Will You Marry Me?

We might have forgotten about our dating anniversary last weekend, but I did just so happen to finish a little project celebrating our marriage. If you don't know, five years ago Jordan had the task of finding a way to ask me to marry him and keeping it a surprise. I'm sneaky and nosey, and I don't like surprises, but he was determined that I would not know about the proposal when it actually happened. We had casually been looking at rings on and off and had found one we both liked. Every time we passed the jewelery store I asked if we could stop by to look at it. It was Saturday morning and we needed to return some videos from Blockbuster, which just so happened to be right next to the jewelry store. Of course I begged him to go in and "just look". While in the jewelry store hunting browsing through the glass cases I found the one. The jeweler opened the case and gave me the little white box with the ring in it. As I pulled the ring out of the box, I noticed a little tag attached. On the tag was written "Mary" on one side and "Will you marry me?" on the other. Slightly confused I turned to Jordan. Who was down on one knee. Promptly asking me to marry him. I cried. And asked something about if he was kidding. I think I said yes after that. Then came the red roses (hidden in the back room), kisses, and wondering if it was actually MY ring? Do we pay for it? Oh no, the sneaky man had bought the ring a month before. Waiting for the perfect time to surprise me. See, he didn't have to return any videos to Blockbuster. He was counting on me begging to go see the ring. All the jewelers were in on the surprise. He got me. He got me good.

I saved the little white box and tag from that day. It had been hidden in a drawer somewhere, forgotten. When I started putting together my family picture wall I knew I wanted to incorporate the little tag somehow. I had already created a shadow box for my grandfather's military funeral bullet shell, and wanted to display the little tag in the same way. Last week I found a black shadow box at Marshalls for $3.50. I spray painted it white and lined it with white fabric to match the other shadow box. Now the little tag is displayed in a meaningful way so I can walk by it and be reminded of our special day.

As time goes on and we collect more memorable tokens of our life together I plan on displaying them in the same way. It's little things like this that make a house a home. And I wouldn't trade my humble abode for the biggest, fanciest mansion out there.