the Penn State campus. We took a few photos with Fiance’s digital camera, and sat on a nearby tree stump to look through them and enjoy the view. Fiance was adamant that something was wrong with the pictures, but I assured him they were just fine. That’s when Fiance suggested something was missing, and he pulled the ring out of his pocket.

“Nicole,” said Fiance “Will you do me the honor of giving me your tiny hand in marriage?”

After hitting him for using a line from “The Office” (our favorite television show) to propose, I, of course, accepted. There was a lot of hugging and kissing, and then we resumed our hike back down the mountain as a newly engaged couple.

We arrived back at our car, which had been decorated with heart shaped balloons and Star Wars streamers. (Darth Vader and Yoda offered their congratulations to us). Our closest friend had been in on Fiance’s plans, and surprised us with not only random decorations, but also heart shaped chocolate cupcakes and champagne. It was absolutely perfect.

The next day, Penn State trounced Michigan State at the homecoming football game. Again… perfect.

What’s your engagement story? Leave a comment – we’d love to hear it!


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