Robert and Christyn

My planning started with a short email to Kate who coaches swimming with Christyn. It was a picture of some rings I picked only and a short note: “think she’ll like it?” Kate and I spent the next few weeks conferring as she subtly probed Christyn about ring preferences and ended with Kate and I meeting at the Tiffany store in downtown Seattle after work one day to pick out and buy the perfect ring. After that, it sat hidden away in our apartment for a couple months as I waited patiently for the right opportunity to present itself. Eventually I had an epiphany on what I wanted to do and fired off an email to the local radio station:

Weeks passed with no reply. But just as I was about to lose hope on getting a response and starting thinking about alternate approaches, one of the managers at the station wrote back saying that he liked our story and was working on a way to help out.

It was at this point that Christyn’s dad coincidentally came out to Seattle on a business trip and spent some time with us. For weeks before he arrived Christyn would taunt me “you know, he’s going to give you a really hard time about why we aren’t engaged yet” – little did she know that I already had a ring, a plan for the proposal in the works, and intentions on asking her dad for his permission during his visit. On the last day of his visit we went out for lunch alone (Christyn had to go to a swim meet) and stopped by the mall. While at the mall I suggested we swing through the Tiffany store “just to look” and that’s when I pointed a ring just like the one I had waiting in our apartment and asked permission to marry his daughter. He approved :)

Two days before the concert, I still hadn’t heard back from the radio station and was getting nervous so I told Christyn I had to work late that night and drove down to the station to further plead my case in person. The next day, I got a call saying that while the band couldn’t be directly involved they’d love to give me 2 back stage passes so we could be standing next to the band throughout the show and I could do my part at right time.

Then came the day of the concert. I started off the morning quite relaxed in know that things were all planned out and would go perfect. Then as each hour of the day passed I realized one more little detail I hadn’t quite nailed down… How would I hide the ring so she wouldn’t notice a big bulge in my pocket? A trip to the mall during my lunch break to find the perfect pair of shorts that were baggy enough and had deep enough pockets that the ring box bulge wouldn’t stand out. How would I guarantee that 311 would actually play the song I wanted. Another frantic call to the radio station who gave me the band’s manager’s phone number who promised me that they’d put Lovesong as #5 on the set list.  Would she understand the significance of this song?  A short email containing the lyrics and telling her what it meant to me.  How would I explain to Christyn why we were invited back stage?  A little white lie I left in her voicemail saying “Guess what! I was just caller number 10 into the radio station and won a contest for tonight’s concert!”

My anxiety was building up throughout the day to the point where I spent the last few hours of the work day just pacing up and down the hallways. Fortunately, once we got to the show I managed to calm down and everything went perfect. We met two other girls back stage who really had won a content – they had come with fancy cameras so I discretely pulled them aside, told them what I was going to do, and asked that they take pictures. Once the band took stage I carefully counted each song know that mine would be #5. Things almost fell apart because the acoustics backstage are pretty bad – we could just barely hear band (who was right next to us) singing and Christyn suggested that we leave our “VIP” spots and watch the show from the crowd. Fortunately she agreed when I asked to stay just a little bit longer.

Finally, the band got to #5 on their setlist and played Lovesong just as planned. I wrapped my arms around her and whispered in her ear that this is the song I had sent her in email earlier in the day.  She smiled. Then I reached into my deep baggy pockets, pulled out the ring, got down on my knee, and asked her to marry me. She said yes and smiled even more.

My memory of the rest of that evening is mostly a blur but I do recall that much of it was spent watching her calling and text messaging everyone she could think of to spread the news.