Firstly, Happy New Year, 2016! This new year follows on from a rather exciting 2015, and it will no doubt bring great happiness, and spice. As you can gather from my previous post: we are engaged!
That’s us. The poodles.
Let me tell you more.
October 2015 saw us celebrating our 4 year anniversary- this, a really solid amount of time to have been together. I had a couple friends saying, “Come on! Just ask her already!”… but it was a little more complex than that. You see, firstly, we needed to buy the rings. We went ring shopping together because why not? Read: because I am extremely fussy (and you know, you are supposed to wear this ring, so it better be one I loved!)
So, we chose the rings. Then we walked around thinking about them, and then I somehow decided, that it wasn’t the one. So we went back; Mrs Poodle sighed heavily. I chose the better one. I was thrilled. This was it! We had them sent for re-sizing. This meant time to wait and more time to plan a proposal. Did I? NOPE. (She calls me ‘lazy will prevail’). Fast forward a certain time period, where we arrive to try on the newly re-sized rings. Err- not quite right. Sent them back. Waited another week WEEP! Any more planning? NONE on my part- her? Possibly. THEN- it was time to take our beautifully shiny babies home.
Now, it was time to plan. But I couldn’t do it the very next weekend due to a family lunch; so I waited. I had some vague ideas which I had been toying with. And, I had given myself approximately a week with which to execute it all. You’re probably wondering- why me first? Simply put, I wanted to ask first. I don’t know why. Possibly because I’m younger; possibly because: ego. I’m joking. Because I just wanted to. And anyway, I thought she’d whisk me away somewhere romantic and so the whole thing would culminate perfectly. I was, after all, proposing at home. Because: ugly happy crying in public is not her thing. Actually, because we love our home and it’s our happy place. One of, at least.
So, I spent this week crafting. I had gone to a place called merrypak- a large warehouse type stationery/cardboard box template store, where I sought out an assortment of boxes from large to tiny which I had hoped would all somehow fit one inside the other. My idea kind-of worked: I ended up with 3 sets of boxes, each set with its own large-to-smallest-box assortment. So, what? She opens all the boxes? NOPE. I had been emailing an email account I had created over a year ago, with funny phrases and sentiments and occurrences. I printed out about 80 of these emails, and folded them up as decoys into the different layers of boxes, for her to read on her journey to finding the last, smallest box, with the ring. I had also printed out 20 of my favorite photographs of us, and hung them up around the lounge.
The craft room situation
Box art. Yes, I painted this.
Another box painting.
Boxes are difficult to paint.
BUT WAIT. I’m skipping a little ahead. She hasn’t known any of this yet.
I woke her up, and I said, “Today is the day!”- I went downstairs, and made her coffee in a cup which I had porcelain painted (Read: Will you marry me?- at the bottom of the inside of the cup) and some biscuits stamped with “Will you marry me?” SHE LOVED IT ALL. She thought that was it. But I said, you can’t come downstairs until you’re showered. She hurried along.
Ginger cookies in the box! They say, “Will you marry me?”
I baked these ginger cookies, and stamped them myself. This was more difficult than you think. I had a load of flops.
The chosen mug.
Inside of said chosen mug. It’s difficult to write on the inside of a cup!
I had spent the night before all of this up until all hours of the morning, figuring everything out. How will they all fit? Is this what I did maths in school to figure out?? It worked out eventually.
My thoughts at approximately 3 am: why did I leave this until the last minute?
I ordered the smaller boxes neatly…
And eventually everything fit inside these three boxes.
She came downstairs, and she was so excited. Basically, she saw three large-looking presents. SHE LOVES PRESENTS. Little did she know, there were so many. She started unwrapping them all. VICTORY! Will millions of hugs and kisses in between, about an hour from the beginning, she opened the last box. It contained a bauble, in it: a tiny bird cage- in it: a tiny box filled with pink and silver confetti, from which she dug and discovered the ring which now sits upon her finger. I asked (pretty mumbled, emotional in the moment),- I, in a matter of milliseconds regained myself, and I asked again (More assertively) and she said yes!
This is how the room looked in the daylight the next morning (after being unwrapped)
Some of my favorite pictures hanging around.
The bauble…
The box which was inside the tiny birdcage…
The ring inside the tiny box filled with confetti…
She stared at me, and her ring, and her finger, and at all the photographs hanging up on the wall. We may have cried together; I cannot remember. It was a Sunday, though. And I am pretty sure we went to the mall that day. To have pedicures. Because, why not?
So now, she was ring-bound and I was ring-free and definitely jealous that I had to wait until she proposed to me. Luckily, this happened a cool 5 days later, on December 3rd.
I received a text, with a picture: The bag is packed, you need to read the instructions carefully. EEEP. My adventure had come. All I had to do was get home from work, and get started.
The picture I received…
I got home, read the card: packed the bag into my car, and followed my interpretation of clue one: go to the place we love to dance. Beaulah. I drove there, parked at the closest garage and walked the rest- because parking on a main road is not fun for me. SURPRISE: two of our besties were there, ready for me with clue number two. I forget to mention, that within these clue envelopes, comes some sticky-note letters which I need to stick to a board to spell out a sentence. You can already guess what it needed to say- I did, straight away: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ?
My completed craft task
Clue number two: go to the place we had our first ‘out’ date… Primi. I sat in the Friday afternoon suburb-bound traffic, listening to Tegan and Sara. I casually took myself down to the right place, and couldn’t see who I was supposed to meet. People may have thought I was super confused. I felt super confused. Did I get the clue wrong? ALAS, no. There I found another bestie, waiting with clue number 3! This clue required me to go to the place we had our first ‘fight’. OH I KNEW THIS ONE. I always joke about how it was totally not a fight. We were in the frozen food/oven chip section; she asked me if I wanted “straight-cut or crinkly-cut fries”- I couldn’t make up my mind. That was back when I ordered toasted-cheese as my go-to meal. I waited around that cold, cold aisle, waiting for who I may see next. Eventually, another bestie popped up, giving me the last clue, and also it seems, something for store customers to oggle at: A girl having her photo taken with oven chips. ME.
Frozen food aisle memories
I drove off merrily to my final destination: Kirstenbosch Gardens. I’d been nattering on about going here for a picnic, and it happened! I was really not sure where or how to find her inside the large gardens, and I was already overwhelmed with my day. Marriage proposals are not for the fainthearted! I FOUND HER SITTING SO SWEETLY. GRINNING. My cheeks were sore too! I sat down, sweaty, and with flat hair, and hunger, and she gave me cheesecake and looked at me, beautifully, and asked me to marry her! YES! Finally, my stunning ring found its way to me without me having to sneak-peak at it in her drawer.
Me: wandering through Kirstenbosch Gardens
True love and happiness!
By now, we realized that we could not stay and picnic for very long. She had revealed that the packed bag was, along with us, heading to Franschhoek for a one-night getaway to Le Franschhoek Hotel. Here, we were whisked down tiny lanes in a golf-cart, giggling away. We had a lovely dinner, and the following morning a lovely breakfast at our favorite: Cafe des Artes. We then, to my surprise were meeting a lady (who is so lovely!) to look at her wedding venue. You want to know? The Conservatory. IT IS SO BEAUTIFUL THAT WE MAY HAVE OVER-USED THE WORD BEAUTIFUL. So, basically, we are getting gleefully married on October, 22, 2016. And now, it’s time to plan the actual wedding!
Our final destination!
Meet Mrs Poodle 