Tim's Romantic Proposal

Here's a romantic story for you: Tim Thompson of Manassas, Virginia, pulled off a surprise marriage proposal to his girlfriend Erin inside the Manassas Museum. He wrote in to RT Book Reviews and told us all about it.

Tim's story involves carpentry, a charity auction, and an antique book. Enjoy:



My girlfriend of five years, Erin, and I have been lifelong residents of the city of Manassas, Virginia, twenty minutes outside of Washington D.C. We first met while working on the wait staff of a local restaurant. Since we frequently had off during the weekdays we would take the Metro into D.C. and go to the many museums located on the National Mall. I loved the museums and they were nostalgic for me since I took annual field trips to them when I was in grade school. Having her agree to go to them with me was a perfect litmus test for our compatibility. She seemed to like them as much as I did and didn't mind hearing my recollection stories of the exhibits I remembered when I was younger.

Fast forward five years and we are still together. My family loves Erin and I was receiving multiple inquiries on when I was going to propose. Erin was also hearing the same from her side of the family. I reached that point where I bought a ring and started thinking of ways to propose to her. Now Erin has never wanted anything fancy in the ring department. She has always said that she would rather me use that money towards something we could live in together rather than on her finger. She gave me a price limit of $250 and said that she wouldn't feel comfortable with anything more than that. Knowing that I didn't need to put a lot of effort into the engagement ring I wanted to put that extra effort into showing her how much she meant to me with a unique proposal. Erin and I are considered creative and artistic by our families so coming up with a one-of-a-kind idea was a challenge that I enjoyed. Since a marriage proposal is intended to be a once-in-a-lifetime event, I wanted to make it really special to show Erin how much I love her.

Erin has done two surprise birthdays for me and I hadn't repaid the favor, so I wanted to do a surprise proposal. Making it a surprise would immediately show her how much effort had to be put into it. One of the first things I thought of was putting the engagement ring into a fake display at the gemstone gallery in the Natural History Museum in Washington D.C. I brainstormed that idea with my sister-in-law and she advised that I'd probably have a better chance at our local museum. The Manassas Museum was the perfect place because we had been lifelong residents of the city and we had also never been to it. I emailed the director of the Manassas Museum, John Verrill, and he said that there was no reason that he couldn't accommodate me. After my many thanks, I went to work on the fake museum display.

The Manassas Museum holds mostly Civil War artifacts, as Manassas was the stage for two important battles of the Civil War. I went to a local antique store and picked up some Civil War antiques that would fool her into thinking they belonged in the museum. With the artifacts in hand, I then came up with a fictitious storyline that revolved around the artifacts. The story was about a trinket-making couple that lived in Manassas during the Civil War. They were named Sherman and Eloise Cauldwell, those names just sounded like they were from the Civil War era and have no significance overall. They fictitiously lived by the Manassas Railway Depot during the Civil War. Sherman left Manassas to fight for the Confederacy and died in battle and Eloise left the store they had soon after his death. I emailed the text to a local sign store and had them create five small placards to describe the artifacts inside the display.

Then I made the display base from some leftover wood from an old poker table that I never got around to building. I primed and sanded between coats and then brought the pieces to Erin's brother's house so she wouldn't come by my house and see me working on it. He housed the fabrication and helped me finally put everything together. When everything had been nailed together we started spray painting the base in the same color scheme as the exhibits in the Manassas Museum. I got the description placards back from the sign store and they came out similar to those in the museum. The last piece was the acrylic display glass that goes on top of the base. I had a local store make one specifically for my display.



Everything was in place and ready for me to put into the museum. John Verrill, the museum director, let me roll the display in there one Friday, right before the museum closed, and kept things in there overnight. Erin had her mother's charity auction to go to the next day. I told Erin's mother to ask Erin if she could run up to the Manassas Museum in the morning and get her some Civil War souvenirs that they could auction off that evening. I ate breakfast with Erin that morning and we later headed toward the museum. Since we both never visited the Manassas Museum, I suggested we take a tour really quick before she bought the souvenirs. She agreed and we entered the museum floor.

The whole time, I saw my fake museum display out of the corner of my eye. My anxiety told me that Erin has to know what was going on, but she actually had no idea what was about to happen. We perused the various displays on the floor and inched closer and closer to my fake display. I'm a huge audio/video guy and always carry a video camera with me wherever I go. I had my camera out as usual and was filming the entire time. I was ahead of Erin and passed by my display as if I weren't paying any attention to it. She, on the other hand, went right up to it and read the placards to herself, letting out an "aww" when she read that Eloise suffered the death of her husband. She fell for it! Her face was right against the acrylic glass as she read the rest of the story. She said she loved the old portraits and then moved onto the next display.



I had her believing this entirely, so I wondered where I could place the video camera to record her reaction to the big question. I waited until we both walked away from the display and made a dash for it. I winded around the corner and set my video camera down with the lens pointing towards the display. Then, I ran back to the case, picked up the acrylic glass, and knocked the artifacts off. Once the artifacts hit the floor, I quickly cried out to Erin about the mess I was in. She saw the artifacts on the floor and said with a frustrated expression, "What happened, babe?" I told her I accidentally knocked things over. She put some of the items back under the glass and looked down to see me holding an antique book with "Erin, will you marry me?" printed on it.

I got down on one knee with the book in hand and asked, "So, will you marry me?" She still thought the artifacts were part a real display, so she was a bit perplexed. I then opened up the artifact that had her engagement ring inside and placed it on her finger. She laughed with slight understanding as to what was actually happening and replied, "Yes."

The two weeks of building and collecting materials for the case finally resulted in laughter. It had all gone completely to plan! Everything worked out perfectly, including leaving the video camera unmanned to record the event, which captured my proposal perfectly.



Now, I have a special moment on tape that I can share with everyone, including our family members who got to watch the event as if they were there. There was only one other couple in the museum with us at the time I proposed. However, now that I have it on tape, every new person that watches it is like another person inside of that museum. In the end, I hope there is a multitude of people "inside" the museum so they can see a genuine moment between me and the person I want to be with forever. I love you Erin!

Watch my video for yourself and do me the honor of being another person inside of that museum.


YouTube - Surprise Museum Proposal

Thank you RT!

Tim Thompson

P.S. I'd also like to thank John Verrill for allowing me to hold this special event inside the Manassas Museum. Thank you John and the great people of the Manassas Musuem.