As I said, Cora and I were down at my college's homecoming this weekend when I popped the question. I had been planning this for about 2 months now.
Annie Merner Chapel (left) is a really pretty building, and Cora had said that she wanted to be surprised and she wanted it to happen someplace memorable.
We'd gone ring shopping in Seattle about a month ago when I was out visiting, so I could find out her ring size, and the style of ring she wanted. While we were out, all the jewelers had said "4 to 6 weeks" or "6 to 8 weeks" for delivery. They would have to send off to get their ring from the factory. When I got home on that Monday, I went to a jewelry store here in Chicago picked out the ring, chose the center stone, and picked it up the next after noon.
That meant that I had the ring WAY before she was expecting it. (She was thinking New Year's Eve.) Saturday, after the parade, we went on a tour of campus with about 6 other people. 50% of them she had met before when she was in town, and another one she had heard plenty of stories about. As the tour progressed, we went into the chapel and I handed my camera to a friend (the only one of the 6 that had any CLUE this was going down) to take out picture. But, I had flipped the camera over to video. The picture would have looked something like this picture I stole from Cora:
In the video, you can see her posing for the picture, and then wonder what the heck I was doing stepping backwards.
And here is a picture of the ring that I also stole from Cora.
Right now, we are thinking a late spring wedding in Seattle, but with a party of some kind at Mom & Dad's sometime shortly after for those that can't make it out there. As we know more, I will keep you posted.
