the engagement

I asked Mandi to marry me on May 21, 2009. And of course she said yes (the first question my parents asked was if she said yes). Here's how it happened: I started shopping for rings back in January and finally found the perfect ring in April. That's when I started putting the planning wheels in motion. I knew that Mandi really missed her friends in Atlanta and that she would want to tell them in person, so I emailed her friend Priscilla to figure out a weekend when we could come visit. The best weekend turned out to be Memorial Day weekend, so I booked a flight and we kept it a secret from Mandi. I told Mandi that she would need to get Friday of Memorial Day weekend off so we could go out of town, but I didn't tell her where we were going. Mandi had bought me tickets to the Billy Joel and Elton John concert on Thursday for Valentine's Day, so I figured we would just get a hotel after the concert and fly out Friday morning. A couple days before the trip I told Mandi that we were going to Atlanta for the weekend so that she would know what to pack. On Thursday I took the day off so I could pick up the ring and get things ready for the big moment. When Mandi got home from work she was rushing around gathering the last few items to pack in her bag. I told her that she got a new magazine in the mail and handed her a special edition of "Mandi & Kevin." You see, Mandi has a thing for celebrity gossip magazines so I made a mock magazine cover based on her favorite one, "Life & Style." I used pictures from our trip to Cape Cod, a wedding we went to in May, a concert in February, and a picture of Chester. Each picture had a witty caption. The main caption/headline read: "Will she say yes? Kevin asks the big question." When I handed Mandi the magazine it took her a moment to realize what was going on. It finally sank in when I pulled out the ring. At that moment I think I stood there with a dumb look on my face and said something like, "Well, will you?" She responded that I better get down on one knee and ask, so I did. We spent the next few minutes hugging, kissing, laughing, hitting me, and generally being happy. Then we had to rush out the door to get to the concert. We both called our parents and Mandi called a couple friends as we drove to the concert, but otherwise we kept it a secret until Priscilla picked us up from the airport. We spent the rest of the weekend celebrating with Mandi's Atlanta peeps. Since then we've been trying to figure out where and when to have the wedding. We're looking at spring of 2010 and we have a tentative hold on a reception location while we figure out the church piece. Hopefully I'll have more info about that soon.