I never believed in love at first sight, until that evening in Paris…
It was a typical French winter...a cold, magnificent evening. I was walking under the Tour Eiffel with friends and didn't have a thought about meeting anyone...until I saw her.…she was the most beautiful girl I have ever seen in my life.
Our eyes met and we fell in love forever, like one of those love stories that you watch at the cinema. From the very first moment I saw her I wanted to spend all my life with her. It did not take long for us to know we were meant for each other.
A few years later I took her hand by hand and we walked through San Marco’s square in Venice. Soon we came to a wonderful bridge. There was something about the evening that just felt magical...and on the other side of the bridge it was like a dream...full moon at night.....the street markets were lighting the city as Pavarotti was playing in the background, singing about how beautiful life is…and in that precise moment I took her hand and read her a poem that I wrote to her from my heart…

There is only one dream that crosses my mind,
Is the love I have for you that makes me blind.

I’ll be your King and you’ll be my Queen,
I make you a promise I’ll be always clean.

Girls like you there are really few, no more than 7,
this is why when I am with you I feel like heaven....

Here in Venice I want to spend all my life,
Please say yes when I ask you to be my wife.

It was New Year's eve, 2005, the last night of a wonderful vacation on the beach at Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic.

Leslie and I had met and fallen in love on a similar beach on Coronado Island near San Diego a scant four months before. We were at CIO magazine’s CIO 100 conference at the Hotel del Coronado, where I was accepting an award for my company. Leslie and I are both CIOs and are both very committed to our jobs. Still, we found a little free time to flirt a bit after the business parts of the conference, particularly during the evening socials. But nothing serious happened. That is, until the last night of the conference. It was the night of the awards ceremony. Everyone was in formalwear; Leslie wore a long black gown and I was in a black, vested tux. After a sumptuous dinner, the awards were presented and then the entire assemblage retired for music and dancing in the luxurious and historic Crown Room. Leslie and I danced until the band retired, and then we walked out into the warm night air together. We were still in our formalwear. We took off our shoes and walked onto the beach until the waves were lapping at our feet. Looking up, we saw an incredible panorama of stars. The summer triangle of Altair, Deneb and Vega was directly overhead. I showed her the lovely Cassiopeia, Cepheus the king and in the handle of the Little Dipper, the North Star, Polaris. Although Jupiter and Venus had already set together earlier in the evening, the moon was rising, with Mars at its heels. We kissed and fell in love right then and there.

There was a small problem. She lived in Maryland and I lived in Arkansas. Fortunately, I happened to have grown up in Maryland and my mother lived only 5 miles from Leslie’s house. Also fortunately, we tend to travel a lot in our jobs. Over the ensuing months, our whirlwind romance crisscrossed the entire country, from San Diego to Maryland, to New York, to Scottsdale, Arizona, to the most beautiful hiking in the USA in the Buffalo River valley in Arkansas and more. The first stop occurred a little over a week after we met; we had a second romantic stargazing session on the beach on the other side of the country from Coronado Island - Ocean City, Maryland. This event was significant, as you will see later. There are so many other wonderful stories from the ensuing four months that furthered our romance, including a romantic, slightly perilous and ultimately hilarious hike to picturesque Hawksbill Crag near Jasper, Arkansas… but I digress.

Back to the warm beach at Punta Cana on December 31, 2005… Just as it was at Coronado beach four months previous, the night sky was crystal clear and the stars shone brightly. We were standing together, alone on the beach. We were listening to the gentle waves, smelling the fragrant salt air and enjoying a romantic moment together, holding hands and gazing at the sky. Saturn and Mars were easy to find, bracketing Betelgeuse, Rigel and the brightest star, Sirius. The constellations were also bright, with no city lights and smog to obscure them: Orion, Gemini, Taurus and the seven sisters of The Pleiades. As I pointed these out to Leslie, I couldn’t help getting more and more excited about the secret I had held for nearly a month and managed to conceal through our entire week together as well. I was going to ask her to marry me this very night.

To prepare for this special moment, I had done three things. First, of course, was to find the perfect diamond and perfect setting. Fortunately, Jana and the good folks at Abazias were there to help. They found the absolute perfect stone and matched it to a beautiful, platinum setting. I received the mounted stone a few days before Leslie and I left for Punta Cana. It was so beautiful, it took my breath away.

