Wedding Blog

Wednesday, August 8th began as more or less a regular Wednesday. DC broke a temperature record, hitting 102 degrees. My new roommate and I went grocery shopping, and Breyer’s ice cream was buy-one-get-one-free. And Mr. T came over for dinner, as he does most Wednesdays….

But things took an unusual turn mid-evening. After we got the groceries stowed away, Mr. T took me into my bedroom and handed me a photo album. The album featured photos of the two of us together over the past three years (which didn’t take long, as the two of us aren’t “jump in front of the camera” types), of places we’ve been and things we’ve done, of our pets, etc. And then, I flipped the page, and there was a “teaser” photo of a beautiful rectangular diamond! (I’ve actually seen this once before – Mr. T showed it to me about a month prior to cheer me up the day I got pickpocketed and had all my credit cards and ID stolen….) And then, I flipped the page, and the 4 photos on the album spread were of this:

Mr. T pulled out a ring and dropped to one knee for a “proper” proposal. And of course I said yes!!

We’d been planning the wedding unofficially for a couple of months, so there wasn’t that much suspense over my answer! But he was still so nervous he had to double-check “You did just say yes, didn’t you??” I reassured him that, like most girls, since childhood I’ve been dreaming of the handsome man who would one day ask for my hand, and in all those years I honestly never dreamed of anyone so perfect for me. He makes me blissfully happy.

And the ring’s not bad either! We found a style that we liked at Bulgari, and Mr. T worked with a jeweler to come up with a handcrafted ring in a similar style. (A member of the jeweler’s family is a friend of Mr. T’s sister from medical school — he used to cut diamonds, and now he puts that skill set to work as a neurosurgeon. How cool is that? But it made it hard to rush him on the ring front … “Um, could you stop with the saving lives and focus on our bling for just one moment??”) It’s stunning — so sparkly — and I love the fact that Mr. T put so much of his time and thought into it as opposed to just walking in somewhere and plunking down a credit card. Wearing it feels like carrying a piece of his heart around with me.

I also love the reason Mr. T chose to propose on the 8th: Mr. T loves number tricks, and the date 8-8-07 has special meaning in Chinese numerology. The double 8-8 means “double happiness”, and 7 means “togetherness.” So that date is like a wish for each of us to be happy (”double happiness”) in our marriage together (”togetherness”) forever!

(Character for “Double Happiness”)

The whole “event” was perfect for me. The fact that Mr. T took the time and effort to put together the photo book — a big deal in this digital age! — and to cut and paste all the letters of his word signs, etc., meant so much more to me than an expensive purchased gift or grand public gesture ever would…. What can I say, that’s just how this girl rolls!

Afterward, we went to dinner at the restaurant where we had our first date. Here’s the happy couple (plus ring), courtesy of our waitress:

[P.S. Sorry there aren’t more/better photos -- what a terrible time to run out of camera battery! I tried at least to beef things up with the rather odd cigar label at the beginning, which came in Wednesday’s Dover Clip Art Sampler. Just because the timing was uncanny, if nothing else!]