Before we could even begin to plan a wedding, I needed to propose to Stacy. We both knew that we wanted to get married after graduation and hopefully in 2000, but I kept dragging my feet on buying an engagement ring. Towards the end of October, after months of looking, I found a ring I liked. Unfortunately, Stacy was there when I found it. I decided to only pay half of it and have it on layaway. The next day I paid for the rest of it (without Stacy around) and took it home later that week, because it needed to be sized.

A month went by before I was able to give Stacy the ring. Thanksgiving had come and gone and Stacy was getting impatient. Christmas lights had gone up throughout the area, so we decided to go to Peddler's Village, a small town with many shops and decorations. We had been here one other time during the summer and thought that it would be a nice place to visit around Christmas time.

Once we arrived, I accidently left the ring in my car. I figured I would find a way to get it later that night. It was a good thing, because Stacy realized soon that I didn't have a ring on me and didn't expect to get engaged this night. We started the evening on the carousel. This is where I wanted to propose to her later that night, but the ride was closing early for the evening for a private party. I needed to find another way to ask her to marry me.

As we walked around throughout the evening, I kept my eyes open for anything romantic. I am not much of a romantic guy, so this wasn't easy for me. The whole town was lit up for Christmas, so my goal was to find a nice area to propose. There were many other people walking around that evening, so I didn't want to propose in an area full of people. I was getting upset about not finding a way to propose towards the end of the evening. Stacy and I were heading to the car to go home at this point.

As we were walking back to the car, I had remembered seeing a horse and carriage ride that went throughout the town. The problem was, I didn't have any money in my pocket. Stacy was getting upset for some reason, so as we were walking back to the car, I stopped by an ATM machine. The ring was still in my car, so I pretended that we were just going to go home. When I got to the car, I would not let Stacy in. She knew something was going on at that point, and she saw me get the ring out of the center consol. She started crying, but I told her she had to go on the carriage ride in order to get the ring from me.

We found where the line formed for the horse and carriage ride. We got there in time to go right onto the black carriage. Well, since Stacy already knew what was coming, I asked to wait for the white carriage. That came along a few minutes later and we boarded on. The driver was a friendly man who enjoyed talking to us. He barely gave me a chance to propose until the end. As we were passing the carousel (where I had originally wanted to propose), I knelt down inside the carriage and asked Stacy to marry me. She said yes, but was unable to take her other ring off for me to put the engagement ring on. By now she was in so much tears that she couldn't see. Well, she got the other ring off and put the new one on. The carriage driver stated that we were the first proposal for the horse he was controlling. The rided ended shortly after and we went home to show the family