Proposing part one: 12 drummers

I've been absent the last couple of weeks because I've been working on a somewhat large-scale project. A couple of weekends ago, Erik and I talked about getting married, but we both decided we wanted a romantic proposal. It was left a bit up in the air who would do it, but I suppose I'm the more ambitious of the two of us, because I was the first to come up with a plan.

I wanted it to still be a surprise, even though we both knew it was coming. So I came up with a somewhat complicated plan, but a bit inspired if I can say so. I wanted to woo Erik for 12 days, with gifts based on the 12 days of Christmas song. There was no religious connection, no connection to christmas, no symbolic significance. Just a song loaded with lovely symbols.

Making 12 gifts in such a short time frame was a huge undertaking. Some of the gifts were simplified, and some didn't turn out quite the way I imagined... but surprisingly, he loved them all. I had planned to either start with our anniversary (1/26), or end with valentines day. By the 26th, I wasn't exactly ready and was thinking of putting it off. But something happened that morning that made me decide it was the perfect day.

So, I started off with "12 drummers drumming". A mix-cd of various famous drummers, in various styles of music. My friend Tarun helped me with a few brilliant suggestions. I never would have finished in time without his help.




I made a small card to go with each gift. When I gave Erik the last gift & ring, I included an envelope with drawings of each gift, and lyrics from the songs - in case he hadn't figured it out yet. Which, he hadn't, at all. Even reading the cards he didn't get it till halfway through :)