returntothemother:

How I proposed to my girlfriend fiance, Alley :

I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, it was the obvious decision to marry her, but it wasn’t so obvious as to how I would pop the question.

I have always wanted to do it big. I’ve entertained a lot of ideas, from renting ad space on the big screen at our local movie theater to display a giant graphic with a larger-than-life proposal, to doing a cliche write-it-out-in-christmas-lights-on-the-front-lawn gig. I figured, my feelings for her are massive, so the proposal should be equally massive.

I did neither of those things, and decided that I didn’t need a big presentation after all. Just a big idea. So I decided to create something deeply personal.

Alley is a big Harry Potter geek. I say that in the fondest of manners. She’s gotten me into the theaters for the last three films, and on the couch to watch the first five numerous times. That’s saying a lot because I was jaded regarding the entire franchise, and took no shame in lampooning her interest. That is, until she got me hooked, and gladly watched as I inserted my foot into my mouth. 

After the film series concluded, and seeing how disheartened she was that there would be no more looking forward to midnight outings to catch the first run of the next HP flick, I decided to make her a sequel. 

I didn’t quite go all-out and write a killer fan-fic treatment. Instead, I created a dust jacket that would pass for a real-deal sequel, if I timed it right and had the element of surprise on my side.

When I finally got the ring, I commandeered her copy of the Deathly Hallows and did something that might otherwise seem sacrilege to any other hardcore potter fan… I hollowed out a portion of the book to seat the lower half of the ring box inside.

I added a neat feature involving some ribbon that translated quite well, in the context of marriage, paired with a clever note… I won’t spoil it. Check the images for yourself :)

I ended up asking her on Christmas Eve, in front of my family, presenting the book as a gift. She even thought, for a few seconds, that a Harry Potter release slipped into the market without her knowing it!

Only under these conditions am I ever, ever, ever getting married. haha <3