The Proposal

A couple nights before, Dennis casually mentioned that the partners for the company he works for wanted to have New Year's dinner with the managers. It was very last minute, but with his company, last minute notices are quite normal. I remember a year ago, Dennis called me at work to tell me that we would be going to a Canucks hockey game later that night as he was given a pair of tickets shortly after lunch. Last minute plans are nothing new to his company.

So, on December 30th we were on our way to dinner at Don Francesco, an upscale Italian restaurant downtown. Oddly enough, I thought to myself that I won't be getting engaged this year - tonight was the dinner with his partners and with tomorrow being New Year's Eve... everyone who knows me knows that I find proposals on holidays and special days (ie: Christmas, New Year's, birthdays, anniversaries etc.) tacky. So in my head, I was thinking that there goes another year! Oh well... Anyways, before we left the house, Dennis mentioned that a friend from work wanted to meet up just before dinner. He suspected that she wanted give us a present since we gave her and her husband a Christmas present the week before. During the drive he received a text from this friend to meet at the 'red thing on Robson.' A few minutes later, she sent another text clarifying where she wanted to meet. Since Dennis and I have spent a lot of time in the area, we joked around about how well we knew that landmark.

We parked at the Law Courts due to its close proximity to the restaurant and Robson Square. Even though we were running a little late, I smiled as we walked up to the street level. I was thinking about how we met at the Law Courts, and how Robson Square was the starting and end point of our annual Scavenger Hunt that we organize together for our 24Hr Relay team. It’s definitely a place we’re fond of and very familiar with.

When we got to the 'red thing', Dennis started to talk about the sculpture (which is actually called 'Spring'). He retold the story of how his father took him and his brother to this spot when they were younger and what that day means to him. I was a bit confused because he was acting a little weird. He continued talking turning his attention to 'Spring', in fact, he said the words, “our love is infinitely Spring”. I was really starting to worry about him because he looked very nervous and normally doesn’t talk like this in public. In private, he’s the sweetest guy ever, but when we’re out in public he likes to clown around. Again, I interrupted and again, he continued on saying that “our love is infinitely Spring”. He kept saying all these sweet things to me and the whole time I was thinking to myself - "Where the hell is this friend of his and why is he telling me all this now when we're running late for an important dinner?!"

Then to my surprise, he dropped down to one knee! I finally clued in - he was about to ask me the question I've been dying to hear for the past year and a half!! I got so teary-eyed that when he took the box out of his pocket, the ring was a big shiny blur.

After his proposal, he told me that there was no dinner at Don Francesco (duh!) but we did have reservations at Goldfish Pacific Kitchen in Yaletown that we were now running late for. Apparently, he had it timed perfectly but since I kept interrupting him so much, I threw him off a little. Yup, it was a typical Dilannis moment  =)

Here's a picture of my gorgeous ring; I love it!! We had it custom-made by Minichiello Jewellers. They're a family run business and have been around since 1958. They are amazing! I highly recommend them to anyone looking for any kind of jewelry. Consequently, they were highly recommended to us by both of our best friends who had used them for all their wedding jewelry needs. You can find out more about them here.