Engagement Day

My girlfriend and I are conversationalists. No topic is taboo, and every decision is an opportunity for discussion. So you can imagine the process of engagement, and now our subsequent marriage planning, has been a veritable wealth of interesting topics. This tale relates to the former, our engagement. The Engagement Day, I should say.

The story begins months beforehand as we chatted about gender roles in general, and then those that related specifically to spousal arrangements. Gender roles tend to propogate stereotypes, we concluded, and decided to discuss each tradition in turn and mold them to our own design. We shopped for gemstones together for the engagement rings, picking out a pair of sapphires that will mean something in their twin design, and amalgamated our lives in a very congenial manner.

As for the actual proposal, we both wanted a special day but experience has taught us that expectation can apply unnecessary stress and pressure, and circumstances can sometimes cause the best of plans to go awry. Our solution: a series of Engagement Days, planned for extreme fun and romanticity (it's a word!). At the end of each I would mentally check our connectivity and, if I felt the SIN wave of our love happened to be at an appex (yes, I am an engineer), I would propose. If she felt it also was at a high, she would accept. Otherwise we would just happily plan anew.

The first of said Engagement Days took place in Niagara Falls. I do not get a lot of vacation time so we splurged a little, with a beautiful suite in an amazing hotel by the falls. We had other adventures on the days preceeding and following, but I will focus on the Engagement Day specifically. Our morning began with Adventure Passes. Jess and I are both adventurous people and we felt passes to all the Niagara events would suit us perfectly. Our organisational skills also played a part since we had previously determined that passes allowed for the bypassing of lines; instrumental in keeping spirits high. Success!

The first quest was a journey behind the falls. Our new waterproof digital camera did its job admirably, with videos of us both looking ridiculous in our bright yellow ponchos... water cascading down around us. Next we ventured out to the Maid of the Mists, coincidentally arriving just as a boat was departing and another was pulling up. We had our pick of placement! To the fore we went, crazy that we were, and we both had a chance to play Jack from Titanic, crying out "I'm the king of the woooorld!" as we leaned out over the prow. Jess was a better "Jack" than I. Then our little Titanic hit the centrifuge that is the Falls, and we got drenched. We had new blue ponchos but I wanted to keep mine as a souvenir so I reused my yellow one, leaving me the only yellow dot in a sea of blue when viewed from the ledges above.

We laughed and played all afternoon as we walked along the Falls, all the way down to the rapids. Some of the deadliest rapids in the world, we were told, and we walked over them on a rickety wooden bridge. Our attention was diverted, as it often is with Jess an I, by cotton-like nests of caterpillars that dotted the trees around us. They were so cute! ...and a prelude of things to come.

The Butterfly Conservatory! Our last adventure with the Niagara Adventure Passes took us farther down the Fall-side roads to nature park. With dinner reservations for 7pm we could not take in the full view of the parks, but we did step inside the Butterfly Conservatory... the most magical place I've ever had the pleasure of visiting. Thousands of beautiful butterflies flutter about and play, oft landing on the necks, backs, and arms of surprised visitors (to our great delight!). Time flew and I was sad to go. If it is at all possible, that is where I would like to get married. And live out the rest of my life.

We returned to the hotel for one incredible dinner; four courses and our own wine consierge that matched dish to vino like the expert that he no-doubt is. By candlelight we ate and chatted until the hour grew late and we ventured up to our hotel room to digest and snuggle. Lo and behold, mere minutes after our return to our 16th floor chambers, fireworks exploded over the falls, illuminating our room through the entirely-glass third wall.

The moment was perfect, and thus ended our "Series of Engagement Days" on the very first try.
You may notice gaps of a few hours here and there in our day's festivities; lets just say Jess and I are efficient, and affectionate, and we let no free time go to waste. We enjoyed our vacation thoroughly!

We will be getting married in June/July '09, and I am desperately searching for a butterfly venue in or near Montreal to host the ceremony.

I haven't read through this, but I pressed Enter a few times at random points for other readers....

