Emily and I met as neighbors in Washington DC in November of 2001. She

and I got engaged in November of 2005, the 4 year reunion of when we

started dating. Our first date was at the National Zoo in Washington

DC. As the story goes, we were walking around the different areas of

the zoo, and as we were approaching the sea lions, a group of people

were rushing away from the viewing area proclaiming, "that was the best

show ever!" Emily turns to me and says "isn't that the story of my

life," expressing her discontent with just missing the best sea lion

show.

Fast forward 4 years to the same weekend. I had planned to propose to

Emily that day at the zoo, but wanted the zoo to be a surprise. I sold

her on coming with me shopping in Georgetown that day b/c I had to buy

some jeans. Funny part was I forced myself to try on jeans all day with

a diamond ring in my pocket. Needless to say, I was having serious

bouts with anxiety thinking that I would lose the ring. I was

ultimately able to trick her into thinking we were going somewhere else

as we made a U-turn on Rockcreek Pkwy to head to the zoo (she had no

clue what was about to happen). After much stalling walking around the

zoo on a bitter cold day, I was finally able to find were the sea lions

were (i was worried b/c many sections of the zoo were shut down due to

renovations). As we sat down at the viewing area, I crouched on one

knee and proposed to Emily. She accepted and jump around like a crazy

person. I told her at the time that I thought I might have to put her

in a cage with one of the animals!

Fast forward 1 year and 3 months to now. We recently got married in

Charleston, SC on 9-31-06 and now have a baby girl due on 7-5-07! As I

have learned about gifts along this journey of getting engaged and

married -- I've now been informed of the so-called "push present." What

better of a "push present" for Emily this July than a pair of diamond

earrings! Thanks for the opportunity to tell our story!

Dan and Emily Jones

Here is my story.

Getting engaged was one of the most wonderful moments I have had thus far in my life. I cannot think of any moment quite like it, where you have so many different emotions all at once – excitement, anticipation, joy, love, nervousness, even a little fear as you make yourself vulnerable to heartbreak. Thankfully for me, the story had a very happy ending.

I had been planning the weekend for weeks, and was very eager to make it a surprise. I had returned from a month long work related trip to South Africa on February 14, and thus I missed Valentine’s Day. Considering my long absence, missing this “key” day of romance was probably not the best idea. Ultimately though it provided a nice excuse to have a romantic weekend get away a couple weeks later. With most of the plans in place, the one remaining and somewhat essential piece was securing the engagement ring. While in South Africa, I had hoped to find the perfect diamond, but I came back empty handed. As time was running out, I needed help, and thankfully I found Jana from Abazias Diamonds who came through in the clutch. Armed with the ring, I felt confident as the weekend of March 3rd approached.

On Saturday, March 4th, I picked Muriel up from her certification exam that she had to take that morning. We planned on going straight from Boston to the small town of Weston, Vermont. As I had been out of town so much, the “excuse” for the weekend was a delayed Valentine’s Day celebration. Upon arrival at the inn where we stayed, the first surprise of the weekend was an hour long in room massage. As we relaxed in the room before going down to dinner, I brought up the idea of going ring shopping in two weeks when we had a free weekend. I was pleased (and relieved) when this idea was met with exuberance, but little did she know that the ring would be forthcoming very shortly. We then went downstairs for a nice romantic dinner for two by candlelight. Towards the end of the meal, I excused myself to go to the restroom, but instead I hurried to the car and took all the stuff out of the trunk that I had packed prior to picking her up that morning. I then went up to our! room and made all the preparations for the next surprise of the weekend.

When I returned to the table (after a somewhat conspicuously long absence), I told Muriel that I had brought a special cake up from Boston and so we would have dessert in the room. We left the restaurant and returned to the room. When she opened the door, the room was aglow in numerous candles, with a fire blazing, and Frank Sinatra playing in the background. The bed was covered in rose petals and a cake with some champagne was on a table by the fire. As we entered the room, I exclaimed – “Happy Valentine’s Day.” Muriel – knowing that I had never really celebrated Valentine’s Day in the past – was mildly perplexed, but nonetheless pleased by the rather extensive preparations I had made. Quite happy to go with the flow, she moved into the room and made herself comfortable by the fire. My attention immediately went to the cake and I declared that it was now dessert time and that she was in charge of the cake cutting. She obliged, but upon cutting into the c! ake, she found the center of it rather hard, and could only remove a partial piece of cake. What remained in the center of the cake was a wooden box. With her mind still on the belated Valentine’s Day theme, she assumed that a nice pair of earrings was forthcoming. I removed the box from the cake and then getting down on one knee I opened the box to expose a different kind of ring. It all finally clicked in Muriel’s mind as she saw me going down on one knee. I asked her to marry me and happily, my question was greeted with a “Yes”. The element of surprise had been attained, and the objective had been reached and I was (and am) a happy man.

