8 ways to say I love you!

A proposal for marriage is expected to be romantic, well planned, and equally well executed. Around 9 years ago, I proposed to the love of my life and it was epic (self-declared)! I have narrated the story of my day-long, themed proposal multiple times, and with 8 years of us being married, I thought for posterity sake, I should document it somewhere...so here goes!

It was the September of 2010, when the planning began, and I was sure that I did not want my proposal to be a simple Hollywood style one - with a formal dinner at a fancy restaurant and then the one knee and ring proposal! That one moment would not be able to capture how I felt, so well, I came up with a theme - ‘8 ways to say I love you!’. As it suggests, I used 8 different ways to profess my love to my girlfriend of 8 years! How this unfolded, we shall find out. 

Before I started executing my plan, I wanted to get the permission and blessings of both our parents. So without her knowledge, I went over to her place and informed her parents of my intentions. It also gave me an opportunity to get an old ring from her mother that I could use to get her correct ring size. Sly fox this guy... you think? Well, as you read on, you might change your mind! 

Once permissions were granted, I went ahead with setting the rest of my plan in motion. 

I needed an entire day to unravel the 8 moments or ways that I had planned, so I requested her to take a day off from work, the excuse - to celebrate our 8 years of courtship. The plan was to go to a nearby heritage hotel (Fort Jadhavgarh) in the second half of the day.

The morning of the proposal day arrived (it was November 11, 2010), and I was constantly running over the plan in my head to ensure that she would not find out what was happening till the end. As you might imagine, I was nervous and excited at the same time. In the interest of brevity, I will share highlights of the day without going into too much detail.

Here are the 8 ways I said “I love you!”

1st - A Single Red Rose

As she entered my house, I gave her a single red rose and a small note. My original idea was to give her 8 roses, but when someone does not like to be gifted flowers, that option was ruled out. So, I had to make this one rose to have a super multiplier effect. I handed over the note and rose to her and…

She said, What’s wrong, Why are you acting so weird!?

Me: It has been eight years since we have been dating so I thought we would take the day to celebrate it.  

She opened my note and it read -

“There are a million ways to say I love you, what better than a red rose? I want this one to say - I will love you forever!”

That was a good save, she didn't suspect that anything was up!

2nd - Video

My wife loves to travel and at the time, she was learning French and had just about started her traveling sojourns. So, I made her a video (in French)...that showcased the journey of a couple that travels to different locations in France. The note that I gave with this read,

“Every journey would be fun if I have to travel with you!”

As I look at it again, I notice that the video is a bit of a bad Photoshop and video edit, but it is the thought that matters, right? Here is the video. 

3rd - Cooking and Wine

The plan was to leave for the hotel post-lunch, which gave me an opportunity to cook a bit. It was a simple meal of fish fry, dal, and rice, but I wanted to show here that I would cook and care for her. The note I gave along with a small bottle of wine was,

“I promise to cook and always take care of you”

Luckily she still didn’t suspect anything.

4th - Poem by Pablo Neruda

A few years earlier, I had heard this beautiful poem (One Hundred Love Sonnets - XVII) by Pablo Neruda, which was narrated by Robin Williams in the movie Patch Adams. I handed a paper scroll with this poem printed on it. The poem says so much so my note read, 

“This poem captures how much I love you!” 

Here is the poem now framed in our home.

5th -  Photo frame with 8 years photo

Eight years together meant we had created several memories. It was a time before Instagram, and Facebook was just getting popular, so most of our memories, though digitally captured were not in one place. I created a collection of 8 photos, one from each year we were together, printed and framed it. The note read, 

“Let’s create more memories together!”

Here is the frame:

We left for Fort Jadhavgadh in the late afternoon. I had been coordinating over the phone with the hotel management to make certain special arrangements for the evening. I had negotiated certain aspects like allowing us to walk around the premises and lawns, which is only reserved for guests staying overnight. 

As we entered, one of the staff blurted out “Everything is ready, Sir!”. This almost blew my plan, and I was interrogated thoroughly about the ‘everything’, I didn’t want to lie (well not entirely), so I told her about the special dinner arrangements. 

We spent the rest of the evening relaxing in the lawns, clicking pictures, enjoying the evening sun...once the sun set, we moved to the restaurant for dinner.

6th - Romantic Dinner

A special dinner set-up was arranged by the restaurant in their private and romantic open-air balcony, which was appropriately set-up with flowers and lighting. As we entered, the staff gave her a bouquet and a bottle of wine. I handed over the 6th card to her, it read,

“As we celebrate our 8 years together, I want to thank you for everything!”

As we settled in for dinner, the staff brought in a very talented flutist to perform exclusively for us. I had only requested for special music to be played, but this was an added bonus that made the atmosphere even more romantic!

7th - Dance

We were done with dinner, and as the flutist played, I handed over a note that said,

“Let’s dance to forget our worries, Let’s dance to celebrate!”

She was a bit hesitant and shy at first but agreed to do a short shimmy with me as the flutist played tunes of some old Bollywood Hindi songs.

I was quite surprised that she hadn’t guessed what was happening till then!

8th - The Proposal

As we were done with dinner and the dance, we thanked the flutist and requested him to leave.

Then I turned to her and asked,

“How many notes did you receive throughout the day?”

She counted and said, “Seven”, 

then I asked, “How many years have we been dating?”

That’s when I went down on one knee with the ring and said,

“These eight years have been fun, and I enjoyed every moment of it, I want the next eighty to be the same! Will you marry me!”

She said “Yes!”

After she wore the ring and exclaimed that she was clueless all day, she called her mum to tell her. To her surprise, her mum said, “Yes I know! Now come home it’s late!” :-)