|
Engagement -
Engagement Stories
|
|
Written by Daniel Pooler
|
|
Sunday, 26 October 2008 22:36 |
|
I asked Laura on March 8th, 2008. I did it quietly and kept it between just the two of us. The big concert plans still happened but it was a gift instead of an event. I'm so glad I followed my instincts and kept it quiet because if I had waited until the concert like I had originally planned the engagement would have been ruined.
Thanks to all of you for helping me plan out our engagement. Want details of the proposal? Details of the concert shown below.
A message from the future Mrs. Daniel Pooler: Today, March 8, 2008 is the greatest day EVER!!! My true love asked me to marry him!!!!!! (of course I said yes, duh) I am so overwhelmed and happy I just cannot describe it.
March 28th 2008 - Finally the "BIG" planned day We flew the company airplane up to Orlando for the weekend. My plans were to get us backstage with Avenenged Sevenfold (A7X)at the Taste of Chaos concert 2008, months prior to this I started speaking with the management company of the band and I was told to head to will call and the VIP tickets would be waiting for me.... Well that is exactly what didn't happen. We made it to the concert venue by 4:30PM, and to my surprise will call had nothing waiting for us. I called Ashley the VP of marketing for A7X and she started making phone calls to see what the confusion was all about. Unfortunately she was having trouble reaching, Jim the tour manager, due to cell phone coverage and our evening was off to a sarcastically great start.
We waited out front for 30 minutes while Ashley tried to call the venue and see if anyone can get her in touch with Jim, she kept getting put through to voice mail by the venue thinking she was some crazed fan, while I continued to sit and stress. Laura and I decide to head around the building to the press entrance and see if we can help Ashley, help us, by finding Jim and giving him her message about not being able to reach him. We talked to a few security guards and 15 minutes later we were talking to Jim. Luckily I decided to print out some emails before we left just so I had some proof of the correspondence between myself and the management company.
 I handed the emails to Jim hoping to spark his memory or have a reason to ask the band if they had agreed to this like the emails stated. He left with the printed emails and went in the venue to figure it all out. Another 10 minutes later Jim arrives with 2 "Guest" bracelets in hand, tells me to go through the front of the venue and meet him on the side of the stage. I'm wondering: Which side? When? How long do I wait? I tried to ask him a few questions and he just shrugged me off like I'm supposed to know what to do. So we're happy we are getting somewhere but still very confused as to what to do. I understand there are all kinds of crazy fans out there but in our situation and with the communication prior I thought this would be taken a little more seriously than it was. I mean as far as they knew I was going to propose in front of the band right?
I mentioned once to management that I wanted to propose at the show, either before, during or after the show but I wanted Matt (M.Shadows), the lead singer of A7X to be present and months ago he said via email, through his management company that, and I quote, "He is down." I didn't know if that meant he was down with me doing it before, during or after the show. Knowing that A7X isn't a Richard Marx, Brian Adams or Mariah Carey type of concert I figured during the concert would be a little out of the question, unless I did it while biting the head off a bat like Ozzy Osbourne or something similar I would be sure to get boo'ed off stage. I was guessing Matt was approving a pre show meeting and a quick proposal in their dressing room backstage or hanging in the bus for 10 minutes and doing it there.
Back to the concert. We head around front with our "Guest" wrist bands and "normal" person tickets feeling like we are getting somewhere but still very confused. Once in the venue we grab a few beers and head to a side of the stage. After a few hours of not seeing Jim anywhere I decide to start asking around. We head to guest services and are escorted on the floor then to a backstage door where someone went looking for Jim for us. When they came back they told us to just wait around and he would get back to us when he rounded up the band. I guess as a tour manager you never know where the band might be. Since this concert was in Orlando maybe they went to Disney for the day and just never made it back yet? Give me a break... You don't know where the band is? Yeah right! I know that sounds ridiculous but that is how this guy made it seem, like he had no clue where anyone was and once he figured it out he'd call me. Luckily I wasn't planning to hold my breath.
Another few hours pass and there is less than 2 hours to go before A7X is going to perform. Now I'm getting a bit aggravated that we haven't had the 5 minutes with them like I was expecting. We head back to the floor to the same backstage door as before, we find the same woman that went looking for us last time, but instead of sitting tight I decide to follow her in. I grab Laura's hand and start walking behind Michelle like I knew where I was going and went right passed security. Soon we end up in front of Jim's door and again he tells me to wait here while he figures out what is going on. If I was the Tour Manager I would know where everyone is at and who is scheduled to see them or I would delegate someone else to deal with the meet and greets while I dealt with the concert planning etc. Its not rocket science!
 So we wait around the backstage hallway feeling like red headed step children for about 30 minutes. Jim finally has us follow him to the back room where there was a scheduled meet and greet with the band. We walk in and there are 30-40 people also waiting to meet the band. If this was a scheduled meet and greet why weren't we told that at 9:43PM we could expect to meet them at the meet and greet? Instead we wait around wondering the whole time if and when this is going to happen. Then we meet Jen....