Murray

The beginning of our engagement started 800 miles apart. Our son's introduced us through long distance e-mail as my husband and Charley's wife had both passed away with Alzheimer's disease. Charley came to visit me over the 4th of July last year and instantly the fireworks went off. We knew we were meant for each other. Since then, we have been traveling back and forth between Oklahoma and Indiana and decided to become engaged. We researched web sites for engagement rings and found Abazias' web site was the one where we could build a ring from scratch, selecting the color, style and design of the ring and then have it shipped to us within three days. When we received the ring it was everything we hoped it would be plus we were able to call our sales person David back and tell him how pleased we were. Since that time we have selected our wedding rings and will be calling Abazias soon. Thank you so much for helping to make our dre am come true. Warmest Regards, Nina Kessler and Charley Clair.
PS: Charley is 72 and I'm 68. Isn't love grand! (:-)

My boyfriend asked me to go on a drive one day with no particular destination in mind. We drove through all sorts of small-town Kansas scenery, stopping at antique shops and flea markets. I was getting cranky because we hadn't eaten anything and the only place in the little town we had stopped in was a convenience store with a pizza counter. We ordered a pizza to go, figuring we could find someplace with more ambience than the picnic table in the store parking lot to eat at. After circling the entire town, we realized that the only place that fit the bill was the football field behind the local high school. I was surprised that Bob had actually brought a blanket for us to sit on, but we sat down for our picnic. Halfway through the first slice, he got sort of weird and fidgety and told me that he wanted to ask me something. I sort of thought he was going to break up with me! But he pulled out a ring box and asked me to marry him, right there on the football field in some no-name town. It was very sweet. We've been married for five years now.

Please enter me to win a pair of diamond earrings.

Thanks,

Naomi Shapiro

The story of Greg and Caitelen, February 7th, 2007 as told by the lovely Caitelen herself:

Things were not as they seemed for me on the day Greg proposed. He surprised me first by scheming with my best friend Tamra to have her show up at the restaurant where we were having lunch. Greg left us with instructions via an adorable rhyming card to have dessert and pedicures in the afternoon. Later, card number two left me with instructions for a shopping spree with Mom to find a nice outfit for the dinner I was tricked into thinking was with my mom and dad that night. Instead, Greg showed up and treated me to a lovely Italian dinner at Vivace's, all the while leading me to believe that this day and all it's cute greg-isms were just his way of saying "Sorry" for not being able to hang out with me on my first day back in town. We had a brief dinner, me under the impression that he was heading to the church to preach right after. Then, when the LIMO pulled up to the restaurant to pick us up, I finally got a clue and realized that there was no church obligation that night, nor had this been "just another cute date." This was it! In th limo we enjoyed some sweet wine Gregs parents had for us and Greg played me two songs he had written for me.
We drove into the mountains and he led me to a little clearing overlooking the whole city of Albuquerque. It was a beautiful night!
Perfect! With stars and city lights and mountains all around us. It was seriously like a movie scene! He spread out a blanket on the rock and we read, by flashlight, Romans 12:9 and following about "sincere love." Then he got down on one knee and, well, I was so flustered and happy I couldn't tell you exactly what he said except that it was beautiful and sincere and, of course, I said yes! The first thing we did as an engaged couple was pray together and give our engagement and soon-to-be marriage over to the Lord. We then headed back into town in the limo. Greg's card contained clues to one more surprise before the night was over. I was blind-folded and led me to the front door of his house which had a huge red bow on it! A new house! I new home together! Inside our families and several close friends who know us and love us and have mentored and invested in us as a couple were waiting. What a sweet, sweet surprise! I couldn't have imagined a more blessed way to end the night than to have those I love there to share in our joy! They prayed over us and made some toasts and we took pictures and ate cake and I showed off my beautiful new ring!!
Eventually, sweet Greg just about passed out from exhaustion after all of his scheming and planning and everything went so perfectly! He finally slept that night and I could hardly sleep for excitement!

Gregory Clifford Schneeberger III, Esquire