Where? When? How? Something classy and memorable. Somewhere that means something special. When the time is right. That's a lot of pressure. But in a good way. I was targeting the fall, but needed to work some things out. Initially, I had Vancouver on my mind. It's become a yearly tradition with us to hit the Vancouver International Film Festival. I thought it might be a good opportunity. This posed a lot of problems though. For one, family. Our families are very special to us and proposing in Vancouver would have meant doing it at a time when my parents would've been out of town for a few months. Tori's parents would of course be in southern California, with no plans to reunite until Christmas. I wanted them all to be able to share in the excitement. So Vancouver was out. The next best time would be the week all her family was in town. Late September. But I needed help. I began the process. With the help of our good friend Heidi Brown. I made my first trip to a ring store. Oh sure Tori had talked about stopping to shop before this, but I had to play it cool. I couldn't tip my hand. She's a smart cookie and tough to fool. I knew I'd have to keep quiet. As the summer went on, I found myself using words like loop, carat, slight inclusion, and table in entirely new ways. I gained a whole new appreciation for letters like G, H, and I. And I found out something about myself...diamond skiilllz. (Shhh. Don't tell Tori yet.) With a ring picked out, I needed to finalize the plan and get help. The help came as soon as I asked permission. (That's another story.) I decided on a location at Alki. A beautiful setting, and a place that is special to us. Sunset behind the Olympic mountains on one side, city of Seattle on the other, water in between. Conveniently, it's also near a great restaurant. Tori's dad was a huge help fabricating the cover story. Before long, Tori believed she was planning her mom's surprise birthday dinner. It was perfect. She didn't suspect a thing. Behind the scenes, I coordinated a few surprises of my own. As the big day neared and her family arrived in town for her cousin's wedding, an unexpected benefit became clear. Tori didn't want to ruin her mom's surprise party. No one wanted to spoil the engagement. The benefit, no one ever spoke about making plans for "The Day" and no one slipped the secret. The Day I was a little more nervous then I thought I'd be. As I got ready for work that morning, I realized I'd never spoken "The Words." I'd never heard the question come out of my mouth. I didn't want to be on the spot and stumble, so I practiced. Rapidly. You know when you say a word like 'pickle' over and over really fast, and before long it doesn't sound like a real word? I figured if I got to that point, it would just roll off my tongue, no sweat. Pickle pickle pickle pickle pickle. I was ready. Nervous, but ready. Tori wanted to go for a run after work, before dinner. GREAT IDEA! Get rid of those last jitters. Unfortunately, it made the timing tight. On top of which, Tori wanted to look really nice for her mom's birthday party. So she changed outfits. And changed outfits. And changed outfits. A rarity for her I admit, but we were pushing the clock. On the road, my first view was of the already setting sun. NO! I'm really late. I've got a 15 minute drive and 5 minutes of sun. We made it. I rushed a little, but the setting was wonderful. And down on one knee I went. Ok, Tori's turn. Enjoy "she said."

September 22 is mom's birthday and this year my parents were in town for my cousin's wedding. My dad and I exchanged e-mails in August about doing a surprise birthday dinner for my mom and inviting Tom and Joanne (Ryan's parents). He said a client had told him to take her to Salty's (though he didn't give me the name right away, he fumbled with it and made me figure it out.) Of course I told Ryan about the e-mail exchange while laughing at my dad for not remembering a restaurant with a name as simple as Salty's. Ryan and I made a plan to get there before everyone else to catch the sunset. It's one of our favorite places to watch the sunset and we hadn't been there since his birthday in 2004. We were running a bit late and while all the colors of the sunset were still there the actual sun had fallen just below the mountains when we finally arrived. Ryan raced us out onto a dock with a spectacular view of the city and the sunset. I wasn't really paying much attention when he said that he really wanted to make it there in time because he had something to give me. All of the sudden I turned to look at him (probably to tell him we could just come back another night to see the sunset) as he got down on one knee and said those four words "will you marry me?" After I subdued the waterworks he said "remember my mom's friend Wendy (who does Joanne's nails), well she's also a photographer and she's standing right over there." She captured the moment on video tape (minus the sound) and a bunch of still shots. He then pointed out a minivan just up the road that his parents were hiding in. My parents were invited but opted to give us our privacy and were at the bar at Salty's instead. They were able to view the video once we arrived at the restaurant (Ryan and I couldn't watch it just yet because we were too emotional!) The entire event was a total surprise and he had it all planned for months.