Hi, my name is Terry Smith and I'm a developer and aspiring entrepreneur.

So there it was, the big day. The day I popped the ultimate question and asked my then girlfriend to become my then fiancee (now wife). I was living in San Jose, California, life was good and Ashlyn was coming to visit for a few days where we would enjoy the beach and check out Disneyland. Sound romantic? Well I’m getting ahead of myself; it was actually the day before I was going to ask the question and I didn’t have the ring. Yup, you read that right: on the day I proposed, I didn’t have the ring to propose with. It was back ordered. I had a ring (Engagement Ring Jr.), but not the ring.

By the time we got back to my apartment after I picked her up from the airport, she was tired and just wanted to pack for our trip to Disneyland and go to bed. Unbeknownst to me, she goes to the bedroom and begins to empty out my suitcase (where, being smart, I had “hidden” the ring). So as soon as I heard the unzipping of the bag, I ran to the bedroom as she was reaching into the “hiding” spot and, in true Terry style… I tackled her.

Yup… tackled.

She had found the box; no definitive proof of what it was (she suspected), but she had felt it and, based on my response she knew it was probably something for her. So I had to improvise. Ashlyn had brought down a summer dress (her “California dress” she called it) so I asked her to go into the closet and put it on.

The closet. The bathroom was open, but the closet seemed more appropriate for some reason. Please don’t ask.

It was a walk in closet so we closed the large mirrored door so that she had enough light and still couldn’t see me and vice versa. So I got down on one knee and waited. When she finished changing into her California dress, I was waiting outside the closet on my knee with Engagement Ring Jr. and I asked her to marry me.

That sounds a little more romantic at the end right? Well it almost was. She got so excited that she forgot to say “yes” and kind of left me hanging for a few minutes while she danced around and cried a little before I asked “Soo… is that a yes?”. And it was!

The end result was the same, but it was the method of getting there that makes the story.