The second item was to have the right kind of bubbly to celebrate both the engagement and the New Year. My good friend Gordon McClendon recommended Perrier Jouët. I found a nice gift set that included two beautiful, hand-painted champagne glasses in a hinged gift case, perfect for the big event. Fortunately, these were not damaged in flight nor discovered prematurely by my intended. I was able to keep both the gift case and the ring concealed for the entire week.

The third and final item was possibly even more important than the other two. As I have relayed this story to others, I’ve been told that this particular item made it nearly impossible for the answer to be “no.” I composed a sonnet summarizing our romance and my feelings. It was to be recited from memory and followed by a couplet conveying the marriage proposal. I practiced this during every free moment for the entire week so that it would be perfect on New Year’s Eve. Just in case, I taped a printed copy inside the Perrier Jouët gift case and hoped I wouldn’t have to use it.

The moment finally arrived. I told Leslie to hold still for a moment and walked behind her to retrieve the ring in its box. Concealing it at my side, I walked back around Leslie and moved to a position in front of her. The ocean to my left, the resort far to the right, Leslie in front of me… I gestured up to the stars and recited:

It was for us an awesome starry night
When passion came to stoke love’s fires aglow
Your beauty bathed me in ethereal light
On western beach so short a time ago

And then again it struck on Eastern beach
Where calmly walked our trusting souls entwined
Before we understood what was in reach
Our lonely hearts were fully there consigned

Tonight on island shores we shall decide
If love indeed is ours forever true
Again the wondrous stars are here to guide
Our hearts to start our lives together new

My heart is yours and yours is mine because
In truth, more perfect match there never was

Then, I got down on one knee in the warm sand. Bringing out the ring box, I opened it for her the see the spectacular Abazias ring. At the same time, I recited a second, personal couplet followed by the fateful question, “will you marry me?” How could she refuse?

She said “yes.” So we uncorked the champagne, toasting the new year and our new lives together. And now, more than a year later, we are even more in love than ever.

I guess this whole story starts with the engagement of my cousin to the woman who is now his wife. When he told me about his engagement, I knew I had to do something as grandiose for my own. You see, he had taken his girlfriend on a vacation to propose to her. On one of their snorkeling trips, he had looped a rubber band around the engagement ring and wrapped the rubber band around his arm and under his wet suit. At a certain point during the day, he pointed to something on the sea floor and waved his girlfriend down to the bottom with him. He pretended to grab something from the bottom, and presented her with a ring. At first she didn’t really get it, and thought that he had found the ring on the ocean floor. If you are wondering about her hair color, your assumptions are probably correct. After he put it on her ring finger she understood. Happily, in her excitement, she only gasped out part of her air, and still had enough to make it safely to the surface. Despite the fact that this engagement was a bit dangerous, I also thought that it was really cool, and it got me thinking about how I would ask my girlfriend.

I started thinking about all the fun things that Heidi and I do. Out of all the activities that we enjoy together, the one that stands out the most is snow boarding. When we were still just friends, one of the first things we did together was go to the Winter X-games in Aspen Colorado. We live in the Boulder/Denver area, so this was a full day trip, and we had a great time. As we started getting closer, we did more and more snowboarding trips.

I would say that our growing relationship turned from friendship to more in February of 2005. Some friends and I had rented a condo in Beaver Creek for a week. She came up for a weekend, and it was obvious to me and all my friends that Heidi and I were a lot closer than your typical friends. This girl was made for me, and we have been together ever since. The point is, snow boarding had a considerable role in our friendship and later on in our continued success as a couple. I knew that it had to be part of our engagement as well. Consuming libations in copious amounts and discussing the meaning of life was a close second. While this is a fun activity and I encourage every young couple to try it out 20 or 30 times to learn about each other, I didn’t think that proposing while slurring and holding onto the floor for fear of falling off the earth was exactly appropriate.

