| As far
back as I can remember, I always knew that when I decided to marry, my
proposal would be unique. I didn't know who or when I would marry,
but I knew that when it finally would happen, it would be special.
Looking back at the night when I proposed, I realize that I achieved not
one, but two life long dreams. First, the proposal itself was all
that I had ever dreamed of; I managed to sweep her off her feet.
Second, and more importantly, I had been blessed with a woman that had
exceed my wildest dreams. And this is where my proposal story
begins.
Basically, Nicole and I knew that we would wed for a long time, it was
just a question of when, and for me, a question of HOW??? During
the previous months, I found myself entertaining several proposal ideas.
Among some of the craziest ideas I had were: skydiving with a huge
flag with the words "will you marry me" strapped to my A-s,
renting an orchestra to come and play outside of Nicole's house while I
propose to her, buying commercial time on TV and asking her to marry me
in the commercial etc... Finally, I sat down and opened my
checkbook and realized that after buying the ring, the orchestra and TV
ideas were out of the question. As for the skydiving, I had the
money, but I chickened out...(hey I wasn't going to take a chance of
splattering on the ground from 10,000 feet before I got to marry my
baby!!!). So, time went by and at the end of the summer Nicole and
her family boarded an airplane and headed for a week long vacation in
Canada. This was my perfect opportunity, I had a whole week to
myself, if I couldn't come up with anything now I didn't deserve to have
her hand in marriage.
So now I was stuck
alone in LA, with 7 days to work with, but NO PRESSURE!!! Finally,
I decided to revert back to the days of chivalry where knights in
shining armors rode white horses and defended their lady's honor to the
death. Now the only problem was, where the hell do I get I knight
costume, and where in God's green earth do I get a horse!!! Ok, it
took me 2 days to figure all of this out, so now I have only 4 days to
work with. I called every costume shop in the greater Los Angeles
area (since we are the movie capital of the world, there are tons of
costume shops). Finally, I found one, the perfect costume (except
the lady in the air-conditioned store didn't warn me about the 120
degree heat inside the suit). The costume search lasted 2 days,
and now I had only 2 days left to get a horse.
Finally, I
contacted one of Nicole's mom's friends, Nora. Nora owns a bunch
of horses and teaches riding for a living, she is also Nicole's God
mother and loves her to death. As soon as I told her about my plan
to propose on horse back dressed in a knight suit, she offered to
deliver the horse up to Nicole's community. So now I had
everything planned. Nicole was going to land, I was going to give
her a day to rest and then I would propose. Simple, right?
Well... not quite.
The big day rolls
around and I don't remember how, but I got my parents to go to Nicole's
parents' house, under some pretense that I can't recall at the moment.
Once they were there, Nora rolled in with her huge truck and an even
bigger trailer in the back. The problem was that Nicole lived in a
private gated community and we had to go through the guard gate before
we could access Nicole's street. After a shocked stare and a hasty
explanation, the guard opened the gates to my Camelot and gave me his
blessings (his exact words were, the neighbors are going to be pissed,
but SCREW them).
So far, so good,
now all we have to do is pull up by the house, take out the horse, get
into costume, get on the horse, get the ring and ride to safety.
Well... Nora pulls up about 1/2 a block from the house and gives me a
few minutes to get into the costume. Now, what you people must
understand is that I HATE heat, seriously, it really bothers me.
So, as luck would have it, it was about 98 degrees outside, and I had to
get into a FULL BODY spandex suit that I had to wear under the armor.
As if this deathtrap wasn't scorching enough, I then had to slip and
slide myself into the armor that has been sitting in the back of my car
for the past few hours. The thing was so hot you could fry an egg
on it. But, all in the name of love, I wiped the sweat off my face
and told Nora to bring the horse out. Oh boy was that a mistake,
as soon as the horse saw me in that crazy costume, it started making
that loud noise horses make when they are spooked. Now, Nicole's
neighborhood is in the middle of the San Fernando Valley, the only
horses heard around here are Mr. Ed on TV. I thought my cover was
blown for sure. But, true love overcame adversity and Nicole
remained oblivious.
Finally, I was on
the horse, ring in hand. I called my sister on the cell phone and
told her to find a way to get Nicole to come out. As I rode
towards the driveway, I tried peering through the blinding helmet, and
all I could see was Nicole's face DROP!!! All the time and effort
had paid off, she was completely blown away. Of course, that only
lasted for about 3 seconds, and she immediately broke into an
uncontrollable sob. Through her tears, I dismounted and got down
on one kneed and asked her if she would spend the rest of her life with
me. You would think that after 5 years of dating and all the hard
work I put into the proposal, the least she could say was YES, but she
just kept crying. I don't remember my exact words, but I bet they
were "come on baby, yes or no, anything is better then dying of heat in
this thing." She finally said yes and we hugged. Then the
entire family and friends came out, and even Nicole's neighbors sent
their children with a bottle of champagne. So there we were,
freshly engaged, standing in the middle of the street, my beloved on my
right and a horse on my left, cameras going off all around me, people
kissing us to no end, and all I could think of was: "get me the
hell out of this suit." But seriously, it was one of the happiest
days of my life, and it just kept getting better, but I will let Nicole
tell the rest.
Raviv.
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