Ayden and Lisa’s Proposal Story

Meet Ayden and Lisa. They got engaged in September and they have shared their beautiful proposal story with me.

Wednesday, 10th September 2015

 

It felt like the windiest day in Cape Town when my (now) fiance took me halfway up Table Mountain to a little spot after Platterklip. He had chosen this day to hold a book review.

 

For our 1 year anniversary in January 2014, Ayden had written a book for me. It was about a bear and a bird and was even illustrated by a very good friend of ours, Dani Snowball. The unbound pages of this book were very beautiful in themselves, but Ayden envisioned them being bound. So he tried as hard as he could to do so in his own capacity. Eventually, he decided to get it professionally printed and bound rather. On this Wednesday after I finished work he was going to take me to a secret place and finally give me the book officially after much build up. Despite the wind, we sat together reading the completed book. It was perfect. Ayden then ran back to his car to get me a jacket and at the same time retrieved another book. It too was about the bird and the bear, and as I was nearing the end of the book, the second last page had this written, alongside a beautiful illustration of a bear on his knees in front of a bird:

 

Knowing this in his heart of hearts
And that their love for each other is off the charts
The bear could not imagine life without the bird
And for each other, they have laboured.
The bear got down on one knee
He had just one question…

It was then that I looked up from the book and saw Ayden on his knee in front of me. I don’t really remember what his exact words were as the wave of shock, surprise and excitement rolled in. I couldn’t really believe that this moment was happening and all that I could do was shake my head in disbelief as tears rolled down my face. He was in front of me asking me to be his wife and in hand was the most perfect ring I had ever seen. I then remember clearly how Ayden asked me if my nodding meant yes, so I nodded again. He then asked me to actually say the word ‘yes’ and I did.

 

After much dancing and excitement, and because it was freezing, we got back in the car and Ayden gave me a beautiful polariod camera, a hammer, two nails and a plaque that said “Ayden & Lisa Always 10-09-2014” as well as two tickets to go to Johannesburg that weekend to surprise my family. From that moment on no one else was to know about what just happened until we had surprise my family. It was the most exciting time of my life, but yet the hardest secret to keep.

 

We hammered the plague into the big tree that marked this outlook spot and now our engagement spot and then drove to another unknown destination, unknown to me that is, where Ayden had made a booking for two. Seated at that ‘Love Shack’ table in the Bombay Bicycle Club restaurant, Ayden and I had the most glorious dinner even though we didn’t have much appetite. Once we had finished at Bombay, I thought it was now home time. However, Ayden then planned for us to go to the Odyssey to have a surprise  celebratory beer, which included his seeing his Mom, Dad and sister. After this, it was really home time, but because of the wind effecting our stay on the mountain we went back to my flat to indulge in the little picnic basket that Ayden prepared for us, which include some champaign, white chocolate strawberries and homemade Lindt Wasabi dark chocolate (because you cannot buy it anywhere anymore), my favorite. The evening seemed to have lasted a lifetime, but at the same time felt like it had ended in a blink of an eye. It truly was something I will never forget and always cherish.

#hedidsowell

If you would like to share your proposal story with the Illuminate My Event readers, you can submit it here. I would love to hear from you!