OK. Now I knew that we would be boarding, but how and where was I going to do it. I mean, a really cool thing would be to do it during a steep tree run. Dodging trees, trying to hand her a ring, and avoiding decapitation by low branches may have impressed my cousin who seemed to not mind trying to kill his girlfriend, but it didn’t seem really practical to me. So here is what I came up with: Last year, Breckenridge built a lift on top of the mountain called Imperial. This is currently the highest chair lift in North America. Getting engaged there somehow appeals to my adventurous side. I always want to be in the highest or lowest place, or go the fastest, or do the riskiest sport. Yeah, yeah, I can hear some of you thinking “Hmmm, small man disease?” All of you people can just shut your pie hole.

I was ready, I had my plan, I had my Abazias ring of superb quality (you didn’t notice the plug, did you?). The one thing I had failed to think about is that I had to somehow get Heidi to agree to go to Breckenridge, and then had to get her to the very top of the mountain. Oh well, I can just wing it, right? Wish I would have thought that one out better!!

On a Friday evening I arrived home from a business trip in Florida. I mentioned that the mountains had gotten a bit of snow and that it would be fun to sleep in a little bit in the morning and then maybe head up to Breck for a half day. While Heidi is very easy to get along with, she isn’t always a yes girl either. Her response was “I like the sleeping in part, but let’s decide the rest tomorrow.” That was my first Uh-Oh, in a long series.

I was up bright and early the next morning. Apparently, the butterflies doing re-enactments of Top Gun in my stomach had a much different idea about the definition of sleeping in than I did. I checked the ski report, and there had been an additional 5 inches of snow. A-Ha! That would convince her that riding was a good idea. So I laid there for another hour and a half, raring to get started, but wanting to act normal. Not as easy as I had hoped. Finally she woke up, and I’m sure it had nothing to do with the fact that I was laying right next to her, staring at her, and tapping my fingers on the bedpost. I tell her the ski report and within an hour, we are on our way to the slopes. So far, so good!

We get to Breck, and it’s not exactly the perfect day I was hoping for. The wind was kicking pretty well, and there were more clouds than I saw in any of the postcard pictures I had envisioned in my mind. Oh-well, I have planned and stressed about this long enough. Today is the day. We get on our gear and head up the mountain. We get off the first lift and board immediately onto a large patch of ice. I’m able to keep my edge and make it across to where the not-so-gent wind had scraped the powder from the main part of the run and pushed in almost vertical piles against the trees. Heidi was not so lucky. She lost her edge, landed on her butt, and proceeded to slide the distance of a jetliner runway on her but. She stars complaining about landing on her hip and re-igniting the pain from on old NCAA Volleyball injury and telling me that the conditions suck and she is going down to the bar. Not good!! Meanwhile, I am trying to convince her that this golf course sized slate of black ice is just a small patch and that the rest of the mountain will be great. I’m already desperate to save the day, and we are nowhere close to Imperial. This is worse than shearing a sheep with tweezers. We finally compromise that we will check out the back side of the mountain and see if it is any better. Can you say “beads of sweat?”

On the next lift, I started talking about how it’s been over a year since we went all the way to the top, and how it would be fun to go back up there. The look in her eyes left no doubt that I was obviously retarded. To get to Imperial, you have to take another lift almost to the top of the mountain. At the top of that lift, you ride down a little cat track and then you are at the bottom of Imperial. 30 minutes later, and a lot of lobbying on my part, and we are getting off of the first lift. Heidi gets off the lift, looks at the gale forced winds at the top of the mountain, and says through chattering teeth that she is absolutely not going up there. Damn!! I try to convince her that it’s not that bad, and that the direction that the wind is blowing combined with the angle of the hill would provide a wind break for the run we want to take. Her look tells me in no uncertain terms that my mental handicap is getting much worse. Damn, Damn!! As a last ditch effort, I ask, “Is there any way I can convince you to go up there?” Heidi tells me no and that I can go while she stays in the warming shack at the base. At this point, I give up, and being the chivalrous boyfriend that I am, I say, “No Baby, I just want to hang out with you. Let me adjust my boot, and I’ll head down with you.”

I need to explain that I really wanted this to be a surprise for her, and to shock her. For the last year, every time the subject of marriage was brought up, my canned responses consisted of phrases such as, “Maybe someday, I think we are having a lot of fun as it is.”, or “Let’s give it another year, and then we can talk about it.” While I had the best intensions, this still seems somewhat cruel. She always took it stoically, but sometimes her eyes would give her true feeling away, and let me know what part of the human anatomy I was being. If I didn’t pull of this surprise, then all of her frustration, and my feeling like an ass, would be for not. Therefore, I decided that keeping the surprise and asking her where we stood was a better option than telling her what I was up to and getting engaged at the top of the mountain.

