The Night I Won the Jackpot!

[ashleyryan]

I woke up on Valentine's day to a romantic breakfast that Ryan had prepared for me. He cooked delicious omlettes with a ketchup heart on top--so creative!

We then got ready for the day and Ryan walked out in his beautiful grey suede jacket, a white collared shirt, nice jeans, and black dress shoes. I asked him why he was all dressed up and he said "can't I look good for my lady today?" (Little did I know what was to come!!)

Ryan told me he had to step out to get a few things (obviously I assumed this meant a bouquet of flowers) and returned with the most unexpected surprise! Instead of a stereotypical bouquet of flowers on Valentine's day, Ryan walked in with a gorgeous vase of red Anthuriums (similar picture on the right). If you're not familiar with this type of flower, it comes from Hawaii and is the longest lasting of all tropical flowers. It comes in lots of different colours, but Ryan chose red because the flower shape resembles a heart. I opened the card and in it he wrote: "I love you soooo much and on this day we can look forward to our life together." You'd think I would have realized what would happen later after reading that, but no, I just thought he was being sweet!

For every special occasion I cook Ryan a fabulous meal for dinner, usually accomanied by our favourite wine and cheese, so I continued tradition and we enjoyed a great meal together. During dinner we were trying to figure out what we should do for the night. We had considered going to Niagara Falls for the past few weekends but never made it out there, so we spontaneously decided to just go for it, why not!

We dropped our puppy off at a friends house and set out for the falls. The first stop was Fallsview Casino because I had never been to a casino before. We ordered some drinks and the first machine I hit, I won the jackpot! We won and lost a little more and decided to leave while we were still up. We spent the rest of the night at a few different clubs and then around 3:00am we decided to go check out the falls before we headed home.

At 3:00am in the middle of winter, Niagara Falls is dead. There wasn't a person in sight. We got out of the car and walked over to the edge of the falls, right where the water drops off of the cliff. It was freezing! An extremely thick layer of ice covered everything. We stood under a single lamp post hugging each other tightly, trying to keep warm as we looked out onto the falls. It was the most romantic set up anyone could ask for!

Ryan started sqeezing me a little tighter as he whispered in my ear how much I mean to him, how in love he is with me, and how he never wants to live without me. Then all of a sudden he got down on one knee and pulled out a box from his jacket!! Let me tell you, I have never been more shocked in my life! He opened the box and the most beautiful ring glimmered in light. I said YES in an instant and he put it on my finger and I felt like I truly, truly won the jackpot that night.

 

(Update: Afterwards I was told that he tried for months to plan the special moment but nothing was coming to him so he carried the ring around with him and waited for the moment to just happen rather than plan something extravegant, when we were standing at the falls at the end of the night, he just knew it was the right time)

[vlynnw]

cute story, winning the jackpot a couple of ways that night!

[taylorwd]

What a sweet story!!!  You're very lucky. 

 

I can't believe he carried the ring around with him for so long!  Lucky you didn't find it!!

[exquisite02]

Hey spread some of that luck for the rest of us! Just kidding. Great proposal. Wish you all the best.

[Amanda+Dave]

Cute story.

Congratulations and happy planning!

[jenrick]

Sweet story!  Congrats!!

[missook]

Congratulations!!~

[weddingaway]

That is so incredible!  That must take so much restraint to wlk around with the ring and not tell you!  Congrats!