(Laura's perspective)
On Friday, September Seventh, Two Thousand and Seven, we were in Toronto for Dan's cousin's wedding, which was the following day. After a day of fabulous shopping and family visiting, we went for a beautiful dinner at the Thornhill Country Club. I was really enjoying the entire dinner process. Dan had ordered a large steak that took a while to prepare, so we had some amazing couple time that I was loving, but Dan, as he later told me, was not. He was eager to get the dinner over with as fast as possible. Apparently, he was a little anxious.
During the meal, Dan brought up something about getting married in passing conversation. This would have been all well and good, except that since July, I've been hoping, and maybe even slightly expecting a proposal. Every time we have done something romantic, I had to tell myself not to think about marriage in order to fully enjoy the time together. This night was one of those nights. By this point in the evening, I figured there was no hope for any question popping, so I wasn't really thrilled thinking about the marriage conversation that Dan had initiated.
After we finished the meal, we were offered dessert. Dan, wanting to speed up the whole dinner process said "no". At the exact same time, I said "yes". After the menus were laid before us, I looked at Dan and said, "It's dessert or a ring".
Thankfully, I ended up declining dessert, as I actually had one waiting for me at home. As Dan and I were preparing to leave, he told me that he wanted to take me out through the back door in order to show me around a little. He had grown up going to this Country Club, so this did not seem like an odd request to me. But when we walked outside, I was a little thrown off guard by how incredibly beautiful it was outside. Beyond the back door of the dinning room was a garden terrace on the edge of a golf course. Despite the earlier rain that day, everything had cleared and there were even stars in the Toronto sky.
Dan and I stood and talked for a few minutes. He showed me where he used to play golf and told me some childhood stories. After this, I think both of our memories are foggy. I just remember looking to my right and seeing the Maitre D' walking towards us with a box atop a silver platter. Dan took the box, got down on one knee, and asked me to marry him.
After my, "Are you serious?", and then my resounding acceptance, a bottle of champagne was brought out which we shared in celebration.
Here are some pictures of the ring, the night of our engagement, and the first day of engaged bliss:
The Engagement
