The Proposal (Part 6) - The Moment

Finally arriving on the final chapter (I hope), which is the actually dinner itself. As I mentioned earlier, I had gone through their menu and know what I wanted to order for both of us. As Eva said, this shows the sincerity and also ordering on behalf of the lady first is another tip I picked up for an added point. So we chatted while waiting for our 5 course meal to arrive. Yes, this is our first fine dinning together so we're a bit excited too.

While waiting for our first course to arrive, we talk bout normal updates on each others life since I don't want to get so heavy before the appetizer.

Babe was really happy with her Grilled Sea Scallop. 

I am enjoying my Black Mussel Saffron soup too.

The main course arrived, and I decided to get a picture together. Testing the quality of the lighting actually before the big event. There is a French couple sitting next to us puffing their fags, it's a bit disturbing for babe, but we can't do much bout it. Sigh~! 

Babe, really enjoyed her Rack of Lamb with goat's cheese crust. I think she can sense something is coming. 

As for me, I am enjoying my Mountain honey roasted duck breast. At this moment Mr.Wan is signaling if he should brought out the flowers. I gave him the signal to hold on. Right after the delicious dessert, I excused myself with an excuse to prepare the cupcakes. Oh, yeah,  it was babe's birthday that night. So she thought the cupcakes was for her birthday. Cleaver me~! Hitting two birds with one stone. Hehe~!

I placed the box of unopened cupcakes on the table and hold her hand while seriously looking into her sweet brown eyes. I asked her to moved in to my new house but she rejected as we're not official married or registered. She always said that I didn't even proposed to her so I don't have to think so far. So I asked what if I proposed NOW? She was taken aback. At that time, I signaled the guy and he brought in the bouquet of Ferrero Rocher and I go kneeling on the floor while opening the box. I asked her to read what's written on it. 

At this point she was a bit confused and excited at the same time. She was asking where is the ring. I told her I don't have money to get her one now. 

 Maybe she can take the one made from fondant in the box. She was a bit disappointed I think.

At this moment I asked her to look inside the Tiffany box next to the fondant ring in the box. 

When she popped open the box, there it is, the diamond ring. I believe I sensed some really touching memorable moment right there and then. 

Yes, I told her it's a REAL diamond ring. Yes, it's looked bigger than it seemed. I think I need to slap her back to reality when she saw the ring. haha~! 

Without further a do, I quickly slipped the ring into her finger. 

And not forgetting the Ferrero Rocher of course which she really really LOVE. I can see from her face there. 

So what's her answer? The picture says it all.

The face of a happy women~!

All the 'ang moh' in the restaurant clapped when she accepted my proposal. It was really meaningful and memorable moment for both of us. The proposal cupcakes, the bouquet of Ferrero Rocher, the perfect cut diamond, a beautiful dinner and the perfect moment for both of us. Thank you to all those who are involved in making this proposal a memorable one for both of us. Thanks a lot from the bottom of my heart. Without you, I am sure the night wouldn't be perfect as it is.

Flowers RM200, Diamond Ring RM5K, Dinner RM400 that smile on her face when she say YES, Priceless!!

The Proposal (Part 5) - The Day

Finally everything is in place, the cupcakes, the perfect diamond ring, the best restaurant and also the bouquet of everlasting sweetness. The day started off quite well for me as I wasn't that busy and able to settled off all my work before heading to The Curve to meet up with the baker herself, TTB to pick up my order. She explained to me the whole design particularly the Tiffany box.  Actually I am still contemplating whether to use it or not. I am still carrying the ring the whole night and only decided to place the ring into the Tiffany box at the last minute. As you can see, the ring fits (almost) perfectly into the box. I had to snuffed the ring deep down to cover the top. Maybe the ring is a bit big? :ÞI would like to thank TTB again for the secrecy of the whole 'project' and the beautiful cupcakes.

