This is a long story, so buckle your seatbelts!
The beginning of our relationship was full of some very... "interesting" times to say the least. It's my fault, not Brittaney's. I was in my head with many walls up and was dead set on my future career plans of being a traveling Physical Therapist. Once we finally broke through and got past that initial weirdness, however, there were a couple things that were a constant important part in our beginning phase: Amsterdam and piano. This is important background that I will come back to later.
I've known I wanted to marry Brittaney for quite a while, and I've had a pretty good idea of how I wanted to ask this big, important question for just as long - it was moreso a question of when..... and how was I going to afford it? This is a long story, but I went through some tough times after quitting school, and it took me a while to find a good, sustainable job. But I finally got to a place where I had the means to get the ring! Now onto concocting my master plan...
I always knew I wanted to write a song for her on the piano. She loved hearing me play, even early on when I was first learning and the only sounds that came from my fingertips were physical manifestations of hot garbage. I also knew that Amsterdam was a big part of us growing together as a couple - so why not put them together??
I began making this song around January of 2022. Let me tell you right now, I am already a very slow learner when it comes to the piano. I also have a very busy work schedule, and obviously I can't let her hear me working on this song because if she hears it beforehand, then what's the point?! So I have this teeny tiny window of playing and practicing - maybe around 1 hour a week, and that's being generous. Every once in a while, she would have trips or I would have days home alone, and I wouldn't text her back for hours. Without thinking, I would tell her I was playing piano. But then I think to myself, "oh shit, I'm only playing this one song over and over and over and over, but she doesn't know about it. How am I supposed to explain the fact that I am trash at playing all my normal stuff when I'm supposedly playing for hours on end??" Luckily, I was just overthinking, and there were no suspicions :)
When it came to choosing the ring, honestly, this was the easiest part. I had a whole list of ring designs she liked. Even with elementary level of observation, you would be able to get a sense for the general pattern of what she wanted: morganite, rose gold, oval cut, and a halo. EZ PZ! I found a beautiful ring that hit all the marks, PLUS a very nice undercarriage ;)
Fastforward to June of 2022 - we have this big Europe trip, and we are hitting 3 major cities: Budapest, London, and yes, that's right, AmsterDAMN. This is it! I've been hanging onto this ring for two months now, and I can finally play this song really well. While going to school in Amsterdam, there was a piano practice room I would visit frequently. It had a beautiful Fazioli grand piano in a studio with amazing acoustics. Since I had been there so many times, I had a good relationship with the owner of this studio. I coordinated with her to set the room up for peak romance: rose pedals along the floor, candles lit all across, her favorite flowers (sunset roses), the whole 9 yards, and turn MY song into OUR song for the big moment.
Sounds great right?
Ha
WRONG
The DAY I was going to do it, I get a message from the owner of the studio, saying she has to cancel on me because she got COVID while she was traveling, and couldn't return to Amsterdam. I was shocked. Mortified. Frazzled. Bamboozled to my core. So when I tell you I was scrambling to come up with a plan B, please trust that I was SCRAMBLING.
Brittaney had planned Budapest and London, and she left it up to me to plan Amsterdam. Because of this hiccup, I was basically a chicken with its head cut off. From my perspective, I'm freaking out and trying to get new plans put together. In her perspective, I'm a bumbling buffoon who has no idea what he's doing. So understandably so, her fuse gets shorter and shorter, misunderstandings happen, and frustrations ensue. Biiiiig oof.
This made me a confused wet blanket while we were in Amsterdam, and I couldn't hold it in. I had to tell her what happened so she could understand why I was being this way! We talked, she understood, and we had a great rest of our trip (she felt like a big jerk when she found out the situation, but clearly we worked through it!)
Fastforward a few weeks later - we go on an impromptu date night to a really nice piano bar close to home. I bring the ring with me juuuuuuust in case the vibe is right. I was going to let destiny show me the way!
We are having an amazing night, laughing and goofing off while we are enjoying an amazing meal (go to Charles Street Brasserie in Solomon's Island if you haven't yet by the way!) When we are finishing up dinner, she asks me, "so how much longer are you going to make me wait?"
I was so calm, cool, and collected the whole night... no butterflies, no jitters, no overthinking. But as soon as she said that, the food in my stomach turned into bricks, I shit you not! So instead of overthinking and waiting, the moment our server came back around, I asked her if she can talk to the pianist about me performing a song for my date.
A few minutes later, the pianist comes over, and we chat about what I am going to play. He walks me over to the piano and shows me how it works since all electronic pianos operate a little differently. I turn the volume almost all the way down so I can warm up and get a little practice in to work out the nerves. When I'm ready, I grab the mic.
"Hey guys! As you may have noticed, I am not the same pianist that has been performing for you guys all night. He's been great! Just please don't hold me to the same standard because he's a professional and I'm just a dude on a keyboard.
I also want to clear up the fact that I don't sing. You're welcome for that because you don't want to hear this voice.
This song I'm going to play is special. When I first met Brittaney, one of the first things that really caught my eye was her smile. It lights up my world every time I get to see it. So this song here is called 'Her Most Beautiful Smile.'"
I play our song with minimal mistakes (which I am very impressed about!) While I was playing, Brittaney was thinking, "he's going to do it. This is it! Wait. Where's the ring box? I don't see a ring box. He's just being sweet. Well, okay. I'll just enjoy this gesture then."
I finish, I look at her, stand up, and say, "so you may have noticed I'm wearing very tight pants." I drop down on one knee, and pull out the ring from my trusty coin pocket and ask her to be my wife.
Our first meeting may not be the epitome of romance, but all I'm saying is that if they don't make a Julia Roberts movie inspired by this story, I'mma be pissed!