How did he pop the question?

Another famous question asked of newly weds, "How did he ask you?" Well this one is kind of unique and quite a long story. During December we had been talking about marriage and how we want to be married one day. We had decided to spend Christmas apart from one another since it would be one of the last times for us to be just with our families. This was a huge mistake, we ended up missing each other so much that we decided we REALLY needed to look into marriage. New year's day we went ring shopping. I told Matthew after we found the ring that he needed to give me time to adjust to this idea of marriage (I never really was the kind of girl to plan my wedding day or think that I would ever fall in love, so I needed to wrap my head around this). I asked him to wait 1-2 months, then give me the ring. This would give him enough time to ask my dad and plan a way to ask. We also decided that July 21st would be a good day to marry, since I would be out of school and we could have the summer and I could plan the wedding during my break. We eventually moved it forward to May 13th because as you will soon find out I am a quick planner.

Being the girl I am I just had to tell my mom. I called her up and told her the news and the whole story. She suggested we start looking for reception places to reserve since many people get engaged around Valentine's and it was coming up then they'd be booking around the same time as us. Make sense, right? Smart mom. Anyways that weekend we went looking at reception centers. I found my center after just looking at two places. I knew I wanted Silvercrest, so we booked it. Since we found my location so quickly, Erin (who came with, she is the best! Oh yes and Ellie my wedding consultant) and my mom suggested we look at dresses. I found mine by the second dress. Ok, place and dress, what's next? Oh, the cake. Yeah decided on that after looking at a few ideas on the wall. Three major items were accomplished in only a few hours! We left that morning at noon, were done with the cake plan by 3 (I am so not picky, it is the day not the "stuff"). So Matt calls to check in, I tell him all the things we accomplished his response,

"I thought you were only looking at reception places."
"I know but we found it so quickly, so we did the rest. Oh honey, I need the ring."
"I wanted to give it to you, but you told me to wait."
"Yeah, about that, I changed my mind."

I know, way to pressure him and put him on the spot. This day was Saturday, January 9, 2010. I told him though "I won't accept the ring until you get my father's permission." So Monday, January 11, 2010 he goes to ask my father. I knew he was going to ask so I set my sister Nicole up to be my spy. I asked her to go to her room when he gets there call me and ease drop. She did a pretty good job. ;) Although she couldn't hear too much she got the idea of the conversation and the important stuff, like my father saying yes. Oh best part about this, Nicole answered the door and what does Matt say, "Is HE here?"

We went to dinner after with my parents, Matt then went back to his house, told his parents "she wants the ring NOW," grabbed it and took me back to my condo. A few hours later he asked me to close my eyes (I heard him get up and close the ring box, so I knew it was coming :P). I opened my eyes, he was on his knee, and he asked "Amanda Kae Mantas, will you marry me?" The rest is history.

Manda