(picture courtesy from TTB website)

After collecting the package I drove down to babe's house and bath before heading down to the restaurant. I am still calling the florist to confirmed the delivery time over at babe's house and they could only confirmed it around 6.30pm and the dinner is at 8pm. So you can understand my nervousness. Drive down was a breeze as it was Thursday night and most of the people are having the buka puasa at that time. I didn't want babe to see the cupcakes as it was a surprise so I hide it under the seats all the way to the restaurant. Arrived around 7.45pm and walked into the restaurant after being greeted by the manager, Mr. Wan. Had a small quick chat with him on the arrangement and passing him the cupcakes. Told me that the bouquet had arrived and I am so relived at that moment. Now everything is perfect. Next would be the perfect dinner.

The Proposal (Part 4) - The Bouquet

After making up my mind about the venue I thought the hard decision making part will be over. Or so I thought. In all proposal movies or real life stories which I heard so far, most of the proposal has flowers involved. So I thought, I need a bouquet of flowers too. I had tried asking babe what type of flowers which she like but she didn't have any in particular. For proposal, roses would be the ideal choice. But how many is enough? a dozen? 24 roses or go crazy with 99? Then I got an idea, chocolate.

(picture courtesy from noel website)

So I decided to get something different. Since babe love Ferrero Rocher, I had decided to gave her a bouquet of Ferrero Rocher. In this way, we can indulge ourselves with something good and not seeing those roses fades as time pass by.  I had checked on a few website and even walked in to some florist to check on the best pricing and concluded that Noel has the best package. Now, how to hide it from my babe? Eva advice me to send the bouquet directly to the restaurant and informed the manager beforehand. And that is what I did. There were some last minute rush and confusion as Noel can't confirmed on the delivery time of the package. Imagine me proposing and the bouquet isn't there yet. That is strange and defeats the whole purpose of it. But luckily after some massive calling and 'communication' with the person in charge, everything was in place. Marvelous~!

The Proposal (Part 3) - The Venue

The third part after getting the perfect ring would be finding the perfect dinning venue for the proposal. I had run out of idea and decided to call upon help from some close friends. Wanie recommended 7ate9 but decided to call it off as it's a bit crowded since it's a dinning plus bar restaurant. I thought of Tamarind Springs but we been there before and I wanted somewhere special and we had never been before. I also wanted a place which will still be there for years to come as to show everlasting. Yes, I am a bit superstitious to some extent. So I had called upon Eva and Terrence for help. Since both of them had been to some really exclusive restaurants, I had a lot of faith in them. 

(picture courtesy of mines website)

Eva had recommended a few but one catch my attention. It's a Sun Set Dinner Cruise at The Mines. You can choose from a few packages for a romantic boat ride just the two of us along The Mines lake. Imagine a perfect dinner just the two of us, sun set view, roses, diamond ring and I am proposing on my knee. It's the perfect memorable moment but I am worried about one thing, the weather. It's very uncertain in our country. I am really worried that the perfect moment would be ruin by the weather at the end. So I save this as a back up and kept on searching. 

(picture courtesy of frangipani website)

I heard about Frangipani and I had around about the place. Checked out their website and look at their menu. The place seemed to have a good ambiance and has one of the best French fine dining restaurant in town. I had asked Terence since he's been there before and he gave me some other recommendation and one of them is Le Bouchon which I decided to go at the end. I almost booked Frangipani but since I read a lot of negative reviews online bout the service and also inconsistency in the quality of their food which made me calling off the idea. 

 (picture courtesy of paranoidandroid website)

Went over to Le Bouchon with Ken for a visit before the actual day and meet with their manager to expressed my intention and ideas. Mr. Wan is very accommodating and easy to work with as I had told him my preparation and he gave me some ideas on how to 'pop' the ring out. The place also served French fine dining similar to Frangipani but the later is more towards modern and the first being more homely which I preferred. Deciding between this three restaurants really makes me running up and down since I wanted to surveyed the places before I confirmed. I wanted the night to be perfect so I need to be there and feel it beforehand. Le Bouchon really fulfill my requirements and the rest is history as they say it. So what's next? Flowers? Too normal for me.

