She said "yes"

The Proposal

Some background

For those of you who want a recap of how Lyds and I got engaged, here's the story....It started over the Christmas break when we stayed in Toronto with Lydia's family. Despite being there for a week, it was only in the last 2 hours of our visit that I managed to pluck up the courage to ask Lyds Dad for his blessing for us to get married (he said yes).

As Lydia and I had already been talking about our wedding and marriage, the challenge became how to propose without her knowing it was coming. We had already looked at rings so I had a good idea of what she liked and was having it custom made by a local jeweler. I knew that Lyds would ideally like the ring to be a part of the proposal however wanted to ask her soon and the ring was not going to be ready for three weeks. To throw her off I planned a bunch of "potential proposal" dates for us once we had the ring in our possession. She therefore did not figure I would ask for another few weeks.


The Proposal

While we waited for the ring, I still hadn't really decide how to propose (fondue on the top of grouse mountain etc) but knew that I did not want to get married in Vancouver. I started looking at places in the Okanagan (British Columbia's Wine district) which is about 4 hours drive out of Vancouver. Almost straight away I found this amazing B&B in Penticton called "God's Mountain Estate".

God's mountain is an amazing Greek Villa set on a cliff top, surrounded by a Vineyard, overlooking a large lake with the local mountains in the background. Pretty nice to say the
least.

Anyway, I wanted to check it out before I booked it so I called the owner Sarah who was a great help. Our ideal date was early June before we head off on our travels and it just so happened that that was the only date b/w June-September where the entire place was empty. So I quickly booked us in for a weekend reconnaissance visit.

I told Lyds that we were going to meet a mate of mine that was in town for the week. When we got there I knew straight away that it was what I wanted, and by the look on Lydia's face I knew she loved it too. The place is absolutely perfect. We got lucky also, despite the fact that there are 14 rooms, the place was completely empty in the winter months, so had the whole estate to ourselves.

That night we picked up some local wine and meats and cheeses and propped ourselves in front of one of the many fireplaces. We were sitting there for a while, watching the sunset and "warm fuzzing" as Lyds likes to put it, when I knew the time was right so I got down on one knee and asked her to be my wife. She very enthusiastically and emotionally said yes. With her eyes closed I slipped the ring on her finger to which she said: "when on earth did you get the ring"? (it had only been a week)


Insert Doug and Lydia here....

That indeed is an amusing side story. The ring wasn't going to be ready by the time we left for Penticton so I had decided to buy a fake one for the proposal. Well probably to no one's surprise, by the time we left to fly out of Vancouver I had completely forgotten to get one. Fate intervened though and not all was lost. As we were walking to our gate, Lyds stopped off at the washroom and I headed off to get some gum. Well wouldn't you know it, but the kiosk just happened to have a display of plastic fake diamond rings. $20 later and I was armed and ready for the "big question". It's safe to say Lyds was very briefly a bit shocked when I put it on her finger, but we quickly had a great laugh about it. Lyds still has the ring but I have told her that under no circumstances is she allowed to wear it given the diamond is twice the size of the real
one I bought.

The Wedding

So there you have it. The wedding is going to be in Canada, and we have set the date as June 9th, 2007. I realise that a lot of our Aussie friends wont be able to make it, so we are hoping to organise an engagement party at some time b/w March 23rd and April 2nd when we are back in Melbourne for yet another lightning visit to take in 2 weddings.