This is a bit of a saga, so we'll give you the abstract first: Josh proposed in Rome over his spring break. It was a total surprise because he'd been lying to Laura for months about how he wanted to wait before he got married. Laura was so surprised she forgot to say "yes" for approximately 8 seconds. Also, a napkin caught on fire.

Now you know all you need to know, but if you want the gory details, feel free to read on...

In August, Josh decided he was going to propose, after Laura cornered him into having a "state of our relationship" talk. Having already thought about the situation fairly extensively, Josh stupidly told her "oh yea, we will probably get married before I graduate law school." The next morning he woke up, hit himself in the head and thought that, since he wanted the proposal to be a surprise, he should have told her that he wanted to wait much longer before getting engaged. Thus began seven months of constant lies and paranoia.

"I am so busy with school! I couldn't possibly take on any more responsibilities while I'm still a student." "Life is so stressful right now!" "Law school takes up ALL of my time!" "How does Ariane do it? She's crazy!" These were typical statements from Josh to Laura during the fall of 2008.

Secretly, he had decided he was going to propose over his spring break in March, when they had scheduled a trip to Amsterdam (to see Laura's brother and sister-in-law) and Rome (to eat pasta).

He had also set numerous plans in motion. He secretly called Laura's brother to arrange travel plans for Europe. He covertly skipped class to go ring shopping with his mom and Laura's future-maid-of-honor Maya. He paranoidedly (yes, that's a word) erased all his e-mails from jewelers, and wouldn't let Laura use his computer in case he had left a diamond webpage open.

Finally, spring break came along. Josh had arranged for a romantic dinner at the restaurant on top of the Spanish Steps, with a spectacular view of the city at night. Josh was so nervous all during dinner that he had to drink his water with two hands, sippy-cup style. Also, he lit a napkin on fire, but maintains it wasn't his fault because there were lots of votive candles on the table. Who's bright idea was that?!?

Besides dragging a ring across two continents and through two airport security checks (he almost had to get down on one knee in front of the Amsterdam TSA), he had also made a small photo album with a couple of pictures of the happy couple through the years. He told a waiter to put it in her dessert menu. When the waiter brought the menus over, it took Laura an inordinate amount of time (19 years, according to Josh) to open the menu. Once she did, however, and found the album, she was confused and, while looking at the pictures, thought "I guess this is cute, but it's not really an occasion. Why is he doing this?" Then she looked up and Josh was down on one knee.