A few weeks before spring break I had been asked by another friend, Stuckey, if I would like to come back to his hometown. One of the main parts of this trip was to visit Stuckey's Granddad's jewelry shop. He was going to be closing his store and Stuckey said that his Granddad could hook me up. I was up for the trip, but Jennifer wasn't very excited for me to leave her at Georgetown for the weekend all by herself. If she had only known why I don't think she would have been as upset. Stuckey, Tony and I all went to the jewelry store that Saturday and I found the diamond cut, Princess, that Jennifer had mentioned that she liked. After much deliberation and even a phone call home to talk with my parents, I decided to purchase the ring. At this point I had no idea when I was going to pop the question, but at least now I would have the ring whenever I felt the timing was right.
Two days before leaving on our journey to the Big Easy, Stuckey came back from his hometown with the ring that had been sized to fit Jennifer's finger. It was at this point that the idea came to me that New Orleans would be a good option for popping the question. There was already a few people on the football team that knew the ring had been bought and with Georgetown being a small school, I didn't want anyone to ruin the surprise.
We stopped by Livermore on the way to New Orleans so that we could swap vehicles and use my parents mini van to make the trip a little more comfortable on the ride down. I told Jennifer that I needed to work a shift at Sears, which had been my summer job so that I could stay on the payroll. However, I had really asked her parents, Bobby and Kara to meet me for dinner. I bought their dinner and asked if they would be alright with me asking Jennifer to marry me. They both were really excited and said they would be happy to have me as a son-in-law.
After the 13 hour trip of driving through the night, we actually arrived earlier than expected and couldn't check into our hotel room, so we slept in the car at a Wal-mart. We roamed around the city and Bourbon Street the next two days. On the way back to the hotel after the second night, Jen told me that she really wasn't having that much fun because we were spending the majority of our time watching people drink and act stupid. I told her that we would get up the next day and just explore the city on our own. She seemed ok with that idea.
That night I only slept about 2 hours because I was so nervous about how I was going to ask Jennifer to marry me. I decided that we would get up, head down to Cafe du Monde and have some beignets and then head down to a park that I had remembered from a previous trip to New Orleans with my family. I would ask her there in the park on the banks of the Mississippi River. I couldn't take it any longer, so around 6 am I woke up Jennifer and told her to get ready so we could get a jump start on the day. I told her to wear something a little dressier and I even put on a dress shirt and khaki pants, yes that’s right pants!
Our hotel wasn't in the best part of town and when leaving the hotel that morning we had to walk past about 20-30 homeless people. This made me extremely nervous because I had this ring in my pocket and I definitely didn't want it to fall out, so I checked my pocket about every 5 steps. We arrived at Cafe du Monde and we placed and order for two orders of beignets. I was so nervous that I barely choked down one. I suggested that we head over to the river and take a walk since it was so nice out. Upon reaching the river walkway, I looked ahead to kind of map out my path to the park that I had thought about before hand for the perfect spot. The only problem was that I saw no park anywhere. (Come to find out later on that it was just hidden behind a building about 100 yards from where we were.) I panicked and just suggested that we sit down at the nearest park bench. We sat there for what seemed like an eternity (probably just a few minutes real time) because my mind just went completely blank. After gathering up the words I wanted to say I started to get frustrated because about every time I was about to stand up to get down on one knee a morning jogger or cyclist decided to pass by us. I finally found a break in the fitness freaks and got down on one knee and I asked Jennifer if she would like to spend the rest of her life with me. At least that is what I wanted to say. Neither Jennifer nor I can remember exactly what was said during the exchange. I don't even think Jennifer said yes, but her putting the ring on her finger was the only answer I needed. We hugged, kissed and Jennifer even got a little teary. Almost immediately after sitting back down on the bench a cyclist passed by and said "Good Morning" and indeed at was. I even snapped a picture of Jennifer on the park bench. Then we walked back to the hotel and along the way I told Jennifer about all the lies and stories that I had to tell her to make it a surprise. Jennifer decided to call her family and tell the good news, even though they already knew.
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| Jennifer on the park bench where I popped the question |
New Orleans definitely holds a special place in my heart. We were lucky enough to have visited before hurricane Katrina hit. To help with the recovery of the city we decided that we would forgo wedding favors and instead donate money to help the great city of New Orleans. Thanks for reading and God Bless!
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