At this point, I get down on a knee to “adjust my boot” (pretty slick, huh? That’s how I roll!!). I reach inside my jacket and pull the ring out of the small pocket just as she yells “God Damnit!!” “What?”, I exclaim. To which Heidi responds, “Damnit! If I go to the top, I’m going to be pissed at you for making me go up there. If I don’t go, I’m going to feel guilty because you really wanted to go up there and I stopped you. Either way, I’m going to be pissed off!! Screw it! Let’s go!!” Elated, and completing forgetting to pretend that I care at all for the turmoil she is going through, I drop the ring back into my pocket, say “Really?!? Let’s go!!”, and blow by her towards the next lift line at Mach 3 before she get’s a chance to change her mind.

We’re heading up the next lift, and we get to the hill I was talking about. As I had predicted, the wind died down. I make the mistake of mentioning this. She give me a look. Apparently, I’m an idiot. And she informs me that it’s just a short break between gusts. Yep, this is our perfect day!! As we near the top, I mention that in my haste to get to the last lift, I failed to adjust my boot and will have to do it at the top of this run (I know. Smooth, right?!?). Heidi hasn’t said a word for the last 2/3 of the ride up, and, judging by the scowl on her forehead and the chattering of her teeth, I’m thinking that this is probably better than any other alternative.

We get to the top, and I ask her to stop while I “adjust”. I get to my knee for the second time of the day, and start to play with my boot. Remember those beads of sweat? Yeah, still there and growing. I go for my pocket and say something stupid, “I need to grab my tool.” Heidi is an experienced rider and knows that there is no “tool” to adjust your boot. To credit, her response was relatively kind. She said, “What is wrong with your boot?” Her voice showed all kinds of frustration, but her question played into my hand perfectly. I pulled the ring out of my pocket in such a way that she didn’t see it, and answered her question with, “I know what’s wrong. I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you, but I haven’t proposed to you yet.” I then showed her the ring, and said, “Heidi, I love you. Will you marry me?”

Here was her response. She had a face mask on, so I couldn’t see a lot of her face, but I could read her eyes perfectly. Before I showed her the ring, and I was saying the nice and mushy words to her, the look on her face was saying “Will you just hurry up? I’m cold, I’m pissed, hurry up so we can get off this forsaken mountain.” When I flashed the ring, there was an utter look of confusion. She had no idea what was going on. Then when I asked her to marry me, I saw a tear run down her face. Heidi fell to her knees, wrapped her arms around me, and gasped, “Of course I’ll marry you!!”

All of a sudden, the weather didn’t seem so bad to either of us. The four chairs behind us where empty (not everyone is as dumb as we are), so when I proposed, we were the only ones on the top of mountain. After that, a group of people got off the lift. I asked them to take a picture and explained that we had just gotten engaged. They agreed and told the next couple groups of people what had happened. Soon we had 10 people gathered around congratulating us, and Heidi’s tears had pulled tears out of several of the other ladies standing around. The commotion got the lift operator to come out, and soon he was congratulating us. He ended up taking the picture for us, and informed us that since the lift had just been built the year before, he thought that we were the first people to get engaged on that spot. For me, a guy with a mild case of small man’s disease, this was really cool. He also made an announcement on his radio to the rest of the mountain. In his highly official tone, he stated, “We have an engagement at the top of Imperial.”

Obviously, this was not the perfect day that I had envisioned. However, it fits us perfectly, and we would have had it no other way. I would never trade that day for any other!!

Since my fiancé and I have been together for almost 5 years and had started planning our wedding before I had a ring, I wanted to make sure there was at least some element of surprise.



