Andy and Mary
My clients Andy and Mary were married Oct 21st. Andy was very precise and structured. He was definitely one of my most knowledgeable clients and a planner; evident in the story which I really loved.
Andy’s Story: “I had expected to get the engagement ring sometime in mid-April; the jeweler thought it was going to take a couple weeks. However, his craftsman happened to work over the weekend, and finished it in only a couple days. It arrived in PA on Wednesday. Since Mary’s friend Dian was in Virginia visiting, I thought it would be perfect to try to arrange a proposal that involved Dian as well as some of her other friends from work. So I secretly contacted them and planned a surprise engagement on Friday. I made arrangements with Morton’s to have a table ready for us at 8:30 on Friday, and reserved a nice hotel for us near the restaurant. With Dian’s help, I planted the seed in Mary’s head that the three of us were going for a nice, semi-dressy dinner at a Thai noodle restaurant on Friday night. I drove up early on Friday to visit with the restaurant and set up the hotel room with flowers, wine, and truffles. Around 6:25, as I was putting
the final touches on the room, I got a call from Mary. Her car’s transmission was stuck in park! I had to act like I was still on the road, but near enough to where I could come help her fix it. Luckily it was nothing major, and we were at her home around 7:15, with plenty of time to get ready. Mary and Dian started to get ready, and I threw out the idea of wanting to go out for “meat,” rather than noodles. Both Mary and Dian were game, so I “looked on the Internet and found” a Morton’s nearby. We agreed to see if we could get a table, and if so, we’d go to Morton’s. Mary was not optimistic about the table, and was even acting a little annoyed that I thought I could just bribe my way into Morton’s. She refused to even let the valet take the car until I checked with the maitre‘d to make sure we could get a table! After going in with Dian and pretending like we had negotiated a table for three, Mary grudgingly got out of the car, making dark comments about the amount of discomfort I was putting her through. I just smiled to myself. When we were led to our table, I saw that visiting earlier in the day had paid off. They set us up in the back of the restaurant, with her friends Katie and Christie and their respective spouses facing away from the door, and warned them that we were on our way in. When we got to the table, Mary was surprised to see her friends at the restaurant, but it hadn’t quite sunk in why they were there. She seemed to think we had purely by chance run into them at the restaurant, and didn’t take any notice of the fact that they had cameras pointing at us. I looked at her and said, “Well, I’m guessing that you know why these people are here…” No recognition, no understanding. I kissed her, and told her “I love you very much… and I’ve already written you a long essay of reasons why I want to be with you…” (referring to a romantic letter I had given her in the past). At this point, it all clicked. Her jaw dropped, and she said, “Omigod you aren’t going to…!?!??” I told her I was going to try. With tears running down her cheeks and a look somewhere between panic and terror on her face, I got down on one knee, took out the ring, and asked her to marry me. For a brief few seconds that felt like more than a minute, she said nothing….and then said yes. I placed the ring on her finger, we embraced and kissed, and we then got applause from the restaurant. After that, we had a wonderful dinner with good friends, followed by a relaxing evening at the Hyatt Regency in Reston. It was a beautiful, exciting, scary, and incredible time all at once. Although I had thought about really cheesy romantic ideas, like serenading her, or reading a poem or a speech, I’m glad I didn’t try, as I found it hard enough just to fumble through the basics!” - Andy & Mary, VA
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