Last night Jennifer and I were strolling through the Public Garden in Boston and we stopped on the bridge over the lagoon, she thought we were stopping because of her request for a kiss on the bridge. Little did she know I had been thinking about this moment and in my mind stopping on the bridge hundreds of times over the last two days. As we stopped I kept looking around making sure we were completely alone, which is a tall order when you are standing on such a heavily traveled foot bridge. Finally when the last pedestrian had left the bridge and was no longer within earshot, I reached into my pocket and pulled out a small white box, bent down on one knee, opened the box and asked, “Jennifer Rose Riebe will you marry me?”

In a state of shock and surprise she realized what was actually taking place in front of her and answered, “Yes!!”


Now I suppose I should go back to the beginning of the story, so you can all have a better picture of how all of this went down. So about a month and a half ago I hinted about asking Jennifer to my mother and asked about the diamond from her engagement ring from my dad. Now this diamond has enough stories behind it that it warrants its own livejournal entry. Anyway eventually she gave me the diamond on the one condition that I was not allowed to show Jennifer the stone. Since I am bad a keeping a secret I immediately made Jennifer aware of the passing down of the diamond, but obeyed my mother’s rule and did not show it to her.

The next weekend Jennifer was up in Vermont and I called her sister, Melissa, to see if she would like to go on a shopping trip with me to Brockton. Now for years at State Street I had listened to WBCN and everyday they would play these quirky commercials from Romm and Co. jewelers. Now I reasoned that maybe if there ads were awkward it was a good sign of how good they might be as jewelers, sort of in the same way that athletes are bad at acting, but good at sports. So I decided to try out Romm and we drove down to their little store in Brockton. Once inside I told the sales person what I was looking for an antique setting for my pear shaped diamond. She immediately went over to the case and pulled out a beautiful setting and I knew it was exactly what Jennifer wanted. However since it was such a big purchase I asked to see others, but they didn’t compare to this one. With the help of Melissa we debated different metals and different versions of the ring and I finally came to a decision. The next step was to look at the diamond so I could know it whenever I saw it in the future. At first glance the diamond didn’t have the shine of all the diamonds I have typically seen on women’s fingers, but I just figured it was because it was from the late 70’s. The salesperson took it off to clean it and came back with one of the shiniest diamonds I had ever seen. Turns out it wasn’t out of date, but just a little dirty. I learned about my diamond and it was wrapped up to be shipped off to Chicago for its custom made setting. It was supposed to take about four weeks, so the waiting game began.

I told a few people about my purchase, but for the most part kept it quiet, well at least I tried. Time passed and I began to think about how I would actually “pop the question”. I knew a couple things, first I wanted to do it outside, second I wanted it to be a place we had been before and finally I wanted it to be a public place so we could always go back there again and again. My initial thought was Odiorne Point State Park where we went on our second date, then I thought about Plum Island since it was an important commonality on our Match.com profiles, but the more I thought about these places the more I realized that the current weather and short days would limit the times when it would be possible. Then I began to think locally, there aren’t many nice places outside in Somerville or Cambridge for that matter, where we had been together. However Boston had a few nice spots and one in particular stood out for me, the Public Garden.

Earlier in the year we had taken a wine class on Comm Ave and one night after the class it was snowing and we were walking through the Public Garden. It was a magical scene, with snow falling, the skyscrapers lit up all around and I remember being so happy and so in love with this amazing person. We stopped on the bridge, giggled a bit at just how happy we both were and decided that it was such a wonderful night we should go get some dinner instead of just going back home. Looking back it was almost like a scene right out of a movie.

Back in the present I decided this is where I would ask her to marry me, now all I needed was for the ring to get back from Chicago. The wait continued and life went on, and things were wonderful. We did notice though that with BoCaNO being on a Thursday we only had two week nights together, and following in the footsteps of two of my closest friends, we decided to start a date night. The first date night was supposed to happen last night. The original plan was to go skating on the frog pond and then go out for dinner. I thought the ring might be in for last night, but wasn’t sure and then got concerned that somehow people might draw parallels between my proposal and the proposal on my favorite sitcom, Mad About You. Paul actually proposed to Jamie while skating at Rockefeller Center in New York. Luckily for me the forecast turned bitterly cold and we ruled out skating as a viable option and settled on a nice dinner.

