One of the first things we realized about each other is we both loved to travel and one of our favorite places to travel to was New York City. Every time we found ourselves in New York around the holidays, the only thing Laura ever asked to do was go ice-skating in Bryant Park. Every time Laura suggested ice-skating, I always brushed off the request and told her “we’ll do it next time”. The truth was, I didn’t know how to ice skate.
When I decided I was going to propose, I started thinking of the perfect place to do it, somewhere she wouldn’t expect. Since we traveled so often, Laura always thought we would be getting engaged at every romantic location we visited. In addition, I would often play tricks on her dropping to my knee in a romantic location only to stop and tie my shoe.
While thinking of the perfect place to propose, I finally decided on New York. Since Laura lives in New York and spends most of her time there, she wouldn’t suspect a thing. Now that I had the location, it was time to get to work.
I had the idea that I should surprise her by finally taking her ice-skating and proposing on the ice. The problem was, I didn’t know how to ice skate. In preparation, I found an ice skating expert, and by expert I mean local Olympic skater, to give me a few private ice skating lessons without Laura knowing. I was steadily improving but the only thing I couldn’t figure out was how to stop on the ice. My coach told me “The ice at Bryant Park is different, trust me, you’ll be able to stop.” Taking the professionals word for it, I moved onto the next step; how was I going to execute this plan.
The Plan:
I started by calling a friend of Laura’s who was supposed to perform in an off-Broadway show in New York that month. I asked her to call Laura and invite her to come up to see the performance. Once that was taken care of, and the plans were made, I had to figure out exactly how to make this proposal happen. I called Bryant Park and got in contact with one of their official event coordinators willing to help me pull this off.
The plan was to take her to the rink where there would be an “enter to win” type of contest offering two free tickets to a Broadway show. The idea was to get Laura to enter her name to win. For the drawing of the winner, the contest would be rigged so her name was pulled.
The morning of the proposal, I convinced Laura to go out and get her nails done with her friend so I would have some time to prepare. Laura was suspicious, but went along with it anyway. I headed straight to Bryant Park to make sure everything was set to go. When Laura got back, I suggested we go ice-skating later that afternoon at Bryant Park. Since I never want to go ice-skating, Laura was over the moon at the idea of our afternoon plans.
When we arrived at the rink, everything was ready to go. The only obstacle was getting Laura to enter her name in the contest before heading out on the ice. Although she resisted, her friend and I finally convinced her to enter her name to win. I cautiously took the ice, trying to keep my lessons in mind and my nerves under control.
Soon after we began skating, the Bryant Park event coordinator headed to the middle of the ice to announce the winner of the “contest”. She pulled the name and Laura was the winner. Overjoyed at the idea of winning the contest, Laura skated out to the middle of the ice rink to claim her prize.
Instead of a voucher for two tickets to a Broadway show, Laura was given a shadow box frame that I put together, a prize meant only for her. Inside the shadow box was a collage of photos of us together in all of the locations we had traveled to where she thought I was going to propose. I also dried out one of the first bouquets of flowers I bought her, and put those in there too next to a picture of the rings with the words “Will You Marry Me?”
When Laura looked up from her “prize” I was skating out onto the rink to meet her in the middle of the ice to get down on one knee, but there was one problem, I realized in that moment I still didn’t know how to stop. Thinking quickly, I realized my only option was to drop to the ground, so that’s what I did, sliding all the way across the ice to Laura on my bottom. When I got to her feet I looked up at her and said “Will You Marry Me?” to which she responds, “Aren’t you supposed to be on your knee?” Laughing at the realization that I was still sitting on my bottom in the middle of the ice, I pulled myself up, got on one knee and asked again, “Will You Marry Me?” and finally SHE SAID YES.
Since we share a love of traveling, our first idea was a destination wedding. The location we decided on was Italy. We are so excited to be working with Weddings Under The Tuscan Sun with our wedding planner Tara Fontana whom we like to call our “wedding angel” as we watch the pieces of our dream wedding become reality.
Thinking about popping the question? Weddings Under The Tuscan Sun and Girls Fun Under The Tuscan Sun would love to hear from you! Write in and tell them about your dream wedding or engagement in Italy for your chance to win a trip there!