So, here it goes.  Pretty long story of how the ring and the proposal came together.  I started shopping for the diamond maybe 2 months before the proposal.  After researching online a little bit I started to learn about cut, and how it was the most important C of the 4 C's.  Soon I found a diamond website and forum that had a lot of great information about angles, percentages, and what makes a diamond shine and sparkle and reflect light the way it does.  From there I found a few online vendors who had videos and pictures and all of these articles that expanded my diamond knowledge.  I'd become a semi diamond expert =P  So by then I had armed myself with a diamond calculator on my work PC, and an online diamond calculator that I could put in the table percentage, depth percentage, crown angle, pavilion angle, crown height percentage, pavilion depth percentage, etc other measurements that a diamond can have, and be able to calculate how well it interacted with light.

After searching for a few trusted vendors, I found a diamond I really liked and requested additional information about it.  Everything was looking good, so I put in a request to hold the diamond...  Sales associate said sure.  Then emailed me for my phone number and wanted to be sure which diamond was on hold.  After I gave him the requested information he emailed me back and said the diamond had been sold!!!  Oh noes >_<  So he said he'd find me a similar diamond, and I gave him details about what I liked about that one.  I was totally bummed out for the rest of the day/night.  I just figured that some lurker on the forum poached the diamond after someone else put in the work; heard it happens pretty often.  I figured hey, if it's gone then maybe it's just not meant to be.  Next day it turns out the diamond was still available (someone backed out?  or maybe the sales associate put a hold on the diamond w/o my information, then the hold got released since it didn't have everything it needed).  I wanted a few additional reports and things, and NY was having this crazy storm that caused huge delays in that office.  One day they didn't even have phone, internet, or electricity.  Oh well, worked out better for me because they held the diamond for about a week.  After I got all the reports and stuff they said they could only hold it for 3 days as is their policy.  Everyone on the forums said that the numbers all looked good, and it'd be a great diamond.  So, I went ahead and said, "I'll take it!"  Haha, a few days and a bank wire later and diamond was on its way.

When it arrived it shot out while taking it out of the tension clasp x_X I FREAKED OUT!  lol luckily my coworker found it.  It bounced off the wall and landed next to my hand.

Kat and I looked at a few ring designs together, and left it up to me.  I went with a mix of a Mark Morrell design and a Memoire eternity setting.  All custom done so there isn't another like it in the world! =P  Blu did a big favor and helped with the design and fabrication of the ring ^_^  It took about a month to make, so the proposal plans were either during our 7 year anniversary in Santa Barbara or sometime after.  During SB would've been a little too obvious, and also the ring wouldn't be done anyways.

So the plan was to have a great weekend in SB with an awesome open air jeep wine tour, and a nice french bistro dinner (all planned by me, so all complete surprises to Kat).  All great moments to propose haha.  I was thinking if I do it in SB one of those picturesque cliffs over the oceans would be nice lol.  SB weekend was great, but the french pricey dinner kinda sucked.  Service was good, but the food was definitely lacking for a fine dining restaurant.  Instead of taking the Monday afterwards off, I decided to have Kat take the following Friday off and I began to make plans.  I was thinking of throwing her off by having her think it'd happen in SB, then maybe the following friday since I told her to move her PTO, then on Thursday she might think it would happen at a nice dinner, then at UCI looking over the city and the campus (where we met), then maybe at Woodbridge Lake.  After all these expectations and disappointments she'd be surprised by coming home to an apt full of roses and candles and do it there.  After that we have a night at a b&b in Temecula before going down to San Diego to pick up her cousin.  Yep, I think it'd go well.