I got the call from Gladys at Romm on Monday morning. She said the ring was beautiful and more importantly ready to be picked up. I was so excited I couldn’t help but tell somebody and Miguel was the first person to know about it. I left work early and drove in traffic down to Brockton. The whole time I was thinking of what I would tell Jennifer if she called and asked where I was. I picked up the ring and headed for home and realized I had one more thing left to do before I could actually give her the ring, I needed to ask for her father’s blessing. The whole way home I thought about how the conversation would go, I know Jen’s family really well and definitely had nothing to be nervous about, but it is still a huge thing to ask a father for his daughter’s hand. Once I made it home I hid the ring in my desk and dialed Jennifer’s parents house. I easily got the question out and was given the green light for the final step in this oddly stressful endeavour. Jennifer finally came home from work and I tried my best to act normal and more or less accomplished the goal, although I was a bit hyper all night long. I slept fairly well considering all of the things that were going on in my head. I was concerned about the ring, wondering if the location was right, thinking about what I was going to say and worrying about how I would focus at work the next day.

Yesterday we woke up and I once again tried to contain myself so I didn’t give Jennifer any clues as to what was going to be going down that evening. All day at work I couldn’t stop thinking about what I was going to do and was sweating profusely. I made reservations at Via Matta near Park Plaza so we would have a warm place to go after. I left and went home to prepare for our first date night. I took a shower and shaved, which I feared would make her suspicious, but I made up a great excuse as to why. Finally she came home from tutoring and we were on our way into the city. I had the ring in my blazer pocket and kept a hand on it the entire ride in on the subway. Once in the city we began walking through the Common, her first comment was about how it reminded her of the night we walked in the snow after the wine tasting. I breathed a sigh of relief, because my plans were starting to line up perfectly. We walked across the Common and chatted about school, work and regular things, just like a couple might do on a date night. After crossing Charles Street we entered the Public Garden and walked towards the bridge. My brain began racing about a mile a minute as we approached the bridge. Jennifer then pointed out just how beautiful the Garden looked with all of the snow and lights on the trees. Once at the middle of the bridge she asked me if I would stop and give her a kiss. Once again as in our first date when she pulled me in for the first kiss, I was thankful that she had acted so I wouldn’t have to. So she thought we were stopping because of her request for a kiss on the bridge. Little did she know I had been thinking about this moment and in my mind stopping on the bridge hundreds of times over the last two days. As we stopped I kept looking around making sure we were completely alone, which is a tall order when you are standing on such a heavily traveled foot bridge. Finally when the last pedestrian had left the bridge and was no longer within earshot, I reached into my pocket and pulled out a small white box, bent down on one knee, opened the box and asked, “Jennifer Rose Riebe will you marry me?”

In a state of shock and surprise she realized what was actually taking place in front of her and answered, “Yes!!”

We embraced and mumbled things I can’t exactly remember right now, it all happened very quickly. After about a minute I asked her if she wanted to put the ring on or not. She was so caught up in the moment that she forgot to even look at the ring. I placed it on her finger and she let out a squeal of delight. We enjoyed the moment for a little while before I told her we had reservations at Via Matta and should start walking over towards Park Plaza. I also told her that she would not be allowed to call anybody until after dinner, because we needed to enjoy the moment for ourselves. Before we left the bridge though we stopped a guy walking along and asked him if he would take our picture. I felt I have been so good at documenting everything with my camera that this moment should not be missed. The smile on her face was priceless and could see just how happy she was, which made me extremely happy. The entire way to the restaurant we laughed about the future and how we were getting married and all of the silly things people talk about after such an event.

We happily walked into the restaurant and were quickly seated. The meal was wonderful and certainly a perfect fit for our wonderful evening. Jennifer couldn’t stop looking at her ring and giggling. Let me tell you, once a woman gets one of those things on her fingers, they go a little wacky. We finished our dinner with some delicious desserts, I wanted to spare no expenses on such an important day. Once outside I told Jennifer we could start calling people and we both set out calling our parents as we walked back to the subway. Everybody was ecstatic and the phones were passed around both between us and between parents. We finally made it back home and even the apartment felt different. It will definitely be a night I remember for the rest of my life, one of those once in a lifetime moments and you know what I wouldn’t change a thing.





Click to zoom.