The Decent Proposal

Many of my closest friends and family will already know that I’m now happily engaged and it being Valentines Day, it seems like the best day to mark the event on the blog!

I’m so thankful that Shay could make it to over to England by Christmas Eve, in fact she landed a couple of days before my birthday. Although we had a very rough time trying to get back from Gatwick, we made it home in the end. Such was the intensity of Christmas (we met my parents within days of Shay landing), it’s only now sinking in what happened over the festive season. Life is wonderful with her right now, even though she is many thousands of miles away.

“I already knew she was the one when I came home from the states last year”

Christmas Day Proposal
I ran through so many ways of proposing in my head that the final decision on how I was gonna do it wasn’t made until the week leading up to Shay’s arrival. Many of my friends who had already got married advised me to propose in a situation where there would be no distractions and people/events to get in the way.

The background to this; On our first date in London I had given her one of those tiny MP3 players with a mix of songs on for her to listen to on the plane ride back to Charlotte, North Carolina.

“On Christmas morning I saved the ring till the last present”

Shay unwrapped a big box, which contained a box of wrapped up tissues and a wrapped up DVD case. This threw her off completely, into thinking it was a romantic film. Our story is worthy of such a movie, but noooooo, in the DVD case was a mix CD.

Shay Gordon … Will you marry me?
The mix CD not only contained some awesome music dedicated to her and about us, but was all printed up nicely, I had Photoshopped together album artwork, with track listings. The cover read Shay Gordon (please open this now) and in big typeface on the disc “Will You Marry Me?”, with two check boxes marked Y and N. Part play on my geeky-ness of the early days of programming where you would press Y or N to answer a question and part play on her love of keys and locks.

“I had cello-taped the ring to the disc itself around the Y N boxes”

THEN – Alan Jackson came on!
Just as she opened the DVD case, the song that was the most meaningful to us at that point in time was playing on my HiFi. It was impeccable timing as Alan Jackson (country singer), belted out “Just Put A Ribbon In Your Hair”. It couldn’t have gone any better and she was floored by it.

“Just put a ribbon in your hair, darlin’. You’ll be the best gift anywhere Christmas morning. There’s no worldly treasure I’d like any better Than you standin’ there.” — Alan Jackson

Our southern breakfast she had been cooking of Hash Brown Casserole, Bacon and Biscuits (Scones), was on hold as we cuddled and sobbed. As was the intensity of Christmas Morning, my mom was due over any moment so we hurriedly straightened ourselves out and so my mom became the first person to see the ring on Shay’s finger.

I was so happy it had gone so smoothly, months of planning and just 10 seconds of heart stopping unwrapping.

Christmas with The One
So yeah, I reckon this Christmas was the best for at least 4 years. It was so awesome to spend that time of year with the one I love. The distance certainly changes our relationship, but we’re now focused on how to close that gap so we can have what almost every other couple have; The ability to make eye contact and physical contact whenever we want, to wake up looking at each other, to just be in the same room is something we treasure and don’t take for granted. Long distance sucks, but we are doing incredibly well.

Track Listing
So the songs themselves speak about us, our love for each other and include a lot of references to the south!

Who’d have thought it, from Elizabethtown to Clarksville, via Nashville, North Carolina, Washington DC, New York State, London Victoria Tube and Walsall, England. It’s a mad world, I just wanna be with her!

NASCAR, Nashville, Kentucky, Florida ….. MOON PIES and my love nugget!
Erm remind me again why I should stay in Walsall? ;) Sorry folks, 2012 is about getting off the island to be with my honey bun. Everything’s for sale, limited offers to friends and family on my stuff, while stocks last, before it goes on eBay. Wanna fly, I gotta give up the shit that weighs me down!

“Country girl, take my hand, you got the right city bloke, gotta keep on keeping on!”

Posted on Tuesday, February 14th, 2012