The Proposal

I know that I promised some actual wedding info on this wedding blog, so here goes...the story of our proposal. Let's start with a little background info that was completely unbeknownst to me. Apparently, Stacy had been doing his secret thing that he does and had this proposal in the works for a long time. A long time ago (well, not too long, but when things got pretty serious between the two of us) I had casually mentioned to Stacy that if he ever decided that I was the one he wanted to spend the rest of his life with and that he wanted to buy me a ring, he should talk to my parents' very dear friend, David Bryant. He owns the jewelry store in town where my dad has bought all of mom's jewelry and has been a very close friend of the family for as long as I can remember. In September, we had taken a trip to Birmingham for a K-State football game and had driven back and gone through my hometown, Madisonville. A little after we got there, Stacy said he needed to get a couple of things from Wal-Mart and took the rental car there. We were waiting for him forever (because we were also having a cookout). Turns out, he and David had met at the jewelry store so he could take a look at some of the rings. He wasn't positive what he wanted, so not only did he look at rings there, but he also flew to Tulsa to look at some rings from one of the vendors that David buys from on a totally separate occasion. He did manage to find a gorgeous ring that suits me perfectly. David had sent him the ring via Fedex to arrive to him during the day on Friday after Thanksgiving...so now that you know the background, here goes.

My sister and I flew home for Thanksgiving on the Wednesday before and ended up getting there a little late. Stacy was supposed to fly in with us, but, he had been recently promoted to Store Manager at the store where he works and didn't have an assistant. The store was going to be open on Friday and he didn't have anyone to open and close, so much to my disappointment, we wasn't able to come. My family was also really sad because they absolutely love him. So, we went to my Grandma's house for Turkey Day and enjoyed time with the family.

The next day, Friday, my sister and I were doing our usual thing that we do while we are in town--trying to cram in visiting as many people as possible while we were there since we don't get to see most of the people more than 2-3 times per year. Jennifer had brought with her a pair of earrings that Michael had given her a while back. She wanted to drop by Bryant's Jewelry and have David take a look at them and see if he could repair one of them that had been broken. While we were there, Sarah (David's daughter, who I used to babysit) was talking with us and we were deciding when we were going to her house to see her beautiful one year old daughter, Rebekah (which, by the way, makes me feel really old!).

Aside from talking, all of you ladies know what girls do in a jewelry store--they try on stuff. Well, we were having Sarah pull different rings out of the cases and we were trying them on. I found a ring that I REALLY liked and made the comment, out loud "If I were to ever get engaged, I would want a ring like this, but with a big fat square diamond in the middle instead of a round one." After that, we went to Sarah's house, played with Bekah, and then left to go to my other Grandma's house to have our Thanksgiving celebration with her. On the way over there, I talked to Stacy very briefly and then let him go because we were there. I told him I would give him a call when we were headed back to Mom and Dad's. After we ate and hung out with Grandma, we headed home and I tried to call Stacy, but it went straight to voicemail. After that, Jennifer went to hang out with some of her friends and I went to Applebees to meet some of my friends. After leaving, I called Stacy and again, it went to voicemail. (he had told me he was going to the casino with Marquis, so I thought maybe he wasn't getting good reception). I left him a message to call me when he got the message.

I then went and picked up Jennifer and headed home. During the day on Friday, it had gotten REALLY cold and to make matters worse, Mom and Dad's heater went out and wasn't working at all so it was pretty chilly in the house. When we got home, it was nice and toasty in the living room because Dad had started a fire in the fireplace and had the blower going (which, by the way, is very loud) It was pretty late, so Jennifer went to bed and I went to go lay on the couch to watch some TV before falling asleep on the couch. I was about half asleep when my phone rang (at almost 12:30am). It was Stacy. Here is how our conversation went:

A--"Why are you calling me so late?"
S--"I just got home from the casino."
A--"Did you have fun?"
S--"Yes. Is it cold there?"
A--"Yes"
S--"How cold?"
A--"Really cold."
S--"Why don't you go outside and see how cold it is?"
A--"Because it's cold."
S--"You should go out and see."
A--"I don't want to--it's cold out there and I am all warm and toasty in here."
S--"Can you at least come to the door and let me in?"
A--"You aren't at the door."
S--"Yes I am, i have been out here knocking for five minutes." I couldn't hear anyone knocking.
A--"No you aren't...you better not be messing with me."

It was at this moment that I got to the door, and sure enough, there he was, standing in the cold.
I opened the door, gave him a kiss and quick hug while asking "What's going on?"

He then dropped to one knee, held out a ring box and said "Adriane Drama Queen Fleck, will you marry me?"

I was stunned. I said "Are you serious?" gave him another hug and kiss and said "Oh my god, I have to go tell my sister." I then went to the bedroom where she was sleeping and woke her up.

I said "Stacy is here" while holding up my hand with the ring on my finger. It took her a second, but then she said "Are you engaged?" I nodded yes and somehow, she jumped out of the bed, bolted past me and ran out to the living room and tackled Stacy. I followed her out there and then Stacy said to me "You know, you never answered me." I said "Yes, of course" and went and woke my parents up. They were having a hard time comprehending that just because Stacy was there, they needed to get up and go say hi to him. Finally, I said "We have a wedding to plan!" and they both bolted straight up in the bed and were wide awake. (amazing what that phrase will do to parents!)

We all were having a great time. Stacy had even come prepared with a bottle of wine for the occasion so we opened that and toasted. Needless to say, neither Mom nor I got a lot of sleep that night--in our minds we were both already planning the wedding.

The next day, Dad called David and asked him "How in the hell did you keep from busting out laughing when the girls were in the store and Adriane made that comment?" Everyone in the store knew that Stacy was coming in that night to propose and none of them let on even a tiny bit.

And that is the story of our proposal.