The ring was supposed to be done the following Monday, but Blu got the ring and it needed some work.  Heart prongs were uneven and needed a little bit of work.  Earliest it would be done would be the end of the week.  Crap, I'd already started preparing things.  Our PTO was scheduled for Friday, 100 roses from Costco were arriving Wednesday.  Can't really move things around, decided OK, will go forward with a Ring Pop and make it something cute, then go get the real thing together on Friday.  On Tuesday Blu tells me that it's done and he shipped it from Hong Kong and to call on Thursday to see if it's here yet.  Come Thursday I give the LA office a call, and hey, they have my ring!  Time to make a quick decision.  Skip half a day of work get the ring set so that I have the real ring during the proposal, or go together on Friday.  Bah, once in a lifetime thing.  I told my bosses what was going on, and that hey, I needed to jet.  Manager was really cool and said yeah no problem.  So there I go back to my apt to pick up the diamond, then drive up to LA, get the ring, then I'm taken down the hall to get it set, then I'm heading back to get everything ready.  I washed clothes and dishes in the morning and still needed to put clothes in the dryer, finish washing a few more dishes, and vacuum before Kat gets home.  I texted her during the day and said "Let's go on a date tonight :)"  We always joke around and she says she wants to go on a date, but we usually end up staying at home haha.  So I thought this would be a good way to trick her.  Before arriving home I pick up some roses from Costco and have that at the apt waiting for her as a diversion hehe.  Who would think roses twice in a night?  I put the ring box in my jacket that I'm going to wear tonight and put it back on the hanger and pull the shirt out of the dryer that she likes me in.

So when Kat gets home I tell her to take a shower and dress up in a dress tonight.  I have 8:15 reservations at Mastro's Steakhouse, and have her close her eyes on the freeway to make it more fun.  She doesn't know where we're going, and if she sees it she might guess it and figure it out.  Now that wouldn't be any fun at all haha.  I text Jen and Kris that we're heading out and they can come over and start setting things up.  I made them a copy of the key a few weeks prior.  We park in the structure and I say, "OK, you can open your eyes now."  She opens them and I see a disappointed look on her face.  No idea where we are.  We walk out and she points and asks are we going to TGIF?  I let her know we are and she says, "kool, but I'm a little overdressed for TGIF."  I later find out she believed me LOL. About to walk in, I go "Just kidding!" and we turn the other way.  Surprised she goes with me and I bring her to a nice restaurant, which she recognizes as a steak place I brought her to before.  I tell her I made a reservation for our 7 year anniversary since the food in SB was crappy.  We had a glass of Sebastiani Merlot, are some yummy bread from their bread bowl, and waited for our Petit Filet and Bone-in Ribeye hehehe with a side of Sauteed Asparagus.  This would've been a great time to propose.  Fancy restaurant, great ambiance, perfect spot to make it happen, but I didn't.  On a trip to the bathroom I call in to Kris to see how everything is going.  Dogs are being good, and he got into the apt okie.  I let him know everything's going as plan, and we'll probably be back around 10.

Done with dinner I drive back, but exit on Jamboree.  Kat's all wondering where we're going, but I just drive and chat.  We drive around UCI and go up to a parking structure where we can see all around Irvine, and can look over the campus where we met.  I even drive over to the service road outside my old dorm hehe.  Kat was getting cold so I put the ring in my jeans pocket and gave her my jacket and said maybe we should head out.  lol I was pretty nervous the whole night when she came over to my left side, in case she'd feel the ring.  I kept having her hold onto my right arm when she did that =P

All rightey, time to hit Woodbridge Lake!  Kat and I had a date where we came here before when we first started dating, and we also came here after our dormal (dorm formal in freshman year lol).  We walked around, sat on a bench looking over the lake and just chatted for a while.  She had my jacket on and we sat for quite some time.  Later on she told me that her heart was beating and she thought I might ask her there.  Nope!  I'd been texting Kris and letting him know the situation.  How far away, when we'd be getting back, etc.  It was time for us to go so I txt'd him that we were on the way back, and to make sure the candles were lit.

We park in the parking garage and Kat grabs the leftovers.  We head up the elevator and reach the second floor.  As we get out, I take the bag and said here you can open the door.  Kat opens the door and it's PERFECT.  Candles and roses EVERYWHERE.  Dogs in the crates so they don't ruin it haha.  Exactly as I had pictured.  Kat is just amazed.  I tell her my feelings and propose and she says yes hehe. She is completely surprised and wonders how I did it hehe.  Considering I was with her the whole time she doesn't know what the heck happened.  I hear some camera click go off and I wonder where Jen and Kris are.  Turns out they're hiding on the balcony.  Things went great, I was able to surprise Kat, and the place looked gorgeous.  Kris really outdid himself on the set up.  124 roses, about 130 candles with a heart shape on the ground.  The apt was really really hot when we got in there haha.  Then we just took a bunch of photos and videos for another hour or so before doing clean up.  All in all a very hectic last minute changed, but still according to plan proposal that went perfectly as I had wanted ^_^  4/23/09 a future Mr and Mrs. Kyo


Pics!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30274054@N00/sets/72157617367464623/

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