The Night I got down on one knee and proposed to my best friend and soon to be wife. I had planned it for several months in advance. I carefully considered everything from timing to location to how I would present the ring.

I needed help, of course, so I looked to Alison's mom for advise (ha ha ha), I love her and appreciate the help but her ideas seemed to be the kind of thing Alison would call "cheezy." I decided the best time was on the one week of the year that we look forward to the most, vacation week at Myrtle Beach.

This week we are stress free and can truely enjoy each other's company. Alison and I love to walk the beach at the end of our day. This is the time we get to really talk. We walk for a long time, just holding hands and talking about anything and everything. It's a time where we can appreciate how much we love each other. There is one area of the beach that is secluded, no buildings, people or much of anything but the ocean. It is very peacful. I like to call it our spot. I felt like it was the perfect place to propose.

The only thing I wasn't sure about was the day I would ask. I really wanted to play this by ear, I wanted the timing to be just right. I told my sister Maria and Sister-in-Law Lissie about my plan and they were as anxious as I was. After our first day there at the beach and a good dinner, Alison and I did our normal routine, planned a walk on the beach. I immediately was nervous and hands sweaty. I knew this night was it. So as we were getting ready to take our walk I remembered that I had left the ring in the car and wasn't sure how I would get away unnoticed to get it. My answer was to just walk out leaving Alison wandering where I was. This was a dumb decision, along with others I have made, but what are you going to do. Of course, as I expected, when I got back to the room Alison was upset with me because I was no where to be found. I think I used some lame excuse about getting money for the tiki bar (which I think was closed). As always, Alison forgave me quickly and we started our walk.

The weather couldn't have been better. It was right at sunset and the sky was just turning orange and deep blue. At his time I began to worry if we would make it to our spot before it got totaly dark. We began our normal conversation that we have about God, our future, and anything else that came to mind. I told her about how much I loved her and wanted to grow old with her but finances wouldn't allow it, trying my best to throw her off and still be romantic, trying to buy time until we got to our spot. At one point I realized that we were still pretty far from our spot and it was getting darker, so I started walking faster. It was hard to be romantic while trying to keep Alison from knowing that I had something up my sleeve while I'm speed walking.

So we finally get to our destination we stil have a few minutes of day light. At this point I can still see Alison's face but not so much of her eyes, if you can picture that. So I still need to hurry but I don't want to ruin the moment. So I have the ring safety pinned to the inside of my pocket, and I began to unfasten it. I am still waiting for the right moment and thinking of the right words, all while Alison is trying to look at sea shells. Right as I am about to pull her close to me she wants to go put our feet in the water. So I agree and we walk to the water and I think to myself, it would be cool to get down on one knee in the water. That would have been a bad decision, I could definitely see myself dropping the ring in the water, and at this time it is almost dark. There will be no retrieving it. So I waited, getting a little nervous about how dark it's getting.

On our way back we we started walking a little higher on the beach, and that was my moment. Still feeling the romantic mood I grabbed the ring from my pocket, and we were all alone. I pulled Alison to me, held her in my arms for a second and told her that I wanted her as my wife. she said "what are you saying?" At that moment I got down on one knee, pulled the ring from my pocket and I took her hand and said "will you marry me?" There was silence, although it was too dark for me to see her face, I could feel her crying. After a moment she was able to mudder out "of course I wil." Still on one knee I kissed her ring finger as I slid the ring onto her finger. I stood up and we just held each other for the longest time. As our faces were pressed together I could feel the tears rolling down her cheek and it made me so happy.

I'm glad I chose our first beach walk to propose because it made the rest of the vacation that much more special. One of the best days and best moments of my life. I am looking forward to sharing many more moments with my beautiful, soon-to-be wife. I love her so much.

I, of course, hadn't been in on all of the planning or nervouse preparation that went into the proposal but I had been shopping for rings with my mom since Albert and I first started dating, with the secret hope tht Albert would buy me one someday. Albert went to my mom to help him get the perfect ring. Somehow he managed to get the ring without me finding out (Which is impressive since my mom was in on it, she has a hard time keeping secrets from me).

It seemed like anything that could go wrong with planning our vacation did go wrong. First we had a hard time pinning down a day with the rest of the family. We had some confusion with the condo being double booked. Maria was gracious enough to get another condo for us. Then there was difficulty with me getting the days off from work. But in the end it all worked out. To me, it seemed like our walk was just another beach walk like we have every year. it wasn't until Albert started to say sweet things like how i had been there with him through thick and thin, how I was his best friend and how much he loved me. I kept telling myself that this sounds like a set up for a proposal but wouldn't allow myself to believe it, just in case it wasn't.

Then suddenly he grabs me around the waist and pulls me in to him, lifing my feet off the sand. I think " whoa, he is literally sweeping me off my feet," it doesn't get much more romantic than that. Then I realized that he had just kept me from stepping on a huge crab the size of a dinner plate. It raised it's claws at us, snapped them a few times and scurried sideways into the ocean. My hero! How could anyone say no after a heroic rescue like that? So we walk a little longer, he goes back to his sweet talk, out of no where he stops walking. pulls me in and starts kissing me. He gives the sweetest hug and whispers into my ear that he wants me to be his wife. I was still thinking in the back of my mind, don't get your hopes up, it may not be what it sounds like, so I had to ask "what are you saying." That's when he got down on one knee and there was no more question. I was crying so hard I could barely say yes. It was perfect. I just wish it wasn't so dark. I couldn't see his face or the engagment ring. But it did save a little of the surprise for when we got back to the condo. Definitely the best day of my life so far. The day I said yes, only to be topped by the day I say I do.

I was so excited to tell everyone that we were getting married only to find that everyone already knew. I was literally the last one to know. Not sure how they were able to spread the word while keeping me in the dark but it made for one awesome surprise.