We got engaged! May 26, 2007

The Cloisters, NYC


















It was a total surprise to Amy. I had traveled to DFW a couple weeks prior to Memorial Day weekend to visit Nina and we spent most of the weekend shopping for an engagement ring. Nina was a huge help! And I needed it because I had never really even set foot in a jewelry store and plus Amy had told me that she didn't want a big diamond, so we needed to find a good substitution. We found a very nice ring in Denton at a place called Nasr Brothers. He said he could put a nice sapphire in it. That's MY birthstone, BTW (just worked out that way. Hers is pearl I believe. It just doesn't work as well.)

I picked The Cloisters because, well, it's incredibly pretty up there. And it was the site of one of the first real NYC outings we made as a couple. Amy moved here around five years ago and I had already been living in New York for a number of years so I mostly would plan out little trips around the city. We went to the Cloisters a long time ago and hadn't returned since. In my head I was picturing the shores of the Hudson and the surround park as a really secluded and picturesque place to propose.

Well it was picturesque. I don't know about secluded. I couldn't really wait long, so I proposed on a terrace of the actual museum (instead of the park, like I had initially intended). There were groups of people around and I was really nervous, so I didn't actually get down on one knee. I totally chickened out! It's OK, because Amy thought I was joking for a long time anyway. I had to convince her that I was being serious and the ring wasn't a prop for an elaborate (and not very funny) joke. She just kept giggling and looking for a sign that I was just kidding. Well, I didn't give her one. I think I may have been a little creepy, because I was being overly-intense to make sure she knew I was being serious. She FINALLY said yes (after I told her she didn't have to give me an answer right away, rather sheepishly), and I was really happy.