From Miss T to Mrs B

“When my sweet, silly, snuggly and now apparently very surprising Buzz proposed to me last week, I was off with the fairies. Oblivious and unaware, despite my Proposal Radar being on high alert, when it finally came I was entirely caught by surprise – and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

A couple of months ago we had come to the rational, adult, mutually consenting agreement that we wanted to get married in August 2011, before our planned trip to the US and before we started our family. It was all very sensible, rational, organised and planned – like me – but we both still wanted something a bit more meaningful and romantic. Buzz wanted to propose, and I wanted to be proposed to. We chose a ring together (more on that later!), and then I knew absolutely nothing else – it was all up to him. I got on with planning our wedding, trying not to spill the beans to all and sundry, while he got on with the business of plotting the proposal.

And it did my head in. Calmness deserted me and every time Buzz would leave the room my newly installed internal Proposal Radar would start screaming “Awooga! Awooga!”. He delighted in throwing out clues and dropping hints, while I slowly became a small bag of frazzled jangling nerves. I restrained myself from hunting for the ring when he wasn’t around – but only just – and told myself repeatedly, and thoroughly unconvincingly, that I should try to enjoy this special time. Special time my foot! It was a special time of torturous hellishness!

And yet when it came, despite my state of high tension and Code Red alertness, it truly surprised me.

Buzz and I were on holiday in a seaside town where my grandparents lived when I was a child. It holds a very nostalgic place in my heart, and we have also enjoyed our most relaxing and pleasurable holidays together there. It was the obvious choice … which is why Buzz made sure that every single clue he gave me in the lead up was designed to throw me off the scent.

When the sun came out brightly one morning, Buzz suggested a stroll along the beach with our little dog, and lord and master, Sam. Aha, I thought – this is it! But when the sun went behind the clouds, he suggested staying in, and I assumed that it wasn’t the day after all. By the time the sun reappeared – and this is Melbourne, so it’s usually only a matter of ten minutes or so – off we trouped again.

Buzz has a habit of fossicking and collecting debris on the beach, and off he went clambering over rocks with Sam, getting his feet wet and picking up pieces of flotsam and jetsam. I followed, photographing bits and pieces as I went, and wondering when it was time to go home for a lovely G&T. Buzz, leaning over the edge of some rocks which jutted out into the ocean, called me over to see what he had found. Slightly grumpy and reluctant to get too close to the edge, I wandered over to grudgingly inspect his discovery. And here my Proposal Radar completely and utterly let me down.

The beach had the afternoon slick of silver running along its shoreline, with the last of the golden sunrays glimmering on top of gentle, flickering waves. Mountainous walls of seaweed lined the beach as far as the eye could see, a bulwark against the approaching tide, while dark driftwood punctured the curve of the coast and a small chill in the wind signaled the end of the day.

I saw a glint in his hand.

Already on one knee, on the edge of ocean, Buzz looked up at me and I began to cry.

Neither of us remembers what we said – except that he asked and I said yes.

And I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Ms Polka Dot says: Miss T: Princess Vegan (Rachel) shares with us her sweet proposal from the ‘smart and snuggly Buzz’. This is just Episode One in her journey to their Wedding Day!

Rachel says, she is:

‘Organised to the max; fan of all things sparkly and organic; vegan (but no hemp or dreadlocks); proud mama to a Chihuahua princeling and two snooty cats; drinker of beer; and thrilled to her little cotton socks to be marrying the sweet, silly, smart and snuggly Buzz.’