The Proposal...

This is as much as I know about the proposal...

I know it took A LOT of work and planning to get everything done!

let me preface this story by telling you a few things about James:
1. If you know James, you know he does everything in the Eleventh Hour (hence the ELVNTHR license plate!) So it was no surprise to me that he needed more time with my Christmas present for me in 2004.

2. He's a pack rat... He keeps everything! Actually, he used to keep everything... nowadays, he'll get rid of things if he doesn't need it anymore.

In January 2005, I had to go to Montreal for a work-related event weekend. The company I worked for sent their top employees on a mini-vacation and spoiled us with spa-treatments, superb dinners and set us up in a swanky boutique hotel... Since it was right before James' birthday, he agreed to meet me in Montreal (his favourite North American city) and we would celebrate his birthday there.

After breakfast on our second day (January 30, 2005) in Montreal together, James decided I could open up my delayed Christmas present... actually, now I don't remember if it was actually my Christmas present or our Anniversary (December 30) present...

anyways, he made me wait in the bathroom while he set everything up - (I noticed the big luggages when he arrived in Montreal, but he made me promise not to look in them!)
He set up his brand new video camera to face us while I opened the present (I thought nothing of it because it was a brand new camera and James said he wanted to test it out). He also put in his brand new John Legend CD (i thought nothing of it either... James loves to listen to music, especially new CDs)

I sat down on the bed and he presented me with this HUGE scrapbook... and told me to look through it in order....

I started crying when I opened the first page.

It started off with a few pages of our first emails to each other... I read EVERYTHING... it really made me laugh at how cheesy we can be!

James had all the pictures to capture all our special moments with each other... our travels, birthdays, anniversaries, new years (we try to spend New Years in a different city each year), pictures of the important people in our lives... but he also had concert tickets, movie tickets, plane tickets, greeting cards, subway and train maps, napkins from restaurants... you name it, he had it in there!

It was a huge scrapbook and it took me about an hour to go through it!

James was pacing back and forth a little, changing the songs on the CD and checking his video camera... I thought he was just getting bored because I was taking so long to go through the scrapbook... but I couldn't help it! Each page brought back so many memories!

I finally got to the last page and I stared at it for a little while - I couldn't really see what it was because my eyes were blurred from (happy) crying... it was a picture of my ring! and James was kneeling next to me and he was holding the ring... he popped the question and I said

OF COURSE!

Then I asked "who knows about the engagement?"
James chuckled and said there was more...

again I had to wait in the bathroom....


James asked our families and friends to submit a "testimony" for us... some chose to write letters, make cd's, draw pictures and send video submissions... I cried again - some of the letters were really touching...some submissions were really sweet, really thoughtful and some were really funny! a few pranksters decided to film a news broadcast and recreated the night James and I met!
There was a lot of thought and creativity put into these testimonies and we really appreciate everybody's time and effort!

It was definitely THE perfect proposal...
GOOD JOB JAMES!