Originally Posted by robilar

My girlfriend and I are conversationalists. No topic is taboo, and every decision is an opportunity for discussion. So you can imagine the process of engagement, and now our subsequent marriage planning, has been a veritable wealth of interesting topics. This tale relates to the former, our engagement. The Engagement Day, I should say. The story begins months beforehand as we chatted about gender roles in general, and then those that related specifically to spousal arrangements.

Gender roles tend to propogate stereotypes, we concluded, and decided to discuss each tradition in turn and mold them to our own design. We shopped for gemstones together for the engagement rings, picking out a pair of sapphires that will mean something in their twin design, and amalgamated our lives in a very congenial manner. As for the actual proposal, we both wanted a special day but experience has taught us that expectation can apply unnecessary stress and pressure, and circumstances can sometimes cause the best of plans to go awry.

Our solution: a series of Engagement Days, planned for extreme fun and romanticity (it's a word!). At the end of each I would mentally check our connectivity and, if I felt the SIN wave of our love happened to be at an appex (yes, I am an engineer), I would propose. If she felt it also was at a high, she would accept. Otherwise we would just happily plan anew.

The first of said Engagement Days took place in Niagara Falls. I do not get a lot of vacation time so we splurged a little, with a beautiful suite in an amazing hotel by the falls. We had other adventures on the days preceeding and following, but I will focus on the Engagement Day specifically. Our morning began with Adventure Passes. Jess and I are both adventurous people and we felt passes to all the Niagara events would suit us perfectly. Our organisational skills also played a part since we had previously determined that passes allowed for the bypassing of lines; instrumental in keeping spirits high. Success! The first quest was a journey behind the falls.

Our new waterproof digital camera did its job admirably, with videos of us both looking ridiculous in our bright yellow ponchos... water cascading down around us. Next we ventured out to the Maid of the Mists, coincidentally arriving just as a boat was departing and another was pulling up. We had our pick of placement! To the fore we went, crazy that we were, and we both had a chance to play Jack from Titanic, crying out "I'm the king of the woooorld!" as we leaned out over the prow. Jess was a better "Jack" than I. Then our little Titanic hit the centrifuge that is the Falls, and we got drenched. We had new blue ponchos but I wanted to keep mine as a souvenir so I reused my yellow one, leaving me the only yellow dot in a sea of blue when viewed from the ledges above.

We laughed and played all afternoon as we walked along the Falls, all the way down to the rapids. Some of the deadliest rapids in the world, we were told, and we walked over them on a rickety wooden bridge. Our attention was diverted, as it often is with Jess an I, by cotton-like nests of caterpillars that dotted the trees around us. They were so cute! ...and a prelude of things to come.

The Butterfly Conservatory! Our last adventure with the Niagara Adventure Passes took us farther down the Fall-side roads to nature park. With dinner reservations for 7pm we could not take in the full view of the parks, but we did step inside the Butterfly Conservatory... the most magical place I've ever had the pleasure of visiting. Thousands of beautiful butterflies flutter about and play, oft landing on the necks, backs, and arms of surprised visitors (to our great delight!). Time flew and I was sad to go. If it is at all possible, that is where I would like to get married. And live out the rest of my life.

We returned to the hotel for one incredible dinner; four courses and our own wine consierge that matched dish to vino like the expert that he no-doubt is. By candlelight we ate and chatted until the hour grew late and we ventured up to our hotel room to digest and snuggle. Lo and behold, mere minutes after our return to our 16th floor chambers, fireworks exploded over the falls, illuminating our room through the entirely-glass third wall.
The moment was perfect, and thus ended our "Series of Engagement Days" on the very first try.

You may notice gaps of a few hours here and there in our day's festivities; lets just say Jess and I are efficient, and affectionate, and we let no free time go to waste. We enjoyed our vacation thoroughly!
We will be getting married in June/July '09, and I am desperately searching for a butterfly venue in or near Montreal to host the ceremony.

Thanks! I just copy-pasted from the online form, after the form crashed on "Submit".