My fiancée Erin had a business dinner in Reno on December 21st 2006. We had planned on driving up that afternoon from our home in Sacramento. She was set on leaving by 3pm at the latest. I was supposed to be at work that day (which just over a mile from our house) when in actuality I left early that morning to San Francisco to get here ring. As fate would have it, a huge winter storm came in which made for some thick traffic in the already congested Bay area. After about an hour, I decided on a stone that I liked. Unfortunately due to the fact that it was only 4 days before Christmas, they said it would take at least 3 hours to set the stone. By this time it was noon and I needed to get on the road in order to make it back to Sacramento in time. As I was paying, the sales person came up and tried to discretely tell me my card had been declined. I was putting most of it on my debit card. I had called my bank that morning to make sure everything would go through since they had to raise the purchase limit on my card. Little did I know that when a card is stolen the two most common purchases are first gas, then a large purchase, say, a diamond ring? I spent 20 minutes in the store with my banks Fraud division verifying my blood type, mothers maiden name, etc.etc. Finally I had it taken care of. Now to get the ring to the Hotel in Reno where we were staying that night. The sale person said they overnight them all the time and there was nothing to worry about. Bad idea.



As I was leaving SF my fiancé called and said she would be at my office in 10 minutes so we could pickup our 4x4 rental since it was snowing in Reno and all along the I-80. I had to come up with a quick lie so she would not get suspicious. I told her our friend’s wife had locked herself out of their house and I was going to pick her up. I had to call her and let her in on what was going on. Now that was taken care of and I made it back to Sacramento just in time. We headed up to Reno with plenty of time to spare and all was well. That is until the blizzard like conditions in the Sierras turned the roads into a skating ring. We crawled along in a line of cars going 15 miles an hour with almost no visibility. Then we came to a dead stop. The Caltrans radio station said there was an accident ahead and to expect a 2 to 3 hour delay. It was 6:30 and the party started at 7. After sitting for 2 hours she decided we should not even bother since we would not make it in time. She was determined to turn around and go home. I was determined to get to Reno, where the ring was to be delivered the next morning. We finally made it to Reno after 6 hours of driving.



The next morning we were going to relax and then cross country ski in Tahoe. The plan was to propose to her at the top of the trail with the beauty of the snow covered mountains. Of course when I checked the tracking number online, it showed the ring was in Oakland. Not good. Due to UPS losing the package and the weather. It would not be in Reno until the following day, being Saturday. I tried to not completely freak out. I went back to our room and had to start what would be two long days of acting. At least we would still enjoy a beautiful day of cross country skiing. Wrong. We arrived to find the trail grooming machine was broken and there would be no skiing for us.



We were going to a friends Christmas party that night and everyone there knew I was proposing that day, so they were all excited to see the ring. I now had to make multiple calls to make sure no one brought it up and ruined the surprise. All of this was done as I faked needing to use the bathroom at almost every gas station we passed on the drive home to Sacramento.



Finally on Saturday UPS showed the ring had been delivered to the Hotel in Reno. Now to have them forward it to me in Sacramento. Upon calling the hotel, the manager said they had not received any packages for me, even though UPS showed it was delivered and signed for. Saturday night, 6 hours into the ring being completely lost. I came home from picking up some sushi for dinner to find Erin watching Meet the Parents. I just happened to be the scene where Ben Stiller is freaking out because the airline lost his bag, which had his engagement ring in it. It was either laugh or cry, and I laughed pretty hard.



Finally at 9pm the manager called and said they found the ring. It somehow was delivered to the Spa in the hotel. I called UPS and they said that due to the holiday rush they could not get the ring to me until Wednesday. I was planning on the ring being the main Christmas gift for Erin. The only other thing I had for her was a pair of Hush Puppy slippers. I told the manager to hold the ring and I would be there at dawn the next morning. I then had to figure out how to leave the house at 5am without raising any suspicion. I said I was going snowboarding by myself to get some time alone. She wanted to go and felt left out. I had to be the jerk and insist on going alone.



I made it up to Reno the next morning by 7:30. The ring was stunning in the early morning light and I was so happy to finally have it in my hands. It was December 24th. On the way home I contemplated whether to wait until we went up to the mountains again or to give it to her Christmas morning. By the time I got back I was ready to get that thing on her finger before anything else happened. I was home less than 5 minutes when I suggested we walk to McKinley Park and get some coffee. Despite the fact that it was about 40 degrees, she finally agreed. I proposed to her in the rose garden there. Then I got to explain everything and all of the madness that occurred in the past 4 days. Erin got Hush Puppies and a Diamond ring for Christmas of 2006.

