Family Day Weekend seemed to me the perfect time to ask Suzanne if she would choose to build a future with me, if she would marry me. I found the perfect (and original-looking) diamond studs to commemorate the moment, set our dinner at the kitchen bar, and prepared an ordinary (and yummy) meal to welcome my girl home. It was important to me that this moment be a part of any ol’ day that would be like all the other days of our future together — simple, at home and with the “sparkle” of our love.

It was also important to me that I beat Suzanne to the punch. I’ve been blessed in life and I know I have been extremely lucky as great things seem just to happen to me — from the incredible family into which I was born to the amazing friends whose paths mine fortunately has crossed, and even to the exciting jobs into which I have fallen. I wanted to act deliberately this time. I knew right away that Suzanne is a special person and I soon saw that we make an exceptional team. I also realized that I had never felt so excited and optimistic about the future. (And, I’ll save the rest for the vows….)  I knew that I wanted to be smart about this. I wanted to secure our future. And, happily, she said yes.

The easy part was knowing that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. The hard part — we soon realized — was going to be figuring out how we would choose to celebrate our commitment to each other.