Magical Proposal - Disney World!

sm316217 · 02-21-2008, 01:32 PM

I'm sorry this is so long. My fiancé and I both wrote up stories for our wedding website about our engagement. My story was short but what he wrote was much longer. I guess from the planning the proposal side he had more to say.

Her Story

Everyone knows that I love Disney World, so it was appropriate that Brian popped the question while on our Disney trip.

After a wonderful vacation of park hopping, on our last day Brian decided that we should drive around Disney property. He surprised me by stopping at the Disney Wedding Pavilion. I was excited because I always wanted to see where Disney Weddings took place and I was thinking it was nice of him to indulge me.

Our trip was at its end and I had forgotten about any possibility of a proposal so I didn’t suspect a thing. He took me to this beautiful photo spot with an arch of vines that framed Cinderella’s Castle in the back ground. I loved it and immediately wanted to take our picture standing in front of it. After finding someone to take our photo, he started walking up the few steps to join me at the photo spot, but instead he got down on one knee and asked “Will you Marry Me?”

I started crying and didn’t stop. I grabbed the ring out of the box and put it on my own finger without any of his help. I guess you could say I was a little eager. Between all the tears I managed to mutter my answer “yes.”

As a little girl I dreamed of being proposed to in front of Cinderella’s Castle. My very own Prince Charming made my dream come true on September 29th, 2007. It was truly magical.

His Story

The quest for the future
It started with me, having the ring. This was an easy task because Stacy had already been scouring the Akron-Canton area in search of her perfect ring. To make a long story short, she did find it and gave me all the information. Regardless of the price, I felt that I got off pretty cheap considering that the guesswork was eliminated. I really wondered if my choice would have been good… But, I had her ring and it was perfect. ‘Nuff said.

Now, we had planned a short vacation to Disney World (in Florida) for several months, before Stacy had ever seen her ring at the jewelers. And let me tell you, this ol’ boy is thinking that Stacy would love to get engaged in Disney. After all, that is her most favorite thing (and the mouse.) Personally, I’m a Vegas guy, but I have found Stitch to be an interesting character… Anyway, I could tell Stacy was really excited about this trip, in particular, and I was getting strong vibes that she was anticipating a Disney proposal, so I had constantly dodge her and any suggestions to getting a ring or a proposal. But, first things first, I needed to ask permission from Sam, Stacy’s father.

The future in-laws are an extremely excited and emotional group of people (bless their hearts.) So, I figured they could keep the secret for a few days, 2 weeks tops. But beyond that, I thought it was too great of a thing to not talk about and a secret would not really last. So, the day before the trip, I went over to the future in-laws' after work. It was easy because Stacy had taken that day vacation and I was naturally “just finishing up some work.” I asked permission and they were like, “yeah, what took you so long, boy?” We talked about what I planned to do and we were all so excited and I can remember thinking, “Glad I’m popping the question in only a couple days.”

The plan was to get down on my knee in front of the Castle in the Magic Kingdom after the firework show. With the lights on the castle, it would really make it romantic, and of course, that always means extra kudos for me! We were planning on going to the Magic Kingdom Wednesday after the Animal Kingdom. The stage was set, the weather was looking good, and all my supporters were psyched up and ready for phone calls…

Tuesday was awesome. The dreaded travel day went so smooth. We got an SUV upgrade from an Economy car for free (because they didn’t have anything less and I didn’t fall for the “would you like to upgrade to a Mustang or SUV?”.) The hotel room was absolutely immaculate. The sun was shining. It was sure looking to be a great couple days.

On Wednesday, I secretly had the ring in my backpack while we waited for the bus, trying to save a miserable $10 for parking… Let me tell you, this bus service was terrible. It took us over an hour to get to the Magic Kingdom from the Animal Kingdom, which was after the bus arrived to pick us up. And the weather was only so-so. It had already rained on us at the Animal Kingdom and showers were still expected. However, our spirits were still high, because hey, this was Disney, the happiest place on Earth.

