While we had talked about getting married in the future, the night of the proposal I had no idea what Dærick had in store.

We were scheduled to attend a dinner party with friends. Chris and Annemarie Penny frequently invite guests to their place for dinner gatherings and had mentioned they wanted to thank Dærick for his hard work as Parking Czar for their numerous events, so it seemed quite natural that we were invited to attend a dinner at their home. Since (I thought) this was to be a thank you for Dærick’s service, it also seemed reasonable that we were asked to invite some of our close friends to join us.

We arrived at the Penny’s, mingled with friends, and were served a beautiful lobster dinner, cooked for us by Chris Penny himself. The meal was wonderful and I ate every bite! (If you know me, this is unusual!) After dinner, a suggestion was made to go up to the gazebo to enjoy the evening. It was a beautiful night out and again, I felt this was a reasonable thing to do when you have such a beautiful view atop a hilltop home overlooking the ocean in Malibu.

We all meandered up to the gazebo and I sat down on the love-seat swing, urging Dærick to sit close to me so that there would be plenty of room for the others to sit as well. I was curious why they didn’t want to sit, but didn’t dwell on it.

Dærick sat next to me and started talking about how we met in this exact gazebo a little over a year ago. I thought, “aaawww, he’s being mushy.” After a few moments, he stood up and faced me. It was then that I was caught off-guard and realized what was about to happen. Dærick continued to say wonderful things (I wish I could tell you what they were, but my brain wasn’t retaining much at the time due to my state of awe and my internal thought of “This is really happening!” running through my head) and knelt down on one knee. He asked me to marry him and offered me his grandfather’s wedding ring.

I was able to get out the word “Yes!”, but not much else. Awe, is the best way to describe how I felt in the moment. He did a good job.