As many of you know, it was in Hong Kong where Jon and I started dating. It was from Hong Kong that we took our first trip together. It was when Jon was leaving Hong Kong that we decided that it would be worth it to spend the next six months in an extremely long distance relationship (I was travelling around the world and wouldn’t make it back to Canada at all in that time). And now we can add one more to the list – it was in Hong Kong when Jon asked me to marry him… and I said yes!

On our last day of our five day stopover in Hong Kong I woke up oblivious to even the idea that Jon had big things in store for that evening. We spent the morning running around preparing my Ontario Bar application and the afternoon shopping. When Jon insisted that we go back to my favourite restaurant I assumed it was because we didn’t know when we would be back in Hong Kong. When he suggested we go way out of our way to get ‘Coconut Mango Sago’ (my favourite juice) I thought he was being extra nice to me. When he said that we should EACH get one (rather than share one) I felt like I had won the lottery. Then, we crossed the harbour on the Star Ferry and walked to a small park behind the Bank of China building. The evening seemed perfect – save for one detail – I had mentioned that I was chilly and despite the fact that Jon was carrying around his hoodie he didn’t offer it to me. While I thought that was rather strange I simply assumed he liked my outfit and would offer me his jacket if it got really cold.

Sitting in the park Jon started talking about the wonderful day that we had had and what a great pair we made. I was wondering what on earth had got in to him and why on earth he was being so cheesy. Then he said something along the lines of “I think we should spend the rest of our lives together, do you?” and I, still oblivious to the fact that this was an actual proposal, assumed he was talking about the idea of marriage. I started to respond ‘Well, you know hon, we’ve talked about this before and …. [look at Jon] WAIT A MINUTE… ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?!” At this point he got down on one knee and asked me if I would marry him. I tried to say yes but could only get out a simple nod. He then reached into his hoodie (which he still wasn’t wearing) and pulls out a Tiffany box. He had managed to buy me a beautiful ring, the one I had always dreamed of, in the only 1 hour window we had spent apart the day before. It turns out he has been planning this since Vancouver. Needless to say, I won’t soon forget November 11th!

We decided we wanted to tell our parents in person and managed to keep this a secret until December 22nd when we were with both sets of parents and our siblings in Airlie Beach – that was so much fun to do and seeing the excitement on everyone’s face was totally worth the 6 weeks we spent dying to tell everyone!

It was the perfect time and the perfect location and I didn’t even see it coming… and I said yes!