The good thing about rain is that it clears out the crowds. We saw the “rain effect” when we went for character greetings with Mickey Mouse. Stacy loves the Mickey and we had the room all to ourselves! We took several pictures and I even think Stacy was flirting with him. Kisses were recklessly flying around. Later, I recalled thinking that it would have been awesome to have Mickey present the ring while I proposed. But, we were still on with the castle.

We kicked butt that day. We saw everything we wanted to see at two parks. The bad news was that by early evening, we were beginning to feel it. The crowd was big enough that we were worried that somebody would inadvertently take out one of our knees. The big disappointment was that the fireworks didn’t start until 9PM, when the park closes. The plan was to let the park empty itself and then pop the question. Then we would high-tale it for the bus. But that pathetic bus system had us worried because the last bus came back at 11PM. I really thought we wouldn’t have time to make it. So we left before the fireworks. I was frustrated. Stacy took it good, but I could tell she was disappointed.

I had one day left in the parks, but it would have to be either MGM or Epcot. I checked online while Stacy was out of the room. There wasn’t much romance in either of these places. My best hope was that Italy, in the World Showcase of Epcot, had some ride where you would be in a small boat, like in the real Vienna. No such thing. I conceded to asking after Fantasmic, the spectacular show at MGM.

In the middle of all this, Stacy was receiving 3-4 phone calls a day from various family members. She claimed that is perfectly normal, but I knew better. We had some anxious people on our hands. So naturally, every time she talked to somebody, I was worried somebody would slip. But everybody was able to hold on.

It’s Friday, our last park day. I’ve been carrying this ring around for 3 days now. The phone’s been ringing off the hook. I’m desperate. This is not going according to plan. Because MGM and Epcot are notoriously lame in terms of romance, I was inconspicuously trying to get Stacy to go back to the Magic Kingdom. Unfortunately, we found that the Magic Kingdom closes at 7PM that day. We were stuck at MGM, watching Fantasmic. After the show, we let the amphitheatre clear out and we were close to the last people left in the park. My desperation move was to ask in the street with Mickey’s sorcerers hat in the background. It was far from anything that resembled any kind of dreams or hopes. I couldn’t do it and call myself a romantic, yet alone hold my head up. So I kept the ring secure…

At this point, I was drowning in desperation. We were leaving the following afternoon and I was still carrying around this ring. To make matters worse, Stacy was still getting calls. The heat was on. I had made up my mind that I was not leaving Florida without asking Stacy, even if it was going to be in the airport.

In the past, we have talked about staying at one of the exclusive hotels on Disney property. Hotels like the Polynesian, the Yacht Club, or the Floridian. So I made Stacy get up early for a “preview of hotels” for our future trip to Disney. She was excited for that, however, little did she know, I had a comeback plan.

On the way to the Polynesian Resort, we inconceivably drove by a wedding pavilion. Since we had openly talked about destination weddings before, it was a perfect excuse to say “Hey, let’s check this place out.” Behind the pavilion was this beautiful archway of vines and flowers extending from an altar. And through the archway was Cinderella’s castle at the Magic Kingdom! Stacy loved the view and it was perfect. She was going to take a picture when I said, we should get the cleaning lady we saw at the entrance and ask if she could take our picture. I went to get the lady and showed her my plan. After giving the cleaning lady a crash course on instant photography, I walked up to the altar, where Stacy was standing. Instead of going up, I went down on my knee and popped the question.

Yes, Stacy was crying, but she managed to mutter a “yes” somewhere between the sniffles. While I was in Stacy’s arms, I heard the cleaning lady hooting or cheering. I really didn’t understand her anyway (she had broken English), but I felt like Franco Harris after his Immaculate Reception.

As crazy as it seemed, I really think this actually turned out better than I originally planned. Although the everything at that moment was perfect, it really didn’t matter because the real perfection was knowing that we would be spending our lives together.