On June 6, 2008, at 11:00 p.m., I received a call from my boyfriend Dave’s cell phone – but it wasn’t his voice on the other end. In the seconds immediately after the phone connected, my mind went through every possible reason why Dave’s friend Tommy was calling me from Dave’s cell phone, knowing that there was really only one explanation. “Dave was in an accident.”

Five hours later, after an interminable 260 mile mid-night drive from where I live in Cincinnati, Ohio, to where Dave was air lifted in Knoxville, Tennessee, I sat in shock as a doctor took me into a small room and told me that they were just trying to keep Dave alive until his parents got there to say good-bye. I spent two and a half hours by his bed early that Saturday morning, praying, crying, wondering what would happen, until the nurses kicked me out to change shifts.

In the weeks that followed, Dave surprised every person following his story and surpassed every expectation as he continued to improve through ten surgeries, two different types of dialysis, two ventilators and countless doctors and nurses reminding us constantly that he may not survive the next step.

Eleven days after his accident, once we were no longer wondering if Dave would live from moment to moment and I left the hospital for the first time to sleep in a hotel, I began to process the fact that although I had clearly jumped into our relationship with both feet because of the accident, I had no idea how Dave would be feeling if and when he regained consciousness. And for the first time, a question worked its way into my mind: “What happens if he wakes up and doesn’t want to be with me anymore?”

Gradually Dave did start to wake up, and three weeks after his accident, he tried to communicate for the first time. The tracheotomy tube in his throat prevented him from speaking, and he was too weak to hold a pen, so we resorted to lip reading. Talk about frustrating! In the beginning, it was one or two words at a time, always repeated at least twice and always only interpreted after multiple guesses. As time when on, however, I began to understand him more and more, and we even managed a few real conversations.

The Proposal: Dave’s Story

Things seemed to be progressing well for the next few weeks, and everyone began to relax a little bit…until I came down with sepsis, a severe, life-threatening infection, five weeks after my accident. We found out that I had sepsis just after Kendahl had returned to Cincinnati to work for a couple of days, so once again, she got a late-night phone call telling her to get to Knoxville as quickly as possible. Although the doctors had said that a person with sepsis can take weeks to get better, within a few days, my condition improved dramatically.

Kendahl and I had been dating for 16 months at that point and had known each other longer than that. I had been searching my feelings before the accident about where our relationship was heading and how I truly felt, and I had even started to think about proposing, but I had been holding off until I could meet her family and get her parents’ blessing. After seeing the dedication she had for me after the accident, however, I knew she was the one I had been waiting for, and although I realized it wasn’t the ideal way to do it, I decided that I needed to show her how I felt by asking her to marry me, whether I could actually say the words out loud or not.

On Sunday, July 13, 2008, while Kendahl stood at my bedside, I mouthed the words, “Will you marry me?” to her. Unfortunately for me, it was one of the few occasions that she did not read my lips on the first try. My parents and sister, who happened to be in the room, knew what I was saying and began to cry before Kendahl even understood what was going on. So I tried again, and this time, she got it. Thankfully, in spite of the setting, the lack of a ring and the fact that I had yet to meet her family, she said yes.

A few days after the proposal, word of our engagement started to spread through the ICU, and the nurses began teasing me for not getting Kendahl a ring. Luckily for me, my mom noticed a five dollar jewelry sale in the lobby of the hospital and picked up two “diamond” rings for me to choose from to give to Kendahl as a fun placeholder until I could get her the real thing.

After 80 days in the ICU and ten days on the regular hospital floor in Tennessee, I was transferred back to Cincinnati one day shy of three months after my accident. For the past two months, I have been recovering at the Drake Center, only 15 minutes from Kendahl’s house, which has made our lives much easier. Shortly after I was weaned off the ventilator and got my voice back, I was able to call Kendahl’s dad to finally ask for his blessing, which he gave (although I have yet to get the same thing from her three overprotective brothers).

Currently, Kendahl is on fake ring number two (the “diamond” fell out of the first one), her finger permanently green, and we are starting to make concrete plans for our future together. We have set our wedding date for June 6, 2009, exactly one year after my accident, and we plan to hold the ceremony and reception at the Underground, a Christian teen concert venue where we met as volunteers. Kendahl has been diligent in updating a blog (http://daveheckel.blogspot.com) on my progress to keep our hundreds of potential wedding guests informed, and we are all anxiously awaiting the day when we can celebrate together as Kendahl and I make our commitment to each other official.

