about the proposal |
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As with any engagement, one of the first questions people ask is "how'd it happen?". Here is a summary of the day's events leading up to our engagement. |
summary
who: mark & anne
when: july 30, 2005 - 4:41 pm
where: under the apex of the gateway arch
why: did you really just ask why?
how: continue reading for all the details
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Our Story
M: Our day started out back in May. May 6th to be exact, or after 84 days of dating. I had known from day #3 that Anne was “The One”. I was sitting at work waiting and was pondering how to propose to Anne.
I was looking at the St. Louis Cardinals website, when i came upon their new “Brick Paver” program. For those of you who aren’t from St. Louis, allow me to explain. The Cardinals are building a new baseball stadium that will be open next year. Their brick paver program allows the public to buy brick pavers that will be placed either in the sidewalk or centerfield pavilion area. The pavers are inscribed with a message selected by the buyer. I selected my message and placed my order.
Grab your remote and hit the fast forward button.
After 81 days, 3 calls to inquire about the status of my brick and eliminating the possibility of having to sneak down under cover of darkness to chisel my brick out of the sidewalk if things between Anne and I had not worked out so well, my brick finally arrived.
I checked the weather for that week and found that Saturday (July 30th) was going to be nice. I checked with Anne to see what she had going on and her schedule was clear.
A: I knew I was going to spend that Saturday with Mark, but didn’t know what the day would consist of. Mark simply said he was going to plan something fun to do outside.
M: Unbeknownst to Anne, though highly suspected as that day went forward, the day was planned out in great detail.
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A: The day began with a casual lunch at Bread Co. Apparently, I ate too quickly because lunch was supposed to take 60 minutes and it only took 20. Oops!
M: I was not thinking about the schedule when I picked Bread Co. I was thinking more about the baked potato soup and a lunch stop that wouldn’t raise any suspicions about the day to come. The Bread Co people are highly efficient though.
A: From Bread Co, we headed out to the next unknown destination. Mark made me close my eyes on the way there, but I was able to figure out almost exactly where we were.
M: Her ability to know where we were on the streets of St. Louis was uncanny. I even avoided certain roads and tried to throw her off to no avail.
A: I guessed incorrectly that we had ended up at Tower Grove Park, but I was close!
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A: On our way in, we ran into two good friends of mine, Bruce and Deb Roquet, who were just leaving. So we chatted with them for long time which Mark was internally excited about since we had gotten “ahead of schedule”.
M: Not only did they chew up some time, which was huge, but because they are members at the Botanical Gardens, they also got us in for free.
A: We then wandered around the Botanical Gardens for quite a while. Mark took a ton of pictures of bees on flowers.
M: Did you know dogs & bees can smell fear?
A: By the time we left, we were both hot and thirsty.
M: We were also still far ahead of schedule.
A: Mark called Kurt Bethel to see if there was a good snow cone joint anywhere around the area.
M: Kurt recommended a place on Watson Road, Maurice’s.
A: Eating snow cones got us back on schedule (the one I didn’t know about).
M: I don’t know about back on schedule. It definitely helped to kill some time. But we are just too efficient.
A: We then started to drive in the general direction of downtown, ending up at Busch Stadium. Random, I thought, but Mark likes construction, so we did a full lap around the stadium and looked at the construction for the new stadium, which was pretty cool.
M: An interesing aside: there was a wedding party on the field of Busch Stadium taking pictures. I would say that we could do that, but we are getting married in a rare time in St. Louis where there will be no completed stadium.
Anywho, back to the story, we hop back in the car and head towards the riverfront.
Thankfully, Anne needed a bathroom stop. I stopped at the Bread Co. downtown so she could visit the restroom. I took this opportunity to get the ring from its super secret pouch in my camera bag.
I then made a left to go all the way to the river and parked in the old cathedral parking lot. An attendant asked if we were there to see the church. I told him we were, gave the church a glance, took a picture and we headed down towards the riverfront.
A: It was around 4:00 and unbeknownst to me “go time” was soon approaching. So we were just wandering around the grounds for 30 minutes. We ended up watching the horses and carriages in the shade of the Arch for a while.
M: Truth be told, I was stalling. I stole several glances at her watch as we waited and people watched from the platform on the riverfront. I was also hoping that my accomplice was going to have placed several items by “go time”.
A: At 4:38, Mark said, “Let’s go take some pictures under the Arch.” That sounded fine to me so we headed up that way.
M: I told her I needed to retake a picture of her that I tried to take in the past, but that didn't come out the way I had hoped for. She obliged. After that, I told her I wanted to take her picture under the apex of the arch.
A: I asked him what the apex was.
M: I told her it was the center.
A: I told you that you were such a nerd.
M: That's no lie.
A: So we start heading towards the apex.
M: As we approached the middle of the archgrounds, some college age guys were out tossing a football around. She mentioned, “those guys are all up in our apex.” I concurred.
But as we wandered towards the middle of the grounds, the football guys kind of backed away and stopped playing. They had seen the objects that my accomplice was able to place for me.
A: Mark looks at me and starts talking about the last 5 months and how he loves me, meanwhile I see a rose and a brick out of the corner of my eye. Mark’s still talking, but I have no idea what he’s saying.
M: When we approached the brick, I told Anne the past 5 ½ months were the greatest I’ve known, that I have immensely enjoyed getting to know her and that for the first time ever I could say something three little words to her.
A: Meanwhile, I'm staring with my mouth to the ground at this brick that says, "Anne, I love you. Will you marry me? -Mark". I'm now freaking out.
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M: I dropped to one knee, pulled out the ring, told Anne that I loved her for the first time and asked her to marry me at 4:41.
The conversation went a little like this:
Me: “Anne I love you. Will you marry me?”
Anne: “Heck yes I will.”
A: Meanwhile, as Mark was on one knee, the guys who were tossing the football were screaming, “Say yes. Say yes.”
M: I gave them a thumbs up after she said yes. And they congratulated us.
A: So now I’m all flustered and not knowing what to do with myself.
M: I pointed over to a blanket that my accomplice had laid out along with some celebratory drinks.
A: I wanted to know all about all the plans that led up to this moment.
M: After about a half an hour of letting her know all the details, we spotted Murl (Lindsey Merrill).
A: Murl comes running over and joins us on the blanket.
M: Murl’s help was huge. She took care of the logistics of getting everything (brick, rose, blanket, etc.) under the arch. Thank you Lindsey! She also snapped pictures of the actual proposal as it took place.
A: Though she said she was too far away to get a good picture of the proposal, so we reinacted.
M: After plenty of pictures under the arch, which is where my parents got engaged back in the day, we headed towards Kiener Plaza.
A: We took some more pictures in and around the fountains.
M: Next, we headed back to her house to share the news with her parents.
A: Mark then informs me that the night is not over and that I need to get into a nice dress.
M: Two nights before this, I had secretly hung some dress clothes in her closet. Jackson Shirkey helped me plant the items.
A: I had no clue and didn’t notice a thing.
M: We got dressed, took a few more pictures and then headed towards Clayton.
A: I, of course, still had no idea where we were going. We ended up at Luciano’s.
M: We had a private alcove all to ourselves. At my request, JD & Lindsay Wylie had dropped 2 dozen roses earlier in the day and they were waiting on the table for us.
A: Not only did we have our own little alcove, but we also had a totally fun waiter named Brad.
M: Brad was a great waiter and though you wouldn’t picture it when you meet him, he is a DJ in a local hip hop group.
A: Mark and I proceeded to dine on absolutely delectable foods. It was a wonderful meal and a wonderful time of talking about us, the day, and our future.
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the end
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