As a girl, it is a rite of passage to watch cheesy, romantic movies and to aspire to someday be magically swept off your feet just as you see in the films. A cynic by nature, I thought 99.9% of these movies were outlandish and there was no way that could really ever happen.

Then I met Chris…

In general, Chris has the most amazing attention to detail and genuine passion for the things which he enjoys (lucky for me, I happen to be one of them!). When he cares, he pours his heart into his actions and that could not have been more evident in his proposal.

In late June of 2005, we decided to take a much needed vacation to California. We spent some time in San Francisco and in Napa. On our first day in Napa, we decided to get right down to business and start wine tasting around 11:00 a.m. Our first stop was the Robert Mondavi winery—very big, very pretty, okay wine.

Our second stop was at a highly recommended winery called V. Sattui in St. Helena, California. This place was awesome! Not only was the tasting free, the wine was excellent! What made the wine even more special was that it is only purchasable at the winery itself.

Sattui also had an excellent deli in the winery along with a large picnic area, so we decided to grab some food, purchase a bottle of the Gamay Rouge and have ourselves a picnic!

After lunch, we decided to take a stroll through the vineyards. Not a cloud in the sky and surrounded by beautiful mountain scenery and grapevines as far as the eye could see, we were truly enjoying each others company. Wanting to capture this moment on film, Chris asks if he can take a picture of the two of us in a row of vines. Of course, I oblige since we’re in the perfect spot for a picture.

Chris sets up the camera and comes toward me putting his arm around me. Me, smiling for quite some time at a camera that doesn’t appear to be taking a picture mutters, “I don’t think it’s working.”

Chris then gives me a kiss on the cheek and turns to me and says, “Happy Anniversary, Goose.”

“What?” I say, confused (our three year anniversary is September 28, 2005, my nickname is Goose).

“Happy two years and nine months!” Chris says (it’s June 28th). He then pulls out a ring, gets down on one knee and asks, “Jessica Walker, would you do me the honor of being my wife?”

“Are you serious? Is this for real!?” I exclaim!

Soon realizing that the super-sparkly diamond ring in the box is not just a figment of my imagination (or a result of an entire morning of wine tasting), I couldn’t have been happier to say “Yes! Absolutely!”

So we never took a picture like we had planned, but even better, Chris had switched the camera to the camcorder mode and we have the whole thing on video.

I had no idea he was going to propose on this trip. Chris was as calm, cool and collected as ever, never leading on that he had something major up his sleeve. He even readily admitted that I’d been wheeling around my own engagement ring for the last few days (he had put it in the lining of his suitcase, the lighter suitcase, which I had been pulling throughout the trip).

The ring is absolutely beautiful and far beyond what I ever imagined being offered to me in a proposal. Knowing how much time, effort and research he put into picking out just the right diamond and setting means so much to me. If you couldn’t tell by reading this, Chris is truly amazing and most definitely swept me off my feet (just like in the movies!)!

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