5th May is our Anniversary. A year ago from that date, in 2012, I surprised her with a bouquet of flowers (my first to her) and gave her my ring, and asked her to be my gf. Within a second she beamed and said ‘yes!’

Till this day we still laugh about how eager she was. But well, would she be the same for the marriage proposal?

Of course, you gotta be sure that this is the girl you wanna marry for the rest of your lives. While I was certainly sure, but the road has not always been easy. We actually had an argument just before our 1st Anniversary that made things a little uneasy. But you know, a guy that has a plan always sticks to his plan if he’s worth his salt.

So first up, I know the date I want to propose. However, where should I go? I have a tight budget to keep to and somehow many of the locations I had wanted seemingly filled up when I tried to make my bookings. It was frustrating. While googling, I saw on ad on google: 

‘Mystery 5-star SG hotel at rock-bottom prices!’

Ok, sounds interesting. I clicked on it and it brought me to Zuji.com.sg. 

They had a ‘mystery 5-star SG hotel deal’ that gave some clues to where it was. It was a very inexpensive deal, was only about $200 plus a night. The ad read:

"A luxurious resort-style 5-star hotel in SG that is close to the central Singapore!”

Ok, so Orchard, City Hall, where?

“Situated in a beautiful island setting!”

Ok must be Sentosa then!

“Winner of various awards, this hotel is visually stunning in architecture and is near to many attractions!”

I googled every single hotel in Sentosa, and decided that it was Hotel Michael in Resorts World Sentosa. Architecturally stunning, and winner of 3 prestigious awards. Should be this, right?

I was still hemming and hawing, but I knew that this was a supposedly nice place and, well, I clicked on ‘book’.

These travel websites only reveal the hotel after you have made payment, and drum roll… it was indeed Hotel Michael! I was pleasantly surprised; Hotel Michael is rather pricey, going for at least $400 during the same period a night, so I thought it was a steal!

Then the scramble to get everything ready. Flowers, a nice bottle of wine, and the plans to pop the question.

First up, flowers: I called the hotel to see if they can provide the flowers, because well, I’m proposing. Maybe they can throw it in for free?

A Filipino lady answered the phone, “Congratulations sir, we can provide flowers for you, for $60. We have red roses, and pink roses.”

She sounded fake, uninterested, and generally bored out of her mind. I tried negotiating but decided not to and just to get it from the hotel, to save the time of getting down to the hotel and placing the bouquet there. I wanted to surprise her and had to meet her before to take her to the hotel, and I couldn’t hide the bouquet in the room in time before the surprise. Kudos to RSW for hiring unmotivated hospitality workers. And only 2 types of flowers, and I can’t even choose how they will do the bouquet. So it was a gamble really, for all you know it could be butt ugly like some bouquets I’ve seen out there.

Then I went to a place that I knew sold decent wines: Straits Wine at Craig Road. Well they have many branches but this one is closest to me. I called to reserve a bottle of Woodstock Little Miss Collet Moscato (can’t remember the year, but doesn’t really matter unless its a bit old), because I know its gonna be a girly tipple that she would like. Grabbed it the day before, packed some champagnes flutes (they fit into a tupperware better and well drinking moscato with them is ok) and then its on to the big day.

I picked her up on the big day. She asked me why I had such big bag with me (I only booked one night) and I told her my clothes take up a lot of space. Which is true! And before that, I had given her clues on where we were going and she actually guessed it right once. This girl’s a smart one, fellas. Anyway, I managed to dodge her further questions and just drove her straight to Sentosa.

“I knew it! It’s Hotel Michael!”

Ah well. Anyway she would know when we get there sooner or later.  We parked the car (thank goodness for free-parking as hotel guests) and walked to the hotel. It was quite a walk, given that RWS is quite large, and isn’t the most well-designed place to be at. Getting from point A to B takes you on a roundabout as the architect’s intention is to attempt to make you cross the shops every time you wanna get to somewhere.

We were at the check-in counter at the hotel and I swear this place is flooded with PRCs. They were crawling out of the woodwork. I just hope there wasn’t any of them on our floor, they tend to be so damn loud and smoke in their rooms even though they are on the non-smoking floors. The interior, to be honest, seems a pale shadow of Michael Graves’ work. I wonder how much money Genting paid him to use his name for the hotel! He didn’t even design it, it was just ‘inspired’ by his works. The project probably was given to the boss’ son-in-law or something to come up with a bad copy of the real thing.

We got to the room and thankfully the flowers were there, as instructed. Well, I paid this $$, they better damn well make sure they do it right. And it wasn’t too bad, nothing fancy but at least presentable. 

We got talking and then hit the idea that we should exchange our Anniversary gifts there and then. We started exchanging our gifts. Oh gosh, I suddenly felt a tinge of excitement. And nervousness!

And then it was done. She started to put away her stuff when I said, “Hang on, I have one more present.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, but you have to close your eyes.”

She did, and I reached in my bag and grabbed the box with the all-important ring, and opened it. It creaked open. Dang.

“Ok you can open your eyes.”

She beamed with this mixture of delighted and embarrassed smile. Very cute. “What’s this!”

Well, then I delivered my proposal. It wasn’t a very long and verbose one, but I told her that she is the person that makes me experience all spectrums of emotions from day one, and I knew that she was the one I want to spend the rest of my life with. God has placed her in my life for a reason, and me in hers as well; and we met under such cliched yet unbelievable circumstances. I loved her, and I believe she loved me too, and ask for her hand in marriage…

“Yes!”

She took less than a second to reply. Again. Immediately after I finished, she already said yes and gave me her hand to put the ring on. It fit a little loose (gosh I underestimated the size of her fingers), but no biggie, I can call my craftsman for an alteration.

She beamed and spread her fingers towards the light on the ceiling. “Whoa, how many carats is that?” She pointed to the main stone on the ring.

“1 carat, as asked.” I smiled in reply.

“What are these? Diamonds as well?” She pointed to the yellow diamonds that surrounded the main stone.

“Yup! Yellow diamonds!”

“So pretty! So pretty I must tell my mother!”

Ok she spend the next half an hour texting her mom and sister. But why won’t she, they were so excited for her as well. 

It was strange though, she said she would probably cry at her proposal, but she didn’t.

Ah well, let’s pour the moscato in celebration first. I cracked open the bottle and poured it out for us in celebration.

“Awwww thanks baby!”

After a glass, I asked her. “How come you never cry ah?”

“Eh, haha, because it’s still day. I will probably cry during night time.”

D’oh! Fellas, now you know. If you want her to be visibly touched, do it in the night time.

“And also why you never film this down! It can go into the wedding video!”

Uhhhhh dammit. Oops. Ok, lesson no. 2 learned.

But all in all, she accepted, and I was delighted!