David Heckel/Kendahl Lund (Cincinnati, OH)

The video of this whole event is on YouTUbe.com entitled \”Jess and Mark engagement\” Go on and see for yourself that it is the BEST!!

Jessica Pittman (Pittsburgh, PA)

Sean Palmgren and Betsey Krause submitted this marriage proposal story in our Marriage Proposal Story Contest. Sean and Betsey win a set of $4,300 platinum wedding bands courtesy of Novell Design, pictured here. The contest was co-sponsored by Platinum Guild International. Here’s Sean’s story:

Well, it all started with a dream.

I woke up one summer Sunday morning (June 8, 2008) and looked over at my girlfriend with the biggest smile on my face. I told her, “I know how I am going to propose to you!”

She proceeded to say: “Don’t tell me, don’t tell me.”

I wasn’t going to by any means; I love surprises.

My dream consisted of a bunch of umbrellas lined up in row with each umbrella having a different letter on it to spell out the words “WILL YOU MARRY ME?”

The next step was to figure out when I should propose and without even second guessing myself I decided to do it on June 20, 2008. Knowing that my fiancée, Betsey, had two of her closest friends in town from Florida and California that weekend would make this experience even more memorable.

I now had 12 days to plan the surprise. The first few days consisted of picking out the engagement ring; thanks to the sales consultant who had already been talking with Betsey and her mother made it a little easier and much quicker than I anticipated it would be. So I picked it out, came back a week later to pay for it and to pick up this gorgeous, platinum engagement ring.

Now, having the idea, the date, the ring, it was time to ask the future in-laws for their permission to marry their beautiful daughter. Without any hesitation I went over to their house, bringing a bouquet of flowers for my future mother in law (which doesn’t hurt the situation one bit!) We stepped out to the porch, beers in hand, and I said, “As you know I love your daughter very much and I couldn’t be happier in life than I am with her. I am here today to ask for your blessing to marry your daughter.” Without any hesitation and a few tears (happy tears of course) I had their blessing. As soon as I had their blessing I pulled out a detailed plan of how everything is going to happen for the next few days.

Monday, June 16th – Ordered 30 black umbrellas to be delivered on the 18th.
Tuesday, June 17th – Asked parents for their blessing.
Wednesday, June 18th – Painted the top of each umbrella at a friend’s house to spell out “WILL YOU MARRY ME?”
Thursday, June 19th – Made sure everyone who was involved was very well informed on what was going to happen Friday evening.
Friday, June 20th – The proposal

On Tuesday night, I sent out a blast email to all of my close friends, family and to all of Betsey’s close friends and family to let them in on the surprise. I told them where it was going to happen (Lake Calhoun); what time to meet at Betsey’s parent’s house (7:00pm) and how each of them would be involved. Different people had different duties. There was a group of people who were in charge of getting everyone to the location on time and to practice the proposal. There was a group of people who went incognito and followed around the lake with a video camera. And then there was the group that walked around the lake with Betsey and me.

On Wednesday after watching the FedEx tracking online and knowing the package of umbrellas were delivered I proceeded to head over to my friend’s house. There, the three of us started to spray-paint letters on the top of each umbrella.

The Big Day… I had to convince Betsey that I really wanted to take a “walk” around Lake Calhoun on Friday night say around 6:15pm. Not an easy task, but with the help of her best friend, Molly, flying into town with her boyfriend from Florida made it a little easier to persuade her.

I made dinner reservations at a local restaurant around 8pm so that the four of us would have enough time to have a drink and to walk around the lake. The dinner reservations were a nice decoy. With Molly and Tom arriving at our condo, I told Betsey that we really needed to do this walk because it was a long day at work for me and I needed some fresh air. So we drove over to Betsey’s parent’s house, who actually live a block away from Lake Calhoun. We went inside and chatted for a bit and finally got on our way with the big walk.

Unexpectedly the surprise was almost blown by an early arrival… luckily Betsey’s dad took care of that situation without any of us knowing.

With my hands in my pockets feeling the ring every two seconds made this walk a little nerve-wracking. I also kept looking around trying to find my incognito friends who were on the 007 spy mission filming the walk and not once could I see them. Upon the finish of this three mile walk around the lake we proceeded to walk towards this line of people all holding an umbrella right above their heads.

