December 20th, 2015 started off as normal as could be. Pete and I had the day off work, so I decided to go grocery shopping to pick up last minute Christmas gifts while he stayed home to watch the NFL playoff games. I picked up groceries then went to a second store for Christmas gifts, but they didn't have what I needed. I called Pete to tell him I had to go to a third store before I came home - little did I know he needed the extra time to get his proposal setup ready! I came home and the downstairs was empty, so I went upstairs to our bedroom. I opened the bedroom door and was surprised these adorable towel animals on our bed. Then Pete asked me to marry him and I said yes! 

The two of us went on a cruise in March 2015 and had a wonderful time.  Afterwards, we began to discuss the possibility of having a cruise wedding.  So when thinking about proposing, a cruise theme naturally came to mind.  While on a cruise, the room stewards leave towel animals in your room during the evening turn down service.  I decided that including towel animals would be perfect.  I knew I wanted an elephant, but did some research to figure out what else I wanted to use and how to create them.

The weekend before Christmas I was off from work; Christina worked Saturday night but was off Sunday.  Since I had the house to myself Saturday night, I decided that would be the perfect time to make the towel animals.  I made an elephant so that I could put the ring on the trunk, and two swans that when placed together their necks created a heart.  I thought that would be perfect to put behind the elephant.  I stored them in a closet that I knew she wouldn't open after work. 

Sunday morning I waited for her to wake up, trying to figure out how I was going to distract her so that I could move the animals to the bedroom.  Fortunately after waking up she let me know she was going to run to the store.  That was the perfect opportunity to set things up.  As soon as the garage door closed behind her, I retrieved the animals, carefully moved them to the bed, and placed the ring.  To further the theme, I found steel drum music to play during and added Yankee Candle's Sun and Sand fragrance to the room. Then, I closed the door so that the cat didn't decide to play with the animals. Finally, I sat and waited what seemed like forever.  Once she arrived, the plan was in place, she came to the bedroom, and here we are today.