One Night in Central Park

Saturday, June 11, after leaving the Belmont Stakes we went to Braden's work to pick up my luggage and check into our hotel. Meg and Braden were "going to get us reservations somewhere" so we could eat dinner together before they went home for the night.
After checking in we caught a cab to Central Park. I didn't think there were restaurants in Central Park but Mike assured me there was a great one at the boat house and that's where we were going.
I have to admit that I was scared. Central Park is in the middle of NYC but once you walk into the park, the noises of the city disappear. I watch too many Law and Order/CSI shows not to be thinking that someone was going to jump out and murder us. It was completely dark by the time we got there.
We get to the Bow Bridge, this beautiful bridge that is in countless romantic movies I've seen and Mike calls his brother Braden and tells him where we are but can't remember how to get where we are going and to please meet us here.


Mike said that they might be a minute so we walked across the bridge and found somewhere to wait until they could meet us. This is where we waited. Suddenly there is a noise from the water. There was a remote control boat coming from under the bridge with glow sticks attached. I asked Mike if that's what it was because it seemed so odd that someone would play with a remote control boat in the dark, but thought nothing of it until it started in our direction. I was terrified. You have to remember that I suffer from mild paranoia anyway, I thought it was a bomb. You can see in the picture below that there is a little piece of fencing in the water right off the shore and the boat ran straight into it, right by where we were standing. At this point I'm ready to run for my life. Then of all things, Mike picks up the boat and starts fiddling with it. Then he takes something off of it and walks toward me and gets down on one knee.
I was in shock. I wish I had been more calm and could've committed what he said to memory but it's all a blur. I do remember saying yes though. And just like that Mike and I are engaged!
As of now, the wedding is planned to be in Cancun, December 2012 with close family and friends.


This is the Bow bridge in daylight.



Look at this bad boy. It is a lot bigger than it looks in this picture. The bow of the boat is where the ring box was taped. Mike assured me later that he had tried out the boat before and made sure that it was not going to sink, and did in fact insure my ring prior to putting it on a boat in the water.
Apparently, Braden and Meg weren't getting us reservations, they were hidden in the park setting this all up. It was so exciting.
I can't even imagine how much planning this took to execute. Mike did such a good job, he totally caught me by surprise. I was expecting to get purposed to like you see in movies, like a ring in a champagne glass or sticking out of a dessert or something but this surpassed anything I could've imagined.

We have been looking at rings for a few months and Mike made me rate them on a scale of like 1 to 3 of the ones I like the most. Then he designed one based on my favorites. It's like he took all the rings I loved and combined them into one ring:





This is the ring from the side, it has so much detail with all the tiny diamonds on it so it sparkles from any angle. The flat bottom is called a European shank, it is weighted in the bottom of the ring so it will stay upright on my finger. I love it.



Sorry, i know this pic is blurry but this is one of my favorite parts of my ring, he put our birthstones on the inside of the band. It's so thoughtful and creative.
Mike, you are so amazing, I love you!