The Proposal

Our Proposal Story 

by Ronnie

November 2012

For Thanksgiving 2012, we had 4 Thanksgiving celebrations scheduled.  The first was a "Friends Thanksgiving" meal with some of our friends in New Orleans, the second was a pre-Thanksgiving meal time with my family, in Metairie, since we had planned to spend our Thanksgiving vacation holiday visiting Kristinia's family in Georgia for our 3rd Thanksgiving, and then travel down to Walt Disney World to have our 4th and final Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving Day, which just so happened to be our 6 month anniversary.  We certainly have a lot to be thankful for, and four Thanksgivings wouldn't even be enough to express it.  

I had already considered the idea of proposing at Disney World, and that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who knows me.  I had thought about it significantly earlier in our relationship, but never mentioned it to anyone (which also shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone).  We had traveled to Atlanta a few months earlier and I had talked with her parents about our intentions and our highly nontraditional plan of goal setting and achieving in a way that suited us and our current life situations.  All of our parents seemed to be in favor of it.  At that point I did not have a ring, but had arranged for one.  We had looked for some rings in person and had even picked out one in a style that she liked, but upon further review, it was significantly out of our price range (by about $10,000).  Fortunately, I was able to work with a local jeweler to arrange a ring in a similar style that met our needs, tastes, and budget.  I felt very fortunate that we hit all of our criteria without breaking the bank (which we suspected was inevitable with wedding expenses).  I had the ring in my possession for a month or two, and she started to become more and more nervous that we had talked about marriage and had even started planning and budgeting for a wedding, but I had not yet proposed.  She knew I would, and I started to get more pressure to "just do it."  I really felt that it would be worth the stress and uncertainty to hold out for just the right time, and not cave to the "just do it" mentality.  We even talked about it, and she knew that "in the right time" was better than just "getting that step done."

When we arrived in Orlando, we had a few hours to spare that evening before our official first day in the parks.  Kristinia was very excited because she hadn't been to Disney since she was a little girl, and remembered certain things that she wanted to do, and didn't want to miss, and I assured her that we would be able to do anything she wanted to do.  We got to hit part of the Magic Kingdom that evening, and I got her a pair of mouse ears (with her name on them!)  We had the park to ourselves for the most part since it was later in the evening and they were going to be closing soon.

 The next day, our first official full day, we were back at the Magic Kingdom.  I had brought the ring with me, in case I decided to propose.  I intended to, but also knew that things outside of my control might cause there to be changes to the plan.  We had an incredible day, hitting rides and shows at the best possible times, having very little to no wait times on things, and just enjoying an ideal Disney day.  As it started to get later in the afternoon, by 5-6, I noticed that it was starting to get darker.  We were in Fantasyland, and I had expected to try to guide us back around the Main St./Hub area for sunset or shortly thereafter.  The intention was to propose on Main Street between the edge of main Street, and the hub in front of the castle.  Unfortunately, Kristinia wanted to ride "Small World," and I didn't have any plausible reason to deny it.  We had passed it several times, and the wait times were always long, but weren't bad then.  We went ahead and rode it, and it was dark by the time we got off.  We started out to the front of the park, and it was dark, there was a castle forecourt show about to happen, the main Street Electrical Parade was already gathering squatters along the parade route, and it seemed like it just wasn't going to happen.  I started to give it up, but when Kristinia had to go to the bathroom, I consulted with a PhotoPass photographer who suggested I try the Rose Garden, just off the side of the castle on the Tomorrowland side.  I thought, "I definitely don't want to put it off until tomorrow, and that's not a terrible alternative."  I took a picture at that spot with the ring in the box, just because.

I convinced her to go over there to take a picture, and since we had been seeking out photo ops all day, it didn't seem unusual.  There was a PhotoPass photographer there taking pictures for people that wanted this spectacular view of the castle illuminated at night with all the sparkling twinkle lights.  It turned out to be a wonderful backdrop- better than I might have been able to prepare myself.  As we waited for our turn, I was sweating it a little bit.  I gave the photographer a heads-up, and she knew exactly what to do.   I took one picture with the ring behind her and when she started to wonder what was going on, I showed her, and then knelt down.  I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.  Let's just say- I squeaked out something unintelligible, and she said yes.  The crowd started cheering and clapping and she was completely surprised.  

As we were leaving the park, we stopped to take pictures with Mickey on our way to our special dinner reservations at Ohana in the Polynesian Resort.  On the way, we posted our relationship status to our Facebook account, and it immediately blew up.  The food at Ohana was wonderful, and we ate as much as we could.  We even participated in the hula lesson, got leis, and danced to the ukelele player that was there.  The night was magical and couldn't have gone better.