Allen and Sarah had a few conversations regarding their future well before the proposal. As two 25 year-olds who want kids, who have been in a relationship nearly a year, it was only time for that conversation to naturally arise. Once Allen noticed Sarah was keen on the idea, he hushed it and said that he would not be interested in truly continuing the conversation for about 9 months. While Sarah found this timeline to be a bit odd, she accepted it and moved on as there is no reason to push someone into a commitment with such depth and sacredness of marriage.
Allen had a scheme going and had an entire plan. While Sarah was gone working in Chesapeake for a few days, he took her mother and father to Giambancos Italian Restaurant in Mechanicsville to ask her parents for their blessing in marriage to their only daughter. With a few ants in his pants, he asked the question while Sarah proceeded, in her usual interrupting fashion, to call them and check in with each of them to see how their night was going and update them on her day at the Tidewater location. Melissa and Jonathan said a resounding yes and the planning of the proposal began.
Allen started the ring search at William Jeffery’s in Mechanicsville. He worked with Melissa and Jonathan while attempting to discreetly ask Sarah questions to pick out the perfect ring. Allen and Sarah’s parents picked out the “perfect” ring and of course, Sarah then changes everything by showing Allen a completely different ring she found to be “beautiful”. Allen waltzed his way back to the jeweler and ordered the ring he was confident was the one.
Allen spoke to Sarah’s parents and grandmother, Dot, about the where, when, and how for the official proposal. During the pondering, Dot continually informed Sarah that it was leap year and that permissed her to be able to propose to him and do things “Sadie Hawkins” style. Allen and Sarah’s family became keen on the idea of working the proposal around the family vacation when they were all at the beach in Ocean City, Maryland. This trip would have Sarah’s grandmother, Dot, parents, Allen’s dad, Wayne, and some dear family friends present at the time. He brought up the possibility to Sarah that it may be a good opportunity for him to talk to her dad. Allen knew that the only way to fully throw Sarah off would be to make her feel that she was involved in the planning.
Before departing for the beach vacation, having no idea of the plans Allen had in the works, Sarah insisted on weeding every single last weed in her flower beds with bare hands, leaving many of her fingers bleeding with excessive hangnails. After a few days at the beach, Allen, Sarah, and Wayne, were sitting on the couch waiting to go to dinner on the Boardwalk – a typical beach event for The Ball Family. Sarah found this situation to be a bit odd as people do usually tell her when to meet her family for dinner and Allen always wears shorts when it is warm. However, she did not have any suspicion as she fully trusted Allen in that he had not even spoken with her parents about the possibility of marriage yet.
Sarah drove with Allen and his dad to the end of the boardwalk and met her family in the parking lot to walk towards the pier. Sarah was watching how much joy Dot expressed as she was marveling at the history display case near the large shark. Sarah asked Wayne to take a photo of her and Allen as they had first entered the boardwalk – little did Sarah know that Melissa had already handed the engagement ring box to Allen.
Sarah began taking selfies with Allen in-front of the fiberglass shark in a display case – completely facing the wrong direction from where Allen and Sarah’s family had expected her to naturally walk to the “perfect backdrop”. Allen whispered in Sarah’s ear that he would like to have a conversation in regards to him asking her dad for permission to marry her. She continually shushed the conversation as the boardwalk is quite simply not the place to have serious conversations regarding long-term relationships and family matters. Allen’s dad then asked Sarah to take a better picture of them and Sarah continued to encourage Allen to smile. Allen, slightly freaking out as he was struggling to continue to hide the ring box, was not smiling full enough to Sarah’s liking. After finally taking a “good enough photo,” Allen turned to Sarah and said “the reason I wanted to chat with you is because I do not see the point in having another conversation with your dad, considering I already had it months ago”. Sarah looked at Allen abruptly confused saying “thats a bunch of snuffleguck”… he said “oh really,… so this is a bunch of snuffleguck”, then dropped to his knee and Sarah’s jaw dropped lower than it ever had before.
The family realized what was happening and quickly turned their cameras towards the scene. Random passersbys strolling the boardwalk did not know what was going on and then would notice and quickly attempt to sprint out of the photo, causing everyone to smile at the situation. Allen was giddy about Sarah’s slightly teary eyed eyes nodding her head and giving him such a big hug that her father said “it just looks like a pile of hair”. Sarah, Allen, and their family and friends, then spent the rest of the night eating at a restaurant that left much to be desired and Jonathan entering 14 t-shirt stores to require Sarah and Allen to walk most of the boardwalk in tacky “She Said Yes” “I Said Yes” t-shirts.
