A Unique Marriage Proposal Using a Build-A-Bear

My fiance and I worked for the same company. While my days were spent in the office, the majority of his were spent away from the office so it was fairly easy for him to pull off surprising me with his proposal.

A month or two before, we went to the jewelry store in the mall and I picked out two engagement rings that I liked. Since I couldn't decide on which ring I liked best, we decided to have it custom made combining elements from both rings. My fiance was adamant about not letting me know when the ring came in so he could surprise me. However, he's not the best at keeping secrets so everytime someone would offer a suggestion or he'd have an idea about how he should propose he would tell me about it, "Because you like horses, someone suggested I take you horseback riding and propose to you then."

The day finally came when my ring came in. Unfortunately, we were going through a little bit of a money crunch at the time. He had to tell me that the ring was in and discuss how we were going to pay for it. We decided that it would be best to make payments on it for a few months. Every month we would set aside the money for him to make a payment on the ring, but I wouldn't know exactly when he was going to get it so he was still able to maintain a little element of surprise. In the meantime, the proposal suggestions kept rolling in, "I thought about taking you back to the spot we sat on our first date and proposing to you there" or "I was thinking about us climbing Pinnacle Mountain and proposing to you at the top." Honestly, a part of me wanted it to be unique and surprising, but another part of me wanted him to stop with the suspense and get it over with. I'm kind of glad he told me about the Pinnacle Mountain idea so he couldn't use that one. What's romantic about being hot and sweaty and out of breath after an hour hike up a mountain?

A few weeks after he'd made the first payment on the ring, a big job came in and we got a big bonus that was enough to pay off my ring and leave us with extra. He had come up with a plan on how he was going to propose and actually kept it secret. While he was at the mall, he put his plan into action. After picking up my ring, he headed down to the Build-A-Bear store and was assisted by one of their friendly Bear associates. He picked out "Bearemy" Build-A-Bear's official mascot, who is a furry brown bear and then used the Build-A-Sound to record himself asking me to marry him. The Bear associate had him pick out a heart and warm it in his hands. He made a wish. I can only assume it was that I would say "yes!" Then he kissed the heart and put it inside the bear. The Bear associate stuffed, stitched and fluffed the bear and then helped him dress the bear in a black tuxedo holding a ring pillow. After that he tied my ring to the pillow.

I was sitting at my desk when I saw him pull through the parking lot in his truck. When he came in the door I could tell he had something behind his back, but I wasn't sure what it was. He sat a Build-A-Bear box on my desk in front of me and "I thought how sweet he went and got me a bear." I opened the box and saw the black tuxedo the bear was wearing and when I pulled the bear out of the box I saw my ring tied to the pillow. On the bear's paw it said squeeze me, so I squeezed his paw and it said, "Annette, will you marry me?" I was so overwhelmed. I had tears in my eyes. It was more romantic than anything I could have thought of myself. Not only will I always remember his marriage proposal, but also I have a very special keepsake and I can listen to him asking me to marry him all over again.