Riley’s Big Proposal

Before I dive into the main topic of this blog post, I feel like it’s necessary to take a short trip down memory lane. I’ll have to force myself to limit the “trip” to main events, since SO MUCH has happened over the course of the last year, as you’ll soon read about.

Riley asked me to officially be his girlfriend on New Year’s Eve of 2015.

We started the year off as boyfriend and girlfriend, transitioning from a friendship (best friendship, really) that blossomed in a class at Concordia (MARK 301) where we met and worked together on a group project.

There we were on NYE eating a shrimp ring and drinking champagne not knowing that we were about to countdown to the hands-down best year either of us has ever experienced: 2016.

2016 brought so many new adventures and wonderful memories.

We had the joy of meeting each others’ families in a new light and celebrating a long-time-coming relationship that was soon to be jokingly referred to as Ramanda2016 (self-titled by Riley…).

A bunch of new “firsts” were on the agenda this year. Some as a couple, and some just as individuals. We celebrated all the milestones along the way since we’re very into celebrating moments regardless of their realistic emotional significance.

November 30, 2016 was our 11 months.

I woke up as I would any normal day and got ready (groggily) to go to work. As I was kissing Riley goodbye, I told him “Happy 11 months” to which he immediately got a shocked look on his face and said “Baaabe, happy 11 months”.

Here I am thinking… great, he forgot. *Rolls eyes*

I left for work and went about my day as I normally would. It was my friend Val’s birthday and we had planned earlier on in the week to go to hot yoga and grab a drink after. However, her parents had asked her to have dinner together, and since parents always take priority, we rain checked the events.

Riley felt the need to “make it up to me” so he suggested we go to dinner instead at La Belle et la Boeuf. I was dressed for yoga with no makeup on and sporting my “shower day” hair, thus feeling a little on the gross side. I told him I wasn’t in the mood to go out and asked if we could just have a quiet night in our apartment instead. He managed to convince me to at the very least grab a coffee with him at Sweet Lee’s in Verdun.

I obliged. I’m physically not able to pass up Sweet Lee’s…

We had coffees and shared a little chocolate cheese cake. I embarrassed Riley when I told the cashier guy that “we were on a daaaaate” and that Riley was “wow, so rich!” when he pulled out a 10 dollar bill to pay. I can be really annoying in restaurants and cafés…

On our way home, a bus showed up and I asked if we could get on it. Riley declared he’d rather walk and enjoy the night with me. Rolling my eyes again, I grumbled that we could just as easily enjoy the night in our warm home instead. He laughed and we kept walking.

Once in the door, with my coat off, Riley skedaddled into our living room area and pulled out this random tiny piece of paper with a childlike grin on his face. Here I am thinking… what the heck is going on?

He explained that in honour of our 11 months, he had created a treasure hunt for me all around the apartment. The hunt had 11 clues, one for each month we’d been together, and each was accompanied by a memory that took place during that specific month.

*In my head* … He had time to cook this up in the 30 minutes between saying goodbye to me this morning and when he left for work… I doubt this is anything crazy extravagant, but here goes!

I started the hunt and was getting the hints quite easily despite Riley’s world-famous messy handwriting and the tears that had welled up in my eyes. Even Riley was impressed at how quickly I was getting them.

The memories were so thoughtful and each hint incorporated special items in our home.

To give you a word for word example:

March

One of the biggest months of the year thanks to your BIRTHDAY WEEKEND! We followed the itinerary with a few surprises along the way.

Hint: Ice Ice Baby.

(The clue was with our ice wine we got from Riley’s friend Justin.)

Once I got to the end, November, the clue led me to a beautiful pink rose in a glass dish. I was so excited that I’d reached the end and could claim my prize! Turning to Riley smiling he told me there was one last note inside the dish.

I grabbed the note and it said the following:

November

It was my turn for a graduation! I felt so blessed to spend the day with loved ones. Concordia is what brought us together and I am so grateful that it did.

(turned the page) Oh, it was also the last of you only being a girlfriend to me.

*In my head* …what?

Riley: “WHAT COULD THAT MEEEAN?”

Me: “…what?”

This went on for a couple times back and forth..

I was really confused and somewhat in shock. I only came to when Riley set down the rose dish for me, pulled open a drawer, got a small box from inside, and got down on one knee.

My hand covered my mouth and I got tears in my eyes. Riley proceeded to give his well-worded speech that led him to ask, “Amanda Lee Sweeney, will you accept this wedding proposal?”

Almost inaudible, I said “yes!” and he slipped a gorgeous ring onto my finger (as shown below).

We hugged and kissed and cried tears of joy for a couple minutes in our quiet little apartment before Riley took my hands and said, “let’s sit down and I’ll tell you everything I did to plan this for us.”

What can I say, my now fiancé knows me well…

Riley told me he’d been planning the proposal for 2-3 weeks and that he’d told his mom and dad a couple weeks prior. He had pretended to work late in order to go ring shopping one evening and had asked my friend Chelsea to help with ideas. He’d asked for my dad’s blessing the previous Friday. My dad was in an elevator at the time and asked Riley to call him back.. typical dad… He had asked Val to “pretend to have a family dinner” cancelling our plans that night. He had faked forgetting our 11 months and had worked from home to set up the whole shebang throughout the course of that day. He had pretended to be coming from work when we met at Sweet Lee’s and had brought his bag for an extra effect. He had hidden the ring in the Lord of the Rings RISK box since he knows “I fricken hate that game”, and more.

All in all… he planned the heck out of his proposal… and I am so lucky it was all for me.

Next, we started to make our rounds and phone our friends and family. I started with my best friend Hannah and called to share the GREAT news. It was just as much a shock to her as it was to me as she received the news at school that night and I was still coming off the high.

My family (mom, dad, Noah, Millie) were all dining at Chez Victor. I told my mom and dad and when it was Noah’s turn, I told him “he was getting a new brother!”. So confused, he said “whaaaat?” and I said that “Riley had asked me to marry him.” Noah somehow thought gaining a brother meant that I was pregnant and that element of the story is never going to stop making me laugh.

We moved on to calling the different members of Riley’s family as well as posting the event on Facebook to share the good news with the cyber-world.

Tons of calls, texts, and messages later, there we were: still happily engaged.

It was an amazing night, one I’ll never forget, and I’m still smiling because of it.

Here’s to the next chapter of our love together (I couldn’t not throw in a book reference…) and everything this new phase will bring. I still can’t believe I get to marry my best friend!

Here’s a picture of the finished treasure hunt.

On to wedding planning!!!!

#wedding