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She Said Yes

At the beginning of this month I talked about our wedding plans and said I'd let you know if she accepted my proposal. Not being one for doing things the conventional way I didn't actually get down on one knee until Tuesday. This despite the fact the venue is booked and all the invites are out. It was a formality really and unlikely she'd say no, but I still wanted to try and make it special and something we'd remember.

Now, don't laugh, but I proposed while we were out Geocaching. Geowhating? Geocaching. It's like a treasure-hunt game using a hand-held GPS. People hide a box of trinkets, log the coordinates and record it on the website. You find one near you, punch the coordinates in to your GPS and go off in search of it (normally an old lunch box hidden under a tree).

It sounds geeky, but it can be good fun. If nothing else it's a nice way of finding out about nice walks you'd probably never see otherwise. Karen loves walking but hates Geocaching. Geocaching to Karen is what golf was to Winston Churchill - "a good walk spoilt". She hates having to stop while I mess about hunting around in the under-growth, often in the freezing cold.

Now, I'm no Geocaching obsessive. I just think it's something to do on a weekend that doesn't cost an arm 'n' a leg for the whole family to do. Anyway, I was discussing ways to propose with friends when one offered the tongue-in-cheek suggestion that I hide it in a Geocache. To him it was a joke, to me it was a great idea. Thanks Mark.

So, on Sunday a friend and I went off to Wollaton Hall to find a suitable spot to hide the pretend cache. Obviously we didn't actually hide it. We merely logged the position of a suitably romantic vista on the lakeside. Then I faked a Geocache page, which I printed out on Tuesday after agreeing with Karen to go on a walk. As far as Karen was concerned it was just like any other walk. She literally had no idea what she was walking in to.

The cache, which was in my pocket, was an old film canister with the ring in it. The plan was that I got down on one knee next to a tree, under which I'd pretend to find it, and then say "Oooh, look what's in it", followed by the obvious question. It could all have gone very wrong as Karen normally carries on walking and tells me to catch her up once I've done messing about. Luckily she didn't and it all worked out perfectly.

You should have seen her face when I opened it. It literally took a couple of seconds for her to work out what was going on. She really thought I'd just found it and apparently her first thought was "No way, somebody's left a ring in it!".

So, when asked where I proposed I can always tell people N 52° 56.599 W 001° 12.882. I wonder if anybody else has ever proposed like this...

Comments

  1. I don't know. Looking for trouble in all sorts of places.

    First he flirts with a big old reliable girl. {Link} then he flirts with a sexy young thing {Link} now he's proposing to a third girl.

    Well done Jake.

    • avatar
    • Gaston
    • Thu 23 Feb 2006 07:05 AM

    Congrats Jake, I wish the best to both of you !

    Gaston

  2. jake, the romantic geek...:) congrats again.

    • avatar
    • Karen
    • Thu 23 Feb 2006 07:23 AM

    Beautiful. And brilliant. I'm glad it went off without a hitch... oh wait...

    • avatar
    • Karen
    • Thu 23 Feb 2006 07:24 AM

    Oh, and I'm not "that" Karen. Should probably make that clear.

  3. Gratulerar Jake!! Nice done!

    • avatar
    • Glen
    • Thu 23 Feb 2006 07:46 AM

    Wasn't it actually Mark Twain who said that "golf is a good walk spoilt"??

    Anyway nice original method of proposal! and congrats!

    • avatar
    • Doug Cohen
    • Thu 23 Feb 2006 08:06 AM

    Congrats Jake!

    • avatar
    • Jake
    • Thu 23 Feb 2006 08:07 AM

    @Glen. Probably. When I wrote that I remembered that it was often mis-quoted as being Churchill who said it. Maybe he did say, but was quoting Twain?

  4. Congratulations!

    • avatar
    • Glen
    • Thu 23 Feb 2006 08:44 AM

    @Jake. Well they were both wrong! Well in my mind anyway but my handicap may testify otherwise;-)

  5. Congratulations, Jake! Well done!!! :-)

  6. Congratulations, Jake.

    Does the coordinates have any meaning, like the date and time of your proposal or Karen's birthday! That would have been cool.

    • avatar
    • Jake
    • Thu 23 Feb 2006 10:13 AM

    Chad. None at all I'm afraid.

    • avatar
    • Mike
    • Thu 23 Feb 2006 10:15 AM

    Well played Jake

    Best wishes to both of you

    • avatar
    • Michael
    • Thu 23 Feb 2006 10:25 AM

    Excellent, simply excellent !

    • avatar
    • Clarkey
    • Thu 23 Feb 2006 11:00 AM

    Congratulations Mate!

    Good luck to the both of you.

    Cheers

    Matt

    • avatar
    • laurens
    • Thu 23 Feb 2006 11:25 AM

    Congratulations. You may engrave the coordinates in your wedding ring.

    • avatar
    • Jose M.
    • Thu 23 Feb 2006 12:15 PM

    Congratulations for you both!

    Good geek election.

    I choosed Paint-Ball and I failed to shoot the ring so my wife has the most expensive eyebrow piercing over the world.

  7. That is such a cool idea (and very topical given I'm a complete geocache nut!) - congrats to you both!

  8. Good one - congratulations!

    ---* Bill

    • avatar
    • Kathy
    • Thu 23 Feb 2006 10:44 PM

    Congratulations to you both.

  9. Congrats! -- Personally, I think its kinda cool to know the exact longitude/lattitude for that event. I can't explain why... must be the geek in me. -- Regardless, congratulations!

  10. Brilliant!

    Best of luck, but from what you tell us of Karen, it doesn't sound like you'll need any!

    • avatar
    • Dibbo
    • Fri 24 Feb 2006 07:37 AM

    my brother did a similar thing by hiding the ring in the snow at the top of a mountain....luckily she found it ;o)

    A year on and it's his stag do in 6 days...skiing and drinking for 5 days...with no female restraints ;o)

  11. I know Wollaton Hall from my days over the Derby Rd at the Uni....

    Lovely setting for a very special moment

    • avatar
    • Michael
    • Fri 24 Feb 2006 09:34 AM

    Now to outfit you with a GPS transponder and webcam for streaming the ceremony through this site. I'm sure Prominic could hook you up with some webcasting solution.

    Do a Google Maps mashup like this {Link} this for the codestore wedding crashers to track you and that should cover it.

    Congrats Jake!

    (I was just looking through your wishlist to see if you added anything remotely similar to wedding gifts but you still have the knife set and the coffee maker from some time ago. Update it for the both of you and I'll see what I can do.)

    • avatar
    • troublemaker
    • Fri 24 Feb 2006 09:42 AM

    Well done and Congrats Jake :-)

    • avatar
    • Heather
    • Fri 24 Feb 2006 11:06 AM

    *sigh* Thats so romantic. I'll have to direct my boyfriend to this entry...

    Mua hahahaha >:^)

    On a side note.. I love geeks!!

    (being a programmer most would consider me a geek as well.. so I guess its no surprise that I love the nerdy geeky guys of this world..)

  12. What a great idea ! I'll try it by myside.

    'Thinking' Oups ! I'm already married.

    Congratulations to you both

  13. Congratulations!

  14. Congratulations and well done. Welcome to the club!

    :-) stw

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Written by Jake Howlett on Thu 23 Feb 2006

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