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AN IMPROMPTU PROPOSAL

~ From Greg

It was a foregone conclusion we’d be married shortly after we met. For me personally, marriage is just a formality – and being in the travel & event design biz, I knew the only two weddings one remembers is the best one ever and the one you can’t wait to bail on. I want nothing to do with the grief either of those brings…much more fun to spend your time and resources on the honeymoon.

I was in Houston and bought an engagement ring for Lea. Soon after, I needed to be in Bali to handle a client’s family trip and knew this was my chance to propose in an environment she hadn’t laid eyes upon before. Upon arrival, the first thing I did for the client was arrange their security detail, police escorts and their evening festivities at the villa for their arrival. It occurred to me I’m paying all these people for their day off so I might as well put them to work!

I hastily called for an 11th hour morning meeting and asked for the police car, motorcycle officers and security to meet me for breakfast at the staff villa. Now we need a plot! I asked each to describe who they are and what they do and learned that the ranking guy is a Sergeant with Military Intelligence (with federal jurisdiction no less). There’s the story!

Speaking slowly, I gave them my best hand gestures and my translator connected the dots. As a control freak, I can’t stand miscommunications but I have 40 minutes until Lea realizes I sent her on a bogus errand. I explain that somewhere, along the route, as we roll through the red lights sirens blazing, I want the military to step into the street as soon as we burn the red light and pull the entourage over. Nodding their heads (as though they agreed on an intersection), I’m thinking how lucky I am to have a gullible girlfriend in case they screw it up. Oops – Lea’s back! – the meeting ends abruptly.

So we’re off to the villa and Lea’s having the time of her life processing all the sirens with tourists being shoved to the side of the road by our motorcade and I’m trying to act natural whilst wondering where and how this is going to go down. And then it happens – the military blocks our path and now we’re the ones getting shoved to the side of the road. She’s visibly worried as Asians don’t take safety for granted (with police) especially her first time out of her country. We were questioned as to why we were using government assets illegally and intended for Ministers and the like. Next, we’re “arrested” and placed in a metro police car.

True to the plot, I explain to the military chap that I’m very, very important and the Ministry of Tourism won’t look kindly on my arrest the day I propose to my girl. He wasn’t terribly impressed with my name dropping. He let us know that if I am so important, they can help me and Lea get out of the clink. Lea’s terrified and further agitated with my constant elbowing in her ribs – ‘smile’! Right on cue, even better than if we’d rehearsed it, I pleaded with him to show some compassion for our engagement day. He challenged me by asking for proof of ‘popping the big question’(like a video or a ring)!

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Naturally I delegated this to Lea and asked her to prove it with pictures of our engagement. Yes, very mean of me – she was trembling as she swiped away on her iPhone, desperately looking for something that would suffice. She put all her chips in on a photo of an amazing past homecoming from overseas and I felt so bad for her when he looked at her like she was stoned and showing off her party pics. So I decided to stop the torture and prove to him it wasn’t a lie, it simply hadn’t happened yet! I whipped out her ring and you could see the turbine in her head trying to process this but circuitry overload prevented that. And the sergeant felt bad and smiled ear to ear (a minute or two before I wanted)…and then you could see the color rush back into her face. I put the ring on her finger – wrong one of course, because now I’m nervous!

Yes, it was a beautiful day. Except I know from time to time when she’s flipping through YouTube proposals, she’ll ask me why I had to make her cry vs. getting on one knee (she’s very much the romantic). And I just smile, because she did say yes and the story is now so much more fun to tell.