A Malibu Proposal - A Customer for Life!!!

I picked Heather up from her house Saturday evening and we went south to the Redondo Pier (if you aren''t familiar with it, it is a large pier with restaurants, shops, etc). We watched the sun set and then went to a nice dinner at a restaurant she had wanted to go back to. After dinner, we drove north to Malibu. She didn''t know where we were going, but then we arrived at the restaurant at which we had dessert. It was the same restaurant (different location but same restaurant) that we had our first date at and celebrated our first anniversary at, and we had the same dessert we had the previous two times. We had a table overlooking the ocean and it was really nice. I told her I had a gift, and that it wasn''t a big deal...then I gave her a book she had mentioned she would like to get for work. It was a little bit of a diversion, but she was thrilled that I remembered that she wanted that book. After dinner, as we were getting ready to leave, I excused myself to go to the ""restroom,"" which was my excuse to get away and let my brother know that we were leaving the restaurant (he helped me set up earlier in the evening). We got to the car and Heather asked me is we were done or if there was more. I said there was more, and she was confused because it was already around 11pm. She thought we would head back towards our part of town, but instead we drove further north into Malibu. She had no idea where we were going until we got to the gate of a gated neighborhood on the beach. It was the neighborhood of a family friend, and she had been there a couple times. We parked and started walking towards the beach. She saw tiki torches set up and thought someone had left them there until we got to the beach...that''s when she realized there were tiki torches, a fire pit, chairs, blankets, wine and music set up on the beach. She had no idea what was going on or how that all got there, but she was thrilled. She was looking around to see if my brother or the people whose house it was were hiding somewhere, but she didn''t see anyone. We sat down, listened to music and drank wine for a while. She thought I was being overly cheesy because it was our anniversary and because I didn''t have a lot of money to spend on a lavish evening. Then at midnight (which was officially our anniversary - Sept 3rd), I told her I had something to tell her. I started talking and she looked at me with that ""how cute but how cheesy"" face, until I told her that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her....her face completely changed, her mouth dropped, her eyes teared up and she said ""GET OUT!"".....I continued, then pulled out the ring. I had gotten a lighted box, so I opened it up and it sparkled like crazy with the light from the box! She was crying and couldn''t believe how beautiful the ring was...after a couple seconds she asked ""are you going to put it on me?"" So, I did, and she was thrilled....she said YES and then my brother came running out of the bushes jumping and yelling! It was so much fun! She later told me that her first impression of the ring was that she actually loved it! She was worried that when the time came for me to give her a ring, that it would be something she hated, but wouldn''t want to tell me. She loves that ring and finds herself looking at it all the time...everyone who sees it remarks how beautiful it is and how huge it looks! She is always cleaning it and always gets concerned if she hits it on something...I am so happy she loves it. And, with all this, I have WhiteFlash to thank...you were all so great! You helped me pick out the perfect diamond and ring and were so patient in letting me hold it until I had the funds to wire over to you. You helped make our engagement evening perfect and my fiance has a ring that she is absolutely in love with! I have already given your name out to several people, and when we are ready to purchase our wedding bands, you will be the first place we check out! Her birthstone is diamond as well, so there will be many more occasions, I''m sure, where I will be talking with you. Again, thank you so much...you made the process wonderful and fun and I couldn''t be happier. I have attached a picture from that evening as well as a picture of the ring on her hand. Take care, stay well and I look forward to getting the pleasure to work with you again soon. Sincerely, A customer for life,