How I used my Moleskine journal to propose to my fiancee

As of Saturday March 13, 2010 I am officially engaged to my sweetheart Heather Foy. I’ve got a million thoughts to share but I will keep it short today and just share the “how” of our engagement. I’ll share my thoughts and feelings on the whole thing a little later as well as share her feelings on the whole ordeal. Plus, I’ve got a great and embarrassing story to share if Heather will give me her permission.

A constant in our relationship has been hand written letters. Not on a schedule, but I try to regularly send her something in the mail. I’m fond of traditional letters because I feel they communicate far more than an e-mail does. Not that you say anything different using either medium, but the fact that you took time to sit down with a pen and paper and actually write. I don’t think I’ve got romance down to a science, but I do think it is sad that hand written letters and notes are more of a novelty than anything else.

My original idea of how to propose involved one of these letters, but I could never quite figure out how to say what I wanted to say or how the proposal would tie in. Plus handing her a letter in person just never worked for me when I would picture the moment. One day while writing a letter, with my journal close by, it occurred to me that the journal would be the best way to do it. I could say as much as I wanted to say, and the fact that it would be written as journal entries would allow me to write about her rather than to her.

But what to do with the ring? I toyed with several ideas, but nothing really clicked.

Tie it to the page marker?

Hide it in the pocket in the back of the journal?

Drop to one knee and pull it out of my pocket as she read the final page?

I had a hundred scenarios in my mind, but nothing satisfied my desire to propose in a unique way.

The idea finally came to me out of nowhere. I would cut a hole into the back pages of the journal and conceal the ring inside. Perfect! I gave myself point for originality and got to work on finishing the journal.

I ended up filling several pages with heartfelt entries about Heather. Ranging from silly observations of her many odd quirks or serious musings about love and the the things that endear her to me. I ended up using the journals strap used to keep it closed for holding the final page over the ring. It kept it secure as she read through the journal. Leafing through the pages and shaking it around. The ring managed to stay put though!

As I said, later on I will share the more emotional and romantic side of this event.

By the way… I used an X-acto knife to cut out the journal. I am certain there is an easier and cleaner way of going about doing this.

*I’m stoked that several people have Re-Tweeted this and are celebrating with us. I was shocked when @moleskine retweeted and then when I found some people had mentioned it in blogs like this one http://www.moleskinerie.com/2010/03/this-guy-used-a-moleskine-to-propose-to-his-girlfriend.html If this is my 15 minutes of internet fame then I couldn’t be happier. Ha!

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