Real Proposal from a Reader ...

I started to get suspicious... Dan and I were planning a trip to Vancouver to visit his dad. A month or two in advance I said it would be nice if we stayed downtown for a few days before travelling to the sunshine coast. He thought this was a great idea and said that he would plan our night out on the Saturday... fast forward a couple of weeks. I ask what are we doing on the Saturday, he replies "It's a surprise"... hmmm that got me thinking. Dan never does surprises. Later the same week he starts complaining about how broke he is.... hhmmm again I start to wonder, could this really be happening? and then finally, while I am searching for my passport in our bedroom, I come across a gem appraisal. Oh my god! I can't believe this is happening. I start to wonder how it's going to happen, what does he have planned, is it really going to happen in Vancouver? or is he going to randomly pop the question. My minds races for weeks on end! We arrive in Vancouver on the Friday and I start to think I've made the whole thing up in my head... that everything just happens to be a coincidence and it's not actually happening. I even think the maybe the gem appraisal wasn't really a gem appraisal!

Friday night we meet up with some friends and go to a japanese restaurant for dinner. We're on vacation, we're having fun and out comes the sake. I don't know how much I drank but by the time we left dinner at 10pm I was pretty tipsy, we then went on to another bar to meet some more friends and have some drinks. By the end of the night... I was completely smashed.

I wake up on Saturday morning and I am not well. Dan goes to Tim Hortons and gets breakfast, I can't eat it. I feel so terrible because I don't want to ruin our vacation... I drag myself out of bed and we go sight seeing. For dinner, Dan made reservations at a super nice restaurant located right on the ocean... we get all dressed up and go out. Just before we are about to leave, I'm not sure I can go, I tell Dan I don't feel well at all. After laying down a bit longer, I drag myself out the door and we arrive at the restaurant. I still can't eat. The waiters look at me funny as all I have is bread and a few bites of a side salad. And then thank god for gravol. I brought some along just in case, I didn't want to feel groggy but anything was better than the way I felt at dinner. So I popped my pill and about an hour later I was feeling pretty good. We walked over to Stanley park and Dan started acting weird, we kept walking around in circles and he kept looking for something. We even sat down on a bench for awhile. About 15 minutes later we saw it... A horse and carriage ride just for us. It was a gorgeous night, brisk but blue bird sky and sunshine (rare in Vancouver!) We toured around the sea wall and I noticed that Dan was more touchy feely than usual... holding me close. I thought maybe this isn't actually happening, maybe he is going to postpone the engagement because I've been so sick today. At one point the driver says the horse wants to take a break and have a drink of water. So we walk down by the water overlooking the lions gate bride and sit on a bench, within a few minutes, Dan was on his knee telling me he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. Of course I accepted! We get back to the carriage and there was champagne and two wine glasses for us to celebrate. We called our parents from the park and headed to the jazz bar at our hotel, where they played the most amazing music. It was definitely a night to remember.

Thanks for reading!

Allison

Thanks so much, Allison!!!