Betsey was very intrigued on what was going on and wanted to take a closer look so we all played along. About 100 feet away, someone counts 1-2-3 and everyone flips their umbrella over to spell out the infamous “WILL YOU MARRY ME?”

Betsey starts looking around saying, “Oh my gosh, someone is getting engaged!”

I smiled and got down on one knee and slipped the ring on her finger while saying:

 “You know I love you with all my heart and there is no one else I would rather spend the rest of my life with than you… will you marry me?”

With her hand over her heart she said yes!

As if the proposal wasn’t surprise enough, the crowd of umbrella holders started to walk toward Betsey and even more shock was brought to her face. The crowd of umbrella holders started to get familiar to Betsey as they got closer… her mom, dad, brother, cousins, aunt, uncle, close friends and my dad, mom, step-mom, brother, sister-in-law, niece, and close friends were all here to witness a beautiful moment. And a special moment it was since Betsey was so surprised!

After the proposal we all went back to Betsey’s parent’s house for a champagne toast followed by drinks and apps at a local drinking establishment.

Sean Palmgren
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Anjanette Hatchett (Grand Rapids, Michigan)

On Sunday night, September 28th, Gerald was out in our backyard while I was oblivious and inside cooking dinner when he came inside and told me that the white kitten was in the yard. I hurried outside and tried to look through the darkness when I turned my head I saw 9 pumpkins that were carved out spelling MARRY ME (heart) G, all lit up with votive candles in them. I turned and Gerald was on one knee and asked me to marry him. Needless to say I said yes, but was sad that there was no white kitten even around.

Katie O’Looney (Santa Rosa, CA)

Got Engaged:
Jono surprised me with a trip to Santa Barbara July 21st. We had a great first day of the trip and the following day turned out to be even more memorable. He planned a surprise wine tour on a jeep for just the two of us. We cuddled in a blanket and drove to the various vineyards drinking wine. We finally arrived at Foley and it was the most beautiful place in the world. We walked to a green grassy hill to take pictures and that is when he dropped down on one knee and asked me to marry him. How romantic!!!!! check out the engagement picture our tour guide captured at www.rojoandcarlon.weddings.com

Angela Rojo (Tucson, Arizona)

Jennifer (Denver, Colorado)

When my fiancé and I arrived at the restaurant, we were taken to a great table tucked away in the corner of the restaurant and were seated. After some wine and some great food, it was time for desert. The desert menu arrived with the ring; I went down on one knee, took the ring box off of the menu and asked her to honor me by being my wife.

It was one of the greatest nights of my life and we are now happily married with two great kids.

- Jason L., Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia

WELL - I was wrong. I got to her apartment about 2 minutes after 7 and on her door it said “Dreyer - Come on in Love, Trink” So I opened the door and I noticed that the room was dark - there was a candle on the coffee table next to an open bible, with a letter on it, two champagne glasses filled with sparkling cider, and a single rose in a bud vase. I mumbled something under my breath and as soon as it came out Jared began playing his saxophone. It was beautiful and I asked him what it was when he was finished and he said “Stay with me” (or “Brass Bed” by Josh Gracin) and it is one of my favorite songs, so I begged him to play it again.

We sat down on the couch and as he began to play he got nervous and stopped. so I teased him, and he began to play again and played it beautifully. After he was finished I asked him “You want to tell me what this is?” , looking at the bible and note. He said “why don’t you go look” and I responded, “why don’t you tell me?” He responded, “why don’t you go look?” again so I said “ok” and knelt down in front of the coffee table. At the top of the note it read, Colossians 3:12-14. The bible was opened to that passage so I read it out loud. Next I read the letter out loud, and when I was done Jared asked me to stand up. Once I was standing he got down on one knee and said “Sarah, Will you marry me?” I responded with, “uh huh, YES!” He then slipped the ring on my finger and I hugged him, then ran and turned on the light to see it in the light. Turned off the light, ran back gave him another hug, then looked at it in the candle light. Needless to say I was very excited. I even got dessert - yum yum!

- Sarah D., Upland, Indiana

Well, about 2 weeks before he was going to come he sent me a picture of a ring in an e-mail. This is what he said, “Don’t worry, I’m not saying anything by this but just saw this ring come up on yahoo and it made me curious to your style. Do you like this type of ring or what is something that you would look for in a ring? Send examples if you want, or whatever.”

