I said "yes!" James enlisted the help of one of my best friends to set me up for a total surprise. He'd been telling me for days that he was craving crawfish. That's nothing unusual. Rynn (the accomplice), suggested we have a girls' lunch out to celebrate Valentine's Day. Later, she said she would be inviting her husband and I should invite James. I completely forgot about it until the night before. Rynn said she wanted to dress up for the lunch which I thought was a little weird but whatever. Then she asked if I had invited James. Of course, I texted him on the spot and he accepted. Rynn suggested a new restaurant that I knew James had already been to and loved, Bayou Jack's. There were five of us ladies altogether plus James. Rynn's husband had to bail at the last minute. We ordered lunch...James did not order crawfish which I thought was odd since he had been talking about it for days. We had the best service ever! An empty dish or dirty napkin did not last long. After we'd finished eating, James handed me a tiny little envelope with a silver charm for my charm bracelet. I thought it was a lobster because I couldn't imagine anyone would make a crawfish charm. Suddenly I was aware that everyone had their phones out pointing at us. James asked me if I knew what the February 13th was. I said it was the anniversary of the day I got Sasha Valentine (thinking to myself...he wouldn't know that). No, he said, it's the anniversary of the first day we made contact with each other online. Then, he asked me if I knew what the crawfish commemorated. "Our first date?" I guessed because we had had crawfish at a local oyster bar on our first date. "No," he said, "it's for the day I propose to you." He got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. The entire restaurant applauded when I accepted. Another customer stopped by the table and asked James what in the world did he have planned for Valentine's Day if this was what he did the day before! Later, Rynn told me how texts were flying between her and James because I had neglected to invite him to lunch with us. She also stopped by the restaurant on her way to work to enlist the help of the waitstaff and choose just the right table. James told me he was nervous, not because he was afraid I would say no, but because he wanted to make it something special that I would remember forever. I think he succeeded.

For months, Carla and I knew we would be getting married, heck, we even had our date set, but I knew I had to at least surprise her with the proposal.  I started my recon in December, December 17 to be exact.  Carla and I were doing some pre-wedding browsing at the mall and we stepped into the Kays Jewelers.   I wasn't feeling well, which I later found out was from a hematoma in my neck that would require emergency surgery 2 hours later.  But, I powered through it and did my best to pay attention to what Carla was looking at.  When I recovered from the surgery and was able to get out on my own, I recruited the help of my two coworkers and good friends, Kelly and Krystal to help me pick out the ring.  By early February I finally had ring in hand and was in need of a plan.  I wasn't sure how to surprise a woman that knew a proposal was coming, so I figured I need to do it at a time and place she wouldn't expect, and I needed an accomplice.  I recruited her close friend, Rynn.  I figured if she invited Carla to lunch and then asked her to bring me along, there would be no way she would expect a proposal.  I decided I was going to propose on February 13 because that was the same day last year that she contacted me for the first time.  I also was going to give her a little gift prior to the proposal to get her off track.  I bought her a crawfish charm for her bracelet thinking she may think it would represent where we eventually went on our first date, J & J's Oyster Bar where I had a nice bowl of crawfish.  I told Rynn my plan and she said she would take care of it.  She decided to invite her to lunch the day before and she would ask her to invite me since she was inviting her husband.  Carla accepted the invitation early in the morning and I was told by Rynn, my invite should come soon.  I sat by my phone waiting, and waiting, and waiting.  But by lunch, she still hadn't invited me.  I started to worry that maybe she didn't want me to go and she wanted to keep it a girls only lunch.  I texted Rynn and she assured me she would get Carla to invite me and that I would probably hear from her after lunch.  Lunch came and gone, and so did the afternoon, still no invite.  After work, Carla and I had plans, so surely she would mention it then.  It was 8:30pm and she still hadn't invited me.  At this point I was texting Rynn in a slight panic.  She told me that Carla was texting her over her concern that we may not be able to get married at our first venue choice, but she would make sure it happened.  By 9:30, I had to leave to go home and was afraid it may not happen according to plan and I would need to come up with a second option.  But, I finally got the text from Rynn, Carla had forgotten and was about to call me.  The call came in and I was invited to lunch.  I acted like I might be busy, but I would make sure I could get there to meet her.  A few minutes later, Rynn texted and told me she was able to get Carla to go to the restaurant I wanted and the plan was a go.  What a relief! 

The next day I was a nervous wreck.  Everyone at work knew what was going on and the women couldn't wait to hear back from me on how it went.  The time came to leave and was notified by Rynn that a couple other ladies would be joining us.  At first it was going to be Carla, Rynn and Kim.  But now Meagan and Lori were going to be there.  Great, all I needed was a larger audience.  I got there a little late and they were waiting for me at the corner table.  We ordered lunch and when it was about time to go, the time had come.  I gave Rynn a little tap with my foot so she was ready with the camera and made the move to my pocket to get the crawfish charm, but then the waitress showed up to ask if we wanted dessert.  Dammit! no we don't want dessert!  I turned and asked Carla if she knew what day today was.  She said she didn't know, was it the day she got Sasha.  I told her no, which it was, I don't know why I said no.  I told her it was the one year anniversary of when she first contacted me.  She acted a bit surprised.  I pulled out the crawfish charm and gave it to her and asked if she knew what this charm represented.  She guessed it was for our first date at J & J's.  That's when I told her it wasn't for that, it represented the day I proposed to her.  She knew immediately what that meant.  I got out of my chair and as I got to my knee I noticed all the ladies at the table had their phones out and were ready for the pictures.  The tables around us had heads all turned and were watching what was going on.  I pulled the ring out of my pocket, opened up the case, showed her the ring and asked her to marry me.  Of course she said yes and then asked me to put the ring on her finger.  I forgot that part, I think I was just relieved to get the proposal out without screwing it up.