Zac’s Vows

Roslyn, I’ve thought of a lot of ways to try to express how I feel about you, but had a hard time putting it into words. The closest thing I can think of is when you buy a brand new video game and you can’t wait to bring it home and play it. Or when your Charmeleon is finally about to evolve into a Charizard. It’s like picking up the best game you’ve ever played but you never run out of new content. I never thought I would find someone that I could get along with so well. This must be how Mario felt when he finally found the castle where his princess was. I love you and I promise to always be your player two.

Roslyn’s Vows

I’ve learned a lot about relationships from video games. If you invade enough castles, you’re sure to find the right princess. Sometimes you can read someone just by their face. And science and cake are the keys to happiness.

The couples from video games at each table tonight are my inspiration to be a good wife. I promise to be as loyal as Link, as supportive as Dixie, and as dedicated as Gordon Freeman. I promise to protect you during the zombie apocalypse, to share experience in good quests and bad, and to love you even if you’re a potato.

I love you and I know you will be a great husband because you never give up during trials and challenges, you never try to force me to evolve into something else, and you never make me face the final boss alone. Our marriage will be a greater achievement than beating Heroic Lich King. So would you kindly take me to be your wife?

The countdown has begun everyone!  Plans are coming together for the wedding.  Please check out the “Wedding Information” link at the top of this page for the latest!

We are looking forward to having you at our wedding and are really excited to see you again!

Also, we finally had our engagement photos done by our wedding photographers, Scott and Jennifer Beard!  Here is a sneak peak:

The rest of the pictures will be uploaded to the “Photo Album” section of the website in the next few days.

-Zac

Lets start this show off with a bang.  Here is the video of me proposing to Roslyn at the 1st ever “Survive Johnson City”.  This was a HUGE game of zombie tag and was definitely worth the 1 and a half hour drive up to Johnson City.

This whole night was being planned for over 2 months by me.  I coordinated with Roslyn’s sister, Kirsten, to pull off everything.  I got a good idea of what type of ring Roslyn would like and started shopping around.  I could only do it while she was at work of course so I didn’t have a ton of time during the week to look.

I checked out two different ring stores.  I had asked around work for the best places to go.  Dan Thompson HIGHLY recommended Markman’s Jewelersso I decided to go there first.  I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into.  There were so many things to learn!  Luckily, as soon as I walked in the door, Art (awesome guy and very helpful) called me over and taught me the basics of diamond shopping.

I knew that I wanted a special diamond, not something you see every day.   Roslyn really likes colored stones so I knew I wanted to include those in the ring somewhere.  When I was first at Markman’s, I really didn’t have a good idea of what the ring would look like.  Kirsten started sending me some good pictures of what types of rings Roslyn looked at when she was in Nashville recently.  I found that she really liked curvy rings with designs on them.  I based my initial search on this information.

I also went to Layman’s Jewelers to search for rings.  I knew I wanted to pick out the band first, then the diamond.  I found a few VERY promising rings in the store and snapped a photo of them on my phone.  The one that I liked the best had a halo that the diamond sat down in and I was planning on alternating sapphires and diamonds inside the halo.  I was not quite as impressed with the diamond selection at Layman’s as they just didn’t have the same shine and fire that Markman’s did.

I decided that I wanted to buy the diamond and band in the same store so I took my pictures back over to Art and told him that I needed him to find something close to this.  He called over Terry and we started looking for a ring that closely matched the one from my picture.

We found one that was absolutely beautiful and it had the same shape as the one I saw at Layman’s Jewelers.  The only difference with this one was the fact that it was covered with diamonds and had 2 big ones right next to the main diamond.  I decided this one would PERFECT so we started planning the layout of the ring.

I decided to replace the 2 big diamonds on the side with sapphires.  Markman’s Jewelers was absolutely fantastic with making sure I got EXACTLY what I wanted.  They brought some small sapphires down to the desk and held them over top of the diamonds so I could see what it would look like.  They even colored on the ring with a blue sharpie!  I went ahead and purchased the ring and they let me know that it would be done in about 3 weeks.

3 weeks later, I was in possession of the ring.  I hid it in my desk at work for a few days until I could move it to the house.  I was able to find a really good hiding spot in one of the drawers in our spare bedroom.  She would never find it bbwwwhahahaha.

Next I started working on a proposal plan.  I knew I wanted it to be something memorable and that synced with our personalities, so I picked the Survive Johnson City game.  It doesn’t get any more Zac and Roslyn than zombies eating pathetic humans .  I worked out all the details with Kirsten so that she would actually be able to be there when I proposed.

I knew I’d have to add a little something extra to the ring so I decided to put it on a zombie finger. You would not believe how hard it is to find a zombie finger in March! I ended up finding a pair of ghoul hands that would be perfect for the job. I took some time and put it into the ring box and made sure everything was ready for the next week.

We got in the car at about 7:00pm and made it up to the game around 8:40pm.  Dan Thompson had volunteered to film the entire proposal!  We had the Albino Bowler as an excuse to why Dan was coming.  Everyone knew what their roles were (I had been preparing everyone at work that was coming to the game).  Then I just had to find the right spot.

We all took a break after we got to the second checkpoint (we were zombies, we lasted about 5 seconds out of each check point).  When we came back from the bathroom break, I gave Dan the signal to hand me the ring.  The rest was caught on film!

Roslyn and I celebrated our engagement on Saturday with breakfast with Kirsten then a Japanese restaurant named Anaba in Knoxville, then drinking champagne!  It was one of the best weekends of my entire life and hope I have many more with her as we grow old together.  A VERY huge thanks goes out to Dan for filming and editing the entire video for us!

I love you, Roslyn!

-Zac