I knew that it was going to come up sometime soon, but he told me that we should probably go ring shopping in the states when we are together. So I didn’t really think he was going to ask me when he was here… PLUS, it takes such a long time for something to get to Dakar, and he’s not exactly the type of person to send something express mail. So I didn’t think he was going to buy the one that we both really liked.

Anyway, back to dinner. So when Dan and I were all ready to go to dinner, I ask my dad to get a picture of us. He pulls out his camera and takes a couple of pictures (which I thought was a little weird at first… I had Dan’s camera in my hand, I thought he was going to use Dan’s), but I brushed it off my shoulder. Then my mom and little sister came out into the living room too, and just were smiling, and staring at me, which now that I think about it made it seem a little weird at the time…

So we left, and got to the restaurant took a seat next to the door (the only other option was by the window at a 4 person table with other people around) I didn’t really like it because sometimes they seat people at the same table if it’s meant for 4 people.

So we go and sit down and he’s sort of jittery. He’s like, “I have to go to the bathroom”. So he goes to the bathroom and comes back a good 5 min later. We sit down order a bottle of Chardonnay, and he was like, “These are really nice glasses. (Points to the glasses on the table [they are tall wine glasses that say Livingstone’s on them]) I wonder if the waiter would let us keep them.” I was thinking to myself “Oh, my gosh… He’s going to do it tonight isn’t he?” And so I got myself all worked up, and I was all excited, and then Dan was like, “Well, the reason for that is because our two year anniversary is in May, and since we won’t be together for it, this dinner can be our make-shift anniversary dinner.” (What a good excuse, let me tell you, Dan is really good at thinking things up off the top of his head!) So I was really excited and had butterflies in my stomach, but then I was let down when he said that…

So the waiter comes over and pours our chardonnay, and we order food. And During the course of the meal we start talking about our past together, and about our future. And all these other things that made the meal really romantic. Then he was like, “Man, I have to go to the bathroom again.” And I was like okay… I might have to go a little too, so I got up and went to the bathroom.

(What I didn’t know then was that he was trying to get me to go to the bathroom so that he could grab the box with the ring in it out of his jacket pocket to put it in his lap.)

So we get our dessert, and it looks really nice, we have the waiter take a picture. And then we start talking again, he say’s something like “I really want to be with you forever, baby” and I was like, “Well, you’re just going to have to ask me to know what I think…;)“ and he was like, “Soon sweetheart, soon.” And then he was like, “but if I ask you, that means I’m going to have to ask your dad for his blessing. Do you know how scary that is?

“That’s not scary sweetheart.” And I tell him a nice long speech, well what I would say if I was him.

“Yeah, like I’d be able to say all that. Your dad is intimidating. I’ll do it over the phone later”

“Well, I was sort of hoping that you had already asked my dad, and you were going to propose to me tonight”

“Baby, now, how would I get a ring so fast? I haven’t asked your dad yet, he’s going to say no because you haven’t finished your degree yet”

(SO, I had gotten my hopes up once again, thinking to myself, “Well maybe, just maybe, he had already asked my dad and will propose to me”… but then I was let down once again)

We finish our dessert, and he asks for another glass of chardonnay (we had already finished our whole bottle). The waiter pours us our wine, and then Dan starts out saying,

“You know sweetheart, I’m really glad I found you. You really are my best friend. You know, I never knew what other people meant when they said that they married their best friend, but now I know because you really are. We are so perfect for each other. You’re my soul mate. You are everything that I would want in a wife, a mother (in time), just everything that I need. (He stands up and starts to walk over to me… I was thinking that he had to go to the bathroom again) And because of those reasons, that’s why I’m getting down on one knee (he gets down) to ask you to be my wife. I love you Amanda, you mean so much to me, and I want to share my life with you. Will you marry me?”

Of course, I started crying when he was talking about how I was his best friend, so I started crying even more when he got down on one knee, I think I was in shock when he did it because I remember saying “Oh, my gosh”, out loud.

I said, “Yes, of course I will. I love you!” and we kiss and hold each other there for like 5 min, crying my eyes out because I was so happy. Then he puts the ring on my finger. And it’s so pretty!

- Amanda S., Kingsport, Tennessee