The Romantic.com

At the beginning of this year, I began looking for a suitable way to propose. I was not able to come up with an idea that was good enough on my own, so I started looking around and found “The Romantic’s Guide to Popping the Question”. It was excellent and a couple of the stories really caught my attention, but of course I wanted to personalize them so I did a little creative expanding.

I started by creating a list of attributes, and short explanations of them, that described my girlfriend or our relationship – one for each letter of the alphabet. (Okay, I used kiss for X – maybe I cheated but it worked.) For most attributes I found one or more quotes from the Bible and/or secular literary sources. (See Excerpt 1 below.) Knowing that the ampersand was part of the English alphabet a couple hundred years ago I created a special entry for my proposal using &. (See Excerpt 2 below.)

I used this text to create a book. I laid out the pages, printed them, cut them and sewed them into signatures, and hand-bound them to make a book
approximately 3″ x 4.5″ x .5″. I also created a book jacket, complete with liner notes and an about the author blurb, out of a stiff translucent vellum.

On the chosen day, my girlfriend and I took a walk to the park bench where we had started our relationship just over a year and a half before. She read the entire book and after she finished the last entry, I kneeled in front of her, told her I wanted to grow old with her and asked her to marry me. She agreed and we were wed on July 19. The book is one of her most prized possessions.

Excerpt 1:

B is for Best Friend

She is the first person I want to see in the morning and the last in the evening. We share our hopes and dreams, our daily experiences, our joys and
sorrows.

“Of all the heavenly treasures that mortal men commend, what trusty treasure in the world can countervail a friend?” — Nicholas Grimald, Of Friendship

“Some play at friendship but a true friend sticks closer than one’s nearest kin.”
— Proverbs 18:24

Excerpt 2:

& is for Jer & Aleasia

Peanut butter & jelly. Horse & carriage. Yin & yang. Once these things are put together, it becomes obvious that they are missing something when they
are apart.

“He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the Lord.”
— Proverbs 18:22