The Proposal (Part 2) - The Stone

After settling the cake for the special night, I had decided to start shopping for the perfect 'stone' for my lovely future wife. But I am a fool when it comes to diamond. Since my sweetheart is a diamond expert, hence the difficulty of the task had escalated to the max for me. But being a resourceful guy, I had called upon a favor from my gym-mate, Wanie. She had obligingly accepted my invitation and off we go to the nearest place, Pyramid. We had dinner and I had explained to her the requirements or criteria of the 'stone' that we're searching for. So we don't go looking at every single ring in every boutique inside Pyramid. After the dinner, we went straight to the first shop, Diamond & Platinum. 

The staff which served us is a lady and she's very friendly too. She had introduced one of the new line called Estrella. Just to briefly explained what is Estrella and what is the hyped about. Estrella diamonds are D&P's signature diamond. Estrella diamond has the immaculate cut, excellent proportions and perfect symmetry and polish that less than 1% of the diamonds in the world are able to match to its uncompromising beauty. I am not exaggerating, these are the words used in their website. We were shown with a few design from the Estrella range and one caught my attention. It's actually a love shape ring or tear drop when you see it from the front. I know this is the ring that I am looking for. But I can't just buy the ring at the first shop I enter. So we had decided to pay Poh Kong a visit. 

We went over to PK's Diamond Boutique and there wasn't much design to choose from. The sales person wasn't that enthusiastic in selling me their diamond compared to D&P. When the manager came over to talk or rather lectured us on their diamond, we found that it's a bit too harsh. We felt uncomfortable the whole session and finally we walked back to D&P and they informed me that they could kept the ring for me for 2 more days before displaying it out again at the counter. Initially we wanted to go over De Gems or other outlets to survey more but finally decided to just go with the first one as everything is perfect and I am totally satisfied with the diamond's weight, color and clarity.  So went back again the week after and bought it. So now, the ring is settled too. Next would be the venue which I am really challenged my limit as you know I am a flogger myself. But let leave that for the next part for now.

The Proposal (Part 1) - The Cake

The cat is out of the hat by now. Everyone should have heard of the news by now. Yes, I had finally proposed to my long time sweetheart, Romiko. It was a perfect night out at one of the best French restaurant in town, flowers (or rather Ferrero), a beautiful proposal cupcakes from my best baker and a perfect cut stone. I am on my knee and .... Well let leave that for later for now. I had decided to divide the whole planning process into a few posts as it would be a lengthy post if I post everything in one. For starter, I am going to tell how the whole proposal started off. 

I had always wanted a perfect moment or the right moment to do the proposal. I know, not everyone has the same idea as I do, but heck, it's a once in a life time thingy anyway. Why not make it memorable. To be frank I am not a very romantic guy so I don't do any mushy stuff. So coming up with this whole proposal thingy really tested the limit of mind. I know I wanted something memorable. So I thought of doing it at some fancy restaurant. But that's not enough. Doing it after a fine dinner with roses and diamond is too common. So I decided to do something different. One of my gym-mate, TTB (Tea Room Baker) is a good baker and had created lots of creation for birthday and all type of occasions. But never a proposal cake. So I got creative and had a discussion with her and told her my intention and idea. The theme would be Keroro Gunsho from a famous Japanese Anime.

I know what I wanted. So it's actually quite easy from there. She's very good with the decorations and also the orientation of the cupcakes. So we exchange ideas and finally decided on the decoration. I'd requested for a sketch of the whole 'project' and she is so nice to come back to me with the above picture. I am still deciding whether to get a real diamond ring or just use a fake one that comes with the cake or not at that time. She had even included a Tiffany ring box for me to place the 'real ring' if I had decided to get one later on. The main character, Keroro (Green Frog) would be holding the ring and would be larger than the other frogs characters. And the most important thing would be the message, "Will You Marry Me?". We had decided to have the word 'Yes' being place with some of the character for her to choose as a reply to my proposal that night. And the word 'No' is not an option. So I am covered. 

Now the cake is done. So I left with shopping for the perfect ring and also finding the right venue. For ring shopping purposes, I had looked for another gym-mate of mine, Wanie. Trust me when I say that this women know her diamonds. I am not going to talk about that now and gonna leave it for the next post. Gonna let you digest on this first post for now.