At that point Fraser and I had been together nearly five years and we knew we wanted to get married at some point but we had no firm thoughts on when. I'd begun to tease him a little about proposing, mainly due to the fact that everyone was getting married around us. We were attending three or four weddings a year at that point so marriage was not too far from our radar. My sister had been teasing Fraser quite a lot; in fact, one Christmas she'd written a gift tag pretending to be from Fraser saying "Will you marry me?" Bless him, he nearly had a heart attack!
He'd asked me to book the Friday off work and said that he wanted to take me on a surprise day out. His reasoning for this was that he'd been away with work quite a bit and planned to be away over the coming months. Fair enough. Did it cross my mind that he was going to propose? Initially yes, but his reason was so valid that I couldn't decide for certain. I did bombard him with lots of questions, number one being:
S - "Are you going to propose?"
F - "NO!" Of course he had a full response prepared to throw me off the scent, and he did just that. Good man.
S - "Do I need a passport?"
F - "NO!"
I think I was more disappointed that I wasn't going abroad than the fact I wasn't being proposed to. After many more questions, all I managed to get out of him was that I needed to pack an overnight bag, pack swimwear and some smart evening wear. My mind immediately went to 'spa day', to which I reassured myself further that Fraser was definitely not going to propose. That just wasn't his style, right?
9th August arrived and off we went in the car; still with no idea where we were heading. A3, M25, signs for Staines - Staines? - what the hell is in Staines?
Luckily we weren't heading for Staines, we were heading for the gorgeous Runnymede hotel, set on the banks of the River Thames, near Windsor. As soon as we drove up I knew Fraser was definitely not going to propose. It was all just so cliche and, dare I say it, predictable (pah, how wrong was I?). We checked in, went up to the room, dumped our bags and checked out what the hotel had to offer. Fraser did confess that he thought we were long overdue some quality 'Shaz' (Shona+Fraz) time, and he'd heard good things about the hotel, so took the plunge. Yes, the hotel had a spa, and it even had an outdoor swimming pool (amazing). The weather was beautiful that day too, so we headed straight outdoors and grabbed our sun loungers.
Dinner was absolutely delicious. I have no recollection of what we had; I just remember Fraser tipping the pepper pot over his main and the lid coming off - a mound of pepper landing on top of his dinner. I found that quite hilarious, the server was mortified but the chef did an excellent job of preparing a new dish within minutes. Now, I do remember dessert, because I LOVE trifle. Still no proposal though.
After dinner, we retired to the bar and had quite a number of drinks. Still no proposal. We both started to feel a little tipsy, so retired to the room. I went to the bathroom and unbeknown to me, this is when Fraser did his 'prep' (he put out the proposal card on the dresser). By the time I'd faffed around in the bathroom I was pretty tired. I laid on the bed feeling a little tipsy and tired, not noticing the card for at least 40 mins. On reflection, I do recall Fraser acting rather strangely during those 40 minutes - up and down like a yo-yo, waving his arms around whilst stood in front of the dresser. Nope, I didn't have a clue. FINALLY, I noticed...
S - "Is that a card? For me?"
F - "Yes, why don't you open it"
<opens card>
<sees message>
S - "Are you serious?"
F - "Yeah, so how about it?"
S - "YES, YES, YES!"
<wipes tears from eyes>
What I loved about the proposal was that Fraser never actually said those four little words - will you marry me? - instead, he left it to that one image to do all the talking. He also combined two of my favourite things into his proposal - photography and a (greetings) card (I love cards more than presents). It was perfect! Truly perfect. I love the fact I have a physical memory and keepsake from the proposal, and not just a ring - although Fraser didn't have a ring for the proposal as I'd told him not to buy one. I'm not a big fan of jewellery and am rather fussy when I do wear it, so I wanted to personally try rings on and thought choosing it together would be much more fun than Fraser hoping he'd made a right choice alone.
Of course, we went ring shopping the next day and I made my choice quite quickly (see photo at top of page). I knew instantly it was right for me: simple, understated, practical yet different to some of the more traditional engagement rings out there.
After calling family and friends to announce the news, I knew what I had to do next...
Shones
xoxo
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