Sam's First Post

Hi, this is Sam, Lindsey's fiancé.

I decided to do a guest post today so everyone can hear my side of our love story.

I say we met at a speed dating activity last year.  She claims it was before that.  Either way, at that activity the guys were told to form a circle and have the girls go and pick a guy to start talking to.  She chose me because I was a familiar face.  I didn't complain.  I believed I asked where she lived and had her describe to me where she was from (and I pride myself on knowing where everything is).  I also asked her what her favorite fruit is, which is raspberries.  After that, we rotated and meet some other people.  Some of you are probably thinking that I'm going to say that this was love at first sight.  Not at all.  She wasn't on my radar before or after this activity at all.

After that activity, we started talking more at church.  I would ask her how her favorite Sam was doing (she met him at that activity and they started dating) and joke with her that I was her second favorite Sam.  Fast forward a few months later when they broke up.  I felt sorry for her because she was hurting, but still had no desire to ask her out.  After awhile, she was fairly flirtatious with me and I thought that she might like me. I wondered if I should ask her out (yes, we guys are fairly clueless sometimes).

Well, after a few more weeks of that and with some badgering from Haley, we decided to go out.  By we, I mean she asked me to go the Yellowcard concert in November at The Complex.  I had never been to a rock concert, and was looking forward to attending one.  I learned two things that night;  she makes a good sandwich, and that I don't fit in with the rock concert crowd due to my conservative appearance.  She made me a sandwich for dinner because I usually work late on Wednesdays, and we wouldn't have time to go out for food.  The concert wasn't very good at all, but that didn't matter because I spent time with a friend.

I went home for Thanksgiving two weeks later, and was really happy to finally tell my uncles that I  was interested in someone and we had scheduled another date.  That was the easiest I had ever gotten off at a Thanksgiving for years!

Over the next six weeks or so, we were spending a lot of time together; we really enjoyed getting to know one another.  I knew she wasn't ready to be in another relationship yet, but I just kept making plans with her.  When people started asking if we were a couple, I would say that technically we weren't, but that for all intents and purposes, we were.

Then, we went down to BYU for the Divine Comedy Alumni show in January.  We were driving down I-15 in Orem when I started talking about what I was telling everyone who asked if we were dating; we were, but not officially. Right then, we decided to be a couple. It was official by the time we got off the freeway at Provo Center Street.  Two weeks later, we had talked about spending a whole Saturday together.  Not two hours later did I agree to go skiing with two friends that same (while she was sitting next to me!).  For the record, she didn't say anything while I was making these plans.

She forgave me on the one condition that I never forgot something like that again.

I never have!

But I felt so bad that after we went skiing in Park City that I went to Fossil and bought her a rose gold watch for Valentine's Day.  I knew the watch was a good idea when the first thing she did after I gave it to her was to run upstairs to show her roommates, "Look at what Sam gave me!"

The following month I went home for my brother's mission homecoming.  During that time, my dad took me out to lunch, and we talked about things.  That's when I realized that I was in love with her.  Shortly thereafter, we stopped using an "if" when we talked about marriage and having family and started saying "when."

I bought the ring a few weeks later.  I wanted to get her a ring that she could show off to everyone, but the ring she liked didn't grab attention from anyone.  I won that discussion, mainly because I designed the ring.  The idea behind the design is that, no matter where you look on the ring, your eyes are drawn to the diamond in the center (the diamond is real, by the way).

I knew I had to ask her dad permission before I proposed, so I called him up and set up a time to meet with him.  It went really well, and we even managed to bond for a minute.

Early on in our relationship, she had challenged me to surprise her if and when I proposed to her.  I took that challenge to heart.  I had many ideas going through my head.  Everything from having her light a string that then lights a bunch a tea candles that say "Turn around" and I would be on one knee, to her to going up to the capitol and have Haley take pictures of us like the paparazzi do.

I only thought of that because Lindsey insisted on having pictures taken of the proposal.  That was the direction I was going in until the diamond came in.  Then, I couldn't stop looking at it so I decided I needed to hurry up and propose.  I had told everyone at work that I was going to propose to her that night at the Cinderella opera (Cendrillon).  My supervisor kept on joking with me that there was some very important project that only I could do so I had to stay and work on it all that night.

I was not amused.

Lindsey drove that night so I was waiting in my living room freaking out that I was going to propose to her that night.  My roommates told me I needed to practice on them.  After much hesitation, Jordan convinced me to practice proposing to Adam.  That was very awkward.  Luckily, she arrived soon thereafter.  When we got to the opera, I saw that she was wearing a fake ring.  I stole it from her just before the show started.  During the whole first act, I was really struggling with nervousness, so much so that I had a hard time focusing on the opera itself.

She wasn't expecting to be proposed to until the ring came in a few weeks later (hence my being able to surprise her with a filler ring).  During the intermission, we went over to talk to her friend Shalee, and I asked her to take some pictures of us with my nice camera (because all the ones we had on Facebook were taken with Lindsey's phone and were pretty grainy).  So, while she was taking pictures of us, I took out the ring and set it on Lindsey's shoulder so the camera could see it but she could not.

Then, I turned around, got down on one knee, and asked her to marry me. She stood there and stared at the ring for two or three seconds, and I started to wonder what was happening.  Should I ask her again? But then I saw it click, and she reacted like I thought she would.

She did say yes, by the way.

We then embraced and we heard a spontaneous applause from the people behind us.

So, that is how I asked her to marry me.

I've had my fair share of doubts and second guesses, but then the small things happen and reassure me that this is the right thing to do.  Like when we went down to the Studio C taping in Provo.  She loves Matt Meese, and after he came out onstage she got very excited and kept moving in her chair like she was going to charge the set.  I was afraid she might leave me for him, so I grabbed her hand to keep her next to me (and accidentally gave her a bruise in the process).  I think if I'm that worried about not having her around for even a moment of time, then marriage is truly the right decision for us.