Greetings!!! Julie has written a pretty accurate account of what happened with the proposal. I will supplement with what happened behind the scenes.

One of the most important aspects to a proposal is the engagement ring. I must admit, I was ill prepared for this one. I tried to sneak out every chance I can when I was in Manila to find a ring for Julie. This would prove to be a difficult task as we were always together. I tried in vain to find the perfect ring, but none of them called out to me as being "the one". Secondly, I was planning to propose during our trip to Coron. And as you may be thinking, having an engagement ring in your pocket while snorkelling and trekking in Coron was just outright stupid! The solution? Buy her a token ring! But even this would not be as easy. I had to wait for an opportunity to sneak out and find enough time to buy a ring without her noticing. But luckily, I was able to turn a seemingly bad situation into a good one. Julie suddenly had an upset stomach when we were in SM Lipa (sorry I had to say it hon) and I got her the ring while she was at the restrooms. As for the real ring, it was my mom who came to my rescue. She had offered her ring which was given to her by my grandmother on her engagement. It was exactly what I wanted to give Julie, something meaningful.

I had a lot of ideas in my mind about how I was going to propose. But nothing could have been as breathtaking as the beauty of Coron's natural environment. The day before the proposal, I found the chance to sneak out while Julie and I were swimming and spoke to the tour guide to set up the stage! I initially wanted the words written with rocks on the beach but apparently, this is a rare commodity in Coron's Beaches. So they did it with the next best thing, shells! On the day itself, I was a bit nervous. Mainly because I didnt know if they'd already done it, where they had set it up and how it looked. But as we were climbing up the steps of Kayangan Lake, I saw our boat leaving in the corner of my eye and this is when I knew it was all systems go for us. A few Islands later, the tour guide said, "we're having lunch here, we had to change venue because there are a lot of people on the other beach". I knew this was the place. I saw the writing on the sand as we were approaching the shore. I had the ring in my hand, running the script in my head, preparing to go down on one knee. Julie however, missed the writing so I had to point out to her that there was something written on the sand...

In regards to the script, it completely fell apart! When Julie turned around with that blank look on her face, all I could do was smile and hug her. It would have been a short and sincere speech with none of the BS I'm used to giving as a salesman but somehow, it eluded me. She said yes though and assured me that her blank look and her silence in the hour that followed is more of surprise and quiet jubilation rather than, "huh? duh!!!". :-)

So all in all, I think it went rather well. I had a lot of fun preparing for it and knowing that she appreciates it is one of the most fulfilling things ever.

Raf