The Proposal (by Christine)

Friday night we drove from Philly to NoVa. Rich dropped me off at my dads and he went to his parents. Noon the following day, October 11th, 2008, dressed in his best, Rich showed up at my dads with early birthday gifts for my dad in one hand and a dozen tall stem red roses in his other hand for me.  After a brief visit we drove to DC.

He took me to have a romantic picnic on a secluded island located not far from the Monument off Constitution.  There were geese, a crane, we sat in the shade under a weeping willow tree. The weather was perfect and the food was delicious.
After our picnic we made our way to the Natural History Museum to see the new Ocean Exhibit. We had a blast touring the entire museum for hours.  Afterwards we took a little walk and just when I thought our  date was coming to an end, I was surprised with a planned horse & carriage ride!  I had been talking about wanting to do that for years so I was extremely excited that he remembered and made it happen. The horses name was Michael Angelo.  To add beauty to the moment there was a rainbow in our view the whole time. Just when I thought our date couldn't get more amazing, it did.

Typically the horse and carriage rides have a short and basic route that they follow but Rich had made special arrangements to go on a particular route. He had them make stop to “our place”, the Jefferson Memorial.  While our ride waited, we walked up to the memorial to take in the beautiful sunset.  We sat down on a ledge and Rich read to me a very sweet card he had written to me. It was filled with words of kindness, sweetfulness, love and appreciation.

We moved to a more secluded area, seeing another perfect view of the sunset and the rainbow. Right when I thought it was time for us to head back, Rich got down on one knee, grabbed my hand with one hand and with the other held up a big, bright, gorgeous solitaire diamond ring and asked me for my hand in marriage.  After accepting his proposal with hugs, kisses and excitement we headed back to the horse and carriage. Our ride lasted over an hour and a half but I could have stayed there with him all night.  A perfect day straight out of a storybook with a fairytale proposal.

The End (Actaully, the Beginning....)