My true story started with a beautiful Princess who I was to fall head over heels in love with. Her name was Kaylee and I met her by divine chance many years ago. We started out as friends, which evolved to best friends, and then eventually into a romantic relationship. And after several amazing years together, it was a beautiful day in June when I had decided to take things to the next step -- and ask the most beautiful girl in my world to marry me. Of course, she would just have to pass a little test I had formulated. I had to see if she was a Real Princess.

As a quick background, the Princess knew a ring was coming in the near future although she didn't know the exact date when I would ask for her hand. I wanted for it to be a surprise which, as with most women, can be very difficult to keep it a secret. And this Princess of mine happened to be extremely intuitive.

Fortunately for our story, things had a way of working themselves out.

The ring arrived on a Friday without her knowledge, and my original intention was to propose on the Monday -- my birthday -- because I assumed it was one day on which she would never expect a proposal.

That Saturday, I had to help a friend out during the day, and afterwards we were all going out for a supper get together. During the day, I was to let Kaylee know when we would be finished up and what the supper plans were. Well, things got a little busy and plans were not finalized, and my lack of communication led to a slightly discontented Princess.

Little did I know at the time that this would come in extremely handy for my engagement plans. In the end, my friend had to cancel for dinner and I decided not to tell Kaylee until I arrived at home. After all, she would never suspect a marriage proposal if she thought we had other plans, right?

And on the drive home, ideas for the proposal shot into my head like lightning. I could only smile, for it would be the perfect proposal. That is, if she passed the test.

Well, by the time I had arrived home I was greeted with a rather displeased Princess who was keen on showing me how she felt about my lack of communication regarding dinner plans. Her irritation only increased when I told her the dinner had been cancelled. Why hadn’t I called? Did I realize that she turned down other plans for this dinner? Could I have been more selfish?

I listened smugly, doing my best to hide my excitement, knowing that in a few minutes I would be proposing to her and then her anger would melt away into forgiveness and understanding. (That is, if she passed the test.) I apologized profusely and accepted blame quickly, wanting her anger to subside. When it didn’t, I began to worry: what if she wouldn’t get over this? Should I still ask her? In the end, I offered her a back massage to help take her mind off things. She accepted, and I told her I could give her a better massage in the bedroom.

Earlier I had planted the ring box under her bed pillow, to set the stage. Now, it was time to do the test: to find out whether or not she was a REAL Princess. So, with Hans Christian Andersen’s advice, I put her to the test.

We laid down on the bed and spent a minute lying there before I asked if she was comfortable.
“I guess so,” was the neutral response, the residual anger not yet dissipated.
“Are you sure?” I persisted.
“I suppose.”

I stated that she didn’t look very comfortable (and she didn’t; nor did she look extremely pleased, although I though it wise not to mention that at the time).

I couldn’t have been more pleased. Like the story of the “Princess and the Pea”, she couldn’t get comfortable on the bed as long as there was a ring (pea) underneath her pillow.

In the words of Hans Christian Andersen: “[I] saw at once that she must be a real princess.” (Princess and The Pea). She had passed my test.

I could barely contain my excitement. I offered to turn on some music, and then suggested that I would come over there to “fluff” her pillow for her. Maybe that way she would be more “comfortable”. I’m sure at this point she was confused by my overzealousness to help out, but she agreed nonetheless.

I got up off my side of the bed, turned on our song (“Making Memories of Us” by Keith Urban), and kneeled down on one knee beside her bed. I fluffed her pillow slightly, reached underneath to grab the ring box. I flipped open the box and, after seeing her initial shock, tears of excitement and joy sprang to my eyes.

After confessing my love to her along with tears of joy running down my face, I asked my Princess to marry me. And, as I hoped she would, there was nothing but love in her eyes as she said “yes” to my proposal.

And we are living happily ever after.


I do know that my Princess is really wanting some beautiful diamond earrings to complement her engagement ring, and your contest at Abazias couldn’t have come at a better time. In my eyes, I could think of no one more beautiful to show them off other than my Princess Kaylee.

Thank you very much for your consideration in this contest. I promise to be equally as creative in presenting Kaylee with those earrings as I was for our engagement (if we were to win them, of course). We absolutely love our engagement story and we are happy to tell the story to whoever asks. Regardless of whether or not we win, thank you for giving me the chance to relive our wonderful engagement memories.

Take care,
~Mike