Jen tells us that Matt will not be joining us before the concert and tells us to wait in the lobby after the show and she would make sure we got to meet him...
So now we've waited around long enough to miss two of the three bands we wanted to see and are back in the audience about to watch the final band, A7X! The venue had too much echo so it was difficult to hear them but still worth the wait.  Concert is over...
Time to meet Matt like Jen had promised right? We wait.... and wait.... We waited for her for almost an hour before finding her hanging with her buddies on the side of the building. I couldn't believe she let us wait there for so long without going to look. I can understand there are so many things going on but to forget us then lie about trying to go get us. Come on. Instead of taking us with her backstage, note the "guest" bracelets, she takes her two guy friends and tells us to "wait right here" If anyone is really going to help they would escort us with them.
Just a minute or two later Matt walks out for a quick photo and autograph session near the Tour bus, finally we might be able to talk to the guy. He does his thing, greets his fans while we wait quietly on the side of the mob of people. What was nice about this whole thing was we did get around the barricades from all the other fans thanks to a security guy who understood what the day meant to Laura and I. Matt was able to talk to us a little about our engagement and remembered agreeing to allow me to do it with the band present months ago and wondered why we weren't taken care of.
Then he asked Laura if she was happy and he told us how nervous he was when he asked his girlfriend of almost 12 years to marry him. He signed our tickets with "congrats" on it, We both took a photo with him. After all the waiting and bullshit this day went into I'm just so glad I didn't wait to propose like I had planned because it would have been ruined and I would have been stressed to the max.
All I thought I was getting was 10 minutes alone with the band, have a beer, let Laura talk about her love of music with them. I know she wanted to ask things like: How they started out, what made the change from this album to the last, etc... We still got to meet them all and glad I was able to make that happen.
 Thanks to: The few security members that understood what was going on for Laura's big day, Ashley the VP of Marketing from World Audience for really trying to do what she could from California but unfortunately was having problems getting in contact with the right people due to cell phone coverage at the Venue, and finally after meeting members of Avenged Sevenfold it seemed like they actually do care about their fans with numerous congrats from the band members and especially the front man Matt (M. Shadows) who spoke to us in person and shared his own personal story about of the anxiety that goes along with making the commitment to the one you love. So in the end, even going through all the managers and false promises we finally met the band through our own persistence and the band was as humble as we thought, maybe even more so. Although Laura wanted a crazy night of heavy metal fun it turned out to be a very memorable experience because she actually got to connect with her favorite band as opposed to her numerous experiences of concerts.
Our Wedding Proposal Video
The perfect proposal isn't always Limos and fancy props, it doesn't always have to cost a fortune. Or does it?
If there is anything I've learned since starting http://www.ourweddingproposal.com back in September 2007 is that you can't think too hard at the proposal itself. I've been thinking of this day for months and wanted everything to be so perfect but you can't always plan too far ahead. Some might argue this point but with Laura's situation its very difficult to plan too far in advance. She has full time work, full time school, helps out her grandparents and still has some time to spend with me. I had all these huge plans to propose and I started to realize it doesn't really matter how its done as long as the commitment is there. I love her with all my heart and can't wait to have her as my wife. Does it really matter that I follow through with these huge plans that will probably give the secret out anyway? She started finding out too much as it was... I created this site to share each others story's with one another and I'm glad I did that but I really only care about one person and that is my future wife. I wanted her to smile and be overwhelmed with joy when I popped the question to her and I knew it would be just as important to her if I did it on top of the Rockefeller Center, in an airplane, or took her to the first place we met.
Today I've decided that the planning and the stress involved isn't whats important. I haven't been able to sleep for months because I've been thinking about how this proposal is going to work out and if its going to be the "perfect" proposal. The important thing is the promise that you will love this person for the rest of your life. I'm ready to make that commitment.
So in closing I'd have to say that the "Perfect" proposal depends completely on each individual couple. In my situation big fancy dinners and gifts will not make my commitment any more important. I wanted it to be a surprise and by not planning a huge setup this was the biggest surprise of her life.
I took the day off from work to clean the house top to bottom. I setup some roses, candles, and a romantic card (1 of 3).
She came home to a low lit house with the candles burning and saw the flowers. Told me how much she loved me and how tired she was. At that point I was thinking of pushing this proposal back another day but she agreed to go out for a quick drink. She got ready and an hour later we got in the car.
I then gave her card number two. *If you couldn't guess...She loves cards for every occasion* She read the card and was wondering why I was being so romantic today. We went to the place we had our first date... had a quick drink, next on to the first place we met.
I asked her if she had any idea where we were going next... She mentioned a few places and even thought we might be heading to the airport but still wasn't expecting me to do it. We arrived at the actual spot where I met her and I made my speech... got down on one knee... showed her the little blue box and...
See a short video of her reaction here:
OUR Wedding proposal Video
She couldn't believe this was happening!
Thanks again to everyone who helped me with ideas and made this entire story possible!
We love you all!
|
|
Last Updated on Monday, 11 May 2009 14:19 |
Articles 
