How we met

We first met in May 2001 when Aprille was doing some part-time work at Academic Technologies, Denny's place of employment. After Aprille finished her MFA degree in December, she came to work at AT full time, and she and Denny became close friends over the years that followed.

When circumstances became such that dating was a possibility, Denny screwed up his courage and told Aprille he was interested in being more than friends. Though we were both nervous about ruining the great friendship we had, we decided to take the chance.

The Engagement

Though Aprille suspected a proposal was on the horizon, Denny led her to believe it would be on Thursday night, June 17. So when Aprille's friend Alyssa called on Wednesday evening and said that their mutual friend David was in town from New York but only had limited time to hang out, Aprille accepted the invitation without thinking anything of it.

David had another commitment, so he could only stay till nine o'clock, so Aprille went over and spent some time with her friends. As it turned out, Denny had arranged the whole thing--he had asked Alyssa to invite Aprille over so she'd be out of his hair while he set up.

Aprille was having a nice time with her friends when 9 o'clock rolled around. Though it turns out that David also knew about the plan, he simply forgot (!). Alyssa kept trying to push him to leave, which Aprille found very rude considering he had come all the way from New York. But David just said that he was having fun, and his other commitment could wait.

Around ten p.m., David finally decided to break up the party, so Aprille went over to Denny's apartment. The first thing she noticed was that the light was strange--she couldn't figure out what lamps Denny had on. Second, she noticed that it was very hot. When she got to the top of the stairs, she was greeted with two dozen roses, a very handsome-looking Denny, and over one hundred candles that had been burning for more than an hour while Denny waited for her.

After several moments of general stupor that turned into bemused laughter, Aprille figured out what was going on. She thought she had envisioned every possible proposal scenario, but Denny managed to completely surprise her. When he offered her an absolutely gorgeous ring, she accepted.

Denny uncorked a bottle of champagne to celebrate, and Aprille began the arduous task of simultaneously sipping champagne, making phone calls, and gazing at her ring. She didn't spill.

She now tries to do only two of those three tasks at any given time.

The Ring

Denny found the ring through Diamond Source of Virginia, which is run by a friend of his aunt (ignore the unprofessional-looking website; it's actually a top-notch operation).  See pictures of the ring and the proposal scene here.