The Proposal
Elisa's version . . .
Eric and I had known for quite some time that we would get married. We just never knew the how or the when or the where. So, when Eric propsed to me, it was not a super duper huge surprise.
One night, in December 2009, he came home and was acting a little weird and all smiley. He told me to go look in the mailbox. I did. There was a tiny little piece of paper way down at the bottom. IT was a clue that read "go the place the kitties love best." It turned out to be the first clue in a series that led us on a scavenger hunt around the city of Yorba Linda that took us to all of the places that we had gone to when we first started dating. We went to the first place we met, the first place we ate dinner, the first place we had talked on the phone, among other places. It was a lot of fun and I loved it!
Eric's version . . .
This is the story of how I proposed to the fair maiden Elisa Herrera-Thomas.
I was struggling for a long time coming up with a special proposal. I am not strong in the romantic department and was trying to create a special moment for the one I had chosen to spend the rest of my life with. I did not want to do something that was cliche or has been overdone so it took a bit of planning.
Finally I came up with an idea and put my own bit of personal touch into it.
I remembered moments along our relationships that were like special stops along our journey. Each one of these stops became a place for us to go and remember.
I planned the night well. First of all I placed a little piece of paper, the first clue of the love scavenger hunt, in the cat food, because Elisa loves cats. The clue said, "Go to the place where we first talked on the phone." We then traveled to the place where we had talked on the phone, the clubhouse for Eastlake village. This was not actually the place where we first talked on the phone ( I am a man after all and I never said I was perfect) however it did allow us to have a laugh and remember the place she was when we did talk on the phone which was at her old house in Yorba Linda.
The clue at the clubhouse read, "Go to the place where we first met." We then traveled to Starbucks and although that Starbucks has shut down we read the clue that I had placed on the door. "Go to the place where we first had dinner." We then traveled to Mimi's cafe and read the next clue, "Go to the place where I first gave you flowers." This was her old house in Yorba Linda and we read the clue there. "Go to the place where we shared special moments together. This was the park which was like our first apartment because we were both living at home at the time and at the park the clue read, "Go to the place where sparks first flew." This was on the slide and when we went to the slide the ring was waiting there for Elisa. She opened it up and I got on one knee and said these words. This is copyrighted so all you non-creative chaps out there reading this, don't think about using it, without paying me a fee anyways.
;)
I’ve waited my whole life for you.
I’ve finally met someone I have a real connection with
Someone who gets me
And accepts me for who I am
Someone who I can be myself around
and feel comfortable with
I love you very much
So I ask you this question
Elisa Herrera Thomas
Will you marry me?”
Elisa: “yes”
Hope you have enjoyed our story.
Elisa's "after the fact" ideas
Elisa’s point of view:
Even though I knew what was coming, I was still nervous. I was kind of holding my breath, not wanting to miss anything that Eric said. I loved what he had to say and how he looked me straight in my eyes and how he was smiling the whole time. And I loved how he started out with, “I have waited my whole life for you.” Not “someone like you.” I loved it. When he said 'someone that he had a real connection with,' I flipped back through my memories to the time that we first talked, our first conversation. There was one point, after we had been talking for awhile. I started talking about how they never give you enough ketchup packets. I expected him to get all weird. Instead Eric responded with an excited, “I know!” And then he went on to share all of his experiences with lack of ketchup. There was something in there that, out of nowhere, I just knew something was different. That here was a real connection. It totally freaked me out. The proposal was perfect. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t wrong. It was perfect because it was us. I love you, Eric. I can’t wait to marry you! I don’t want to forget anything about our wonderful life together. I’m glad we waited for each other!
