The Engagement Story

As of April the 29th at approximately 7:00PM, I am engaged. And yes, it's to Ben. And yes, it was awesome. But to start the story, I have to back up a few weeks.

On April 16th, we attended Jaden's Ladder's Bright Lights, Big City gala. It's a really great event that raises a lot of money for the charity through live auctions, silent auctions and just general gift-giving. There were also a couple of raffles, one which was for a pair of diamond stud earrings. The raffle was $100 to enter, and you got one ticket. Not many people had entered the raffle and Ben, deciding our chances were pretty good (and, hey, it's all for charity anyway), decided to enter. Fast forward to the end of the night - we win the diamond studs, and they are very pretty and we're ecstatic.

Except - I don't wear earrings. Especially not diamond studs. Especially not half carat each diamond studs. So - we had to do something else with them.

It's not like we hadn't talked about marriage. We had lots of conversations about it, but we expected the engagement to be a bit later - maybe at the end of this year. But, as Ben said, "What better sign can you get than winning a pair of nice diamonds the exact size we were looking for, out of the blue at a party that I wouldn't have otherwise ever gone to?"

So, last weekend on April 23rd, we went out in the pouring rain to see a jeweler that my mother has known for a long time, and Ben said, "I'd like to have one of these set as an engagement ring." (He wanted to keep the other, he explained, for some future "plan" that he has. Awesome? Or - yikes? Who knows!) And I was very happy, and picked out a very nice setting and Ben made me leave while he worked out the details with the jeweler.

I didn't really know what to expect from there. We had talked before about how it seems silly to pick out a ring together and then just pretend for months that nothing happened while you wait for the right time to get engaged. I mean, once you've picked out the ring together, it's pretty much a "yes", right? So, I was expected something soon, but perhaps not this soon. Especially since Ben was playing a little game a la Jim and Pam on The Office where he claimed he was going to constantly pretend to propose to me so that I would never know when it was actually coming.

We've had, for months now, tickets to see Mozart's Requiem at Symphony Hall - which happens to be one of my absolute favorite classical pieces. I've been excited about it for weeks. Earlier this week, I asked Ben what we should do before seeing the show - where we should get dinner, etc. Ben's response was, "I'll take you somewhere nice so you think I'm proposing to you." My thoughts? All right, cool, I can handle a few fancy dinners if he wants to play this game. He tells me to meet him in Copley Square at 5:45PM. Okay.

I get all dressed up for my night at the symphony, and for whatever fancy place in the immediate vicinity he decides to take me. He drags me all the way around the square, in an attempt to mislead me while I'm wincing every step in my four-inch heels, and finally stops in front of the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel, home of the very famous Oak Room restaurant.


"We're going... here?" I ask, tentatively. I know Ben loves me, and I know he's seeking to mislead me in his proposal game, but the Oak Room is serious business. $20 martinis and $60 entrees don't seem to me to be "fake proposing" material. So I'm a little suspicious, but we go inside and have a very pleasant dinner sans proposal, including a martini that almost put me face down on the ground for the rest of the night and a to-die-for fig tart.

When the check comes, it takes my slightly fuzz brain a few minutes to realize that Ben has signed it without even putting a credit card down. I snapped it from his side of the table and read to the bottom. He had charged it to a room at the hotel.

"We have a room here?" I ask, somewhat in shock. Ben smiles and returns, "Are you ready to go, then?" So I stopped stuffing my face with the complimentary cotton candy that came with the bill and followed him down the very bright and golden hall to the elevators.


And he leads me up to a very lovely, old-school room on the third floor where there are roses waiting and says, "I know you don't like to make a big deal out of stuff like this, so... will you marry me?" The ring I picked out is magically in his hand and I tell him, "Yes, but... I'm a little drunk right now." Which, for me, is an embarrassed and bashful way of saying, "Yes, I would love to marry you, I'm so glad you asked" while he awkwardly put the ring on my finger.


And that was the proposal. From there, we went to the symphony, heard some awesome music, went back to the hotel, drank from the mini-bar, and ate an amazing breakfast (again in the Oak Room) before leaving to come home and resume normal life where there are chores and grocery shopping to be done.


We called people, made it "Facebook Official", and have had no fewer than three offers to have parties thrown for us. It's all very exciting, and everyone's really happy and we're really happy, but for us it doesn't change all that much after living together for 2.5 years. Except that now I need to get on the whole wedding-planning thing. See? Life doesn't stop just because you get engaged!