The Proposal (as told by Chris)
Shioun's busy studying for finals so I'll post this up in my POV.
How many of us have really sat through an entire essay telling a proposal story? I'll make it easier and replace 10,000 words at a time with a picture.
For 3 months, I had my friend Jon "Living Legend" Fong pretend that he wanted to practice taking pictures with his wireless flash system and posing people for photo sessions. He bugged Shioun for weeks on multiple email messages for her and I to help him out and be his models for the day. Free lunch and hopefully a few good shots were promised.
The modest girl that she is, Shioun was resisting to be any sort of model for anyone. I said it would probably be fun, and Jon's a good friend so we should help him out. In the end, her compassion was larger than her shyness.
Really long story short, there were lots of email threads going around for planning the day and what to be saying to Shioun to a unified story. Looped in my brother and our friend Em for photoshoot assistance, the story being that Em was interested in photography and that my brother had a dentist appointment in SF that morning, so he'd stick around to help. Jeff also helped to be POC at Palomino's, but more on that later.
In the weeks leading up to the photo shoot (picked a Saturday during Shioun's spring break so I can pry her away from her books for a day), I was working on a "cookbook" where recipes were different memories such as trips, holidays, or meeting and working together at CNET.
Working on the book from right under her nose! Sneaky!
The day arrives, and Jon Fong picks me up. I triple-check that I have both the photobook and the ring, and we head out to pick up Shioun. She looked nice =)
First stop, Treasure Island:
Trying to look cool.
Using the curb to equalize the heights a bit, ha.
My favorite shot from Treasure Island.
Of course, shortly after, we had to break for lunch! The running joke is that Carl's Jr. has been Shioun's eatery of choice ever since she tasted a Six Dollar Burger for the first time last year when the three of us drove down to LA for Steve and Kathy's Wedding Banquet, so she was expecting Jon Fong to buy us all Carl's Jr. for lunch, haha. But we ended up going to Gordon Biersch which was next to the Embarcadero areas we wanted to stop by.
Was good but it ain't no Six Dollar Burger!
Haha, no matter how dolled up she gets, the girl can still put it away.
Not the best picture but I am a sucker for candids. Plus, I didn't have any other group shot, sorry guys! Especially my brother who looks like a deer in the headlights.
At this point, Em, Jon, and Athena all meet us at Gordon Biersch to eat with us, and after we're done we cross the street and visit the waterfront.
Dang I need to grow a butt.
Favorite among the Embarcadero shots.
We were running out of time, so we cut the Presidio/Crissy Field locations and decided to head straight to Land's End, where I was planning to pop the question. Good thing we did, because it took 55 minutes to drive through the city from the Ferry Building area to Land's End (the most North-Eastern point in SF).
I'm sure the traffic was a bit atypical and I didn't choose the most efficient route, but we were stuck on Mission in SOMA for maybe 15-20 minutes. I was getting really frustrated which was probably the first sign that something was up. After all, why would I be the one frustrated if it really was Jon Fong's idea and it was his schedule that was being disrupted? Right? Anyway, Shioun said later she didn't think anything of it because I hate traffic in general, ha.
The big problem now was that though I wanted to propose at Land's End, I hadn't hiked the path myself yet at that point. I just knew there were some points along the way that had a great view of the Golden Gate bridge. The plan was to have a verbal cue from me to Jon Fong to let him know that I was going to propose at a good spot we see. Luckily, we saw this which perfectly matched my simple criteria of the spot having a stump/bench and a great view of the Golden Gate bridge. What we found was better than what I expected to find.
Jon Fong had brought a couple of props, one of which was an ampersand. We took a few pictures with that prop, and without any verbal cue (unnecessary at that point) he moved onto another prop, which was the Cookbook I made of our memories, wrapped in a weird green handkerchief I got from Korea 14 years ago.
Jen said this looks like a Real Estate ad, haha. She was a Realtor so she would know!
Jon Fong told Shioun to unwrap the green square, and Shioun saw the book. We started to go through and look at the book for the next 10 minutes or so. All the while, Em still was gripping the flash for Jon Fong, and my brother was taking video.
Safest bet in the world that Shioun would cry, haha.
Reaching for the pocket...
Question, popped. Not the best shot of Shioun's face who looks like she's about to bust out laughing and say "heck no" but, it's the best shot I have of the overall scene. Sorry!
See what I'm doing right here is sparing you all the kissy pictures. You're welcome.
At this point, Shioun hears that the whole thing was a setup, that Jon wasn't really in town for a dentist appointment and that Em, well, she actually is interested in photography, but she was also out there just to help too.
Had to take a picture of all the associates! From left to right Jon Fong, Em, Shioun, Athena, my brother Jon.
I ask Jon Fong if it's ok to stop by CNET to take a couple of pictures since that's where Shioun and I met, and of course he says yes. The idea though, was to get a celebratory drink after our last location, which is why CNET was a better last location than Land's End since... I had invited a group of close friends to meet at Palomino to have a surprise engagement happy hour. The added crazy extra bonus was that I told Shioun's sister Sylvia that plans were finalized a couple weeks prior, she bought the first flight she saw that arrived the Friday before.
Sylvia and me pigging out on Korean BBQ the Friday evening before D-Day.
Must have made this walk a thousand times...
Jon Fong: "And that's a wrap! Let's go have a celebratory drink! What's around here?"
Chris: "I guess there's Palomino, the Mariott bar, or Americano-"
Jon Fong: "Let's go to Palomino."
Chris: "OK."
We head to Palomino. Shioun still hadn't called her family yet, which was tough for her since she talks to them a lot and they're very close. I had to tell her not to call on the drive across town from Land's End to CNET since she's going to probably want to talk to them without being interrupted with having to take more pictures. Once we get to Palomino, I told her that she should probably call now, before we get into a crowded bar. I suggested calling Sylvia first, because I knew that Sylvia was inside waiting.
Shioun was still on the phone telling Sylvia that she's engaged when she was walking into the bar. When she looked up to see all of our friends there, she started to juggle the surprise along with trying to tell her sister what happened that day. Moments later, Sylvia popped out from her hiding place and Shioun saw Sylvia there walking toward her while on the phone with her at the same time.
Surprised to see friends waiting!
Surprised to see Sylvia there!
We had a few drinks, the Cookbook was passed around, parents were called and photos were taken. Sylvia also bought a bunch of cake pops from Starbucks (she's a partner) to share, that were decorated with handwritten tags she made on the flight to the Bay Area. Such a fun time seeing people there and joining us to celebrate! There are too many photos to post individually so a small slideshow of the happy hour is below.
We went to Japantown for the afterparty, ate some yummy crepes, and there may or may not have been an after-afterparty at Playground =)
Hopefully that wasn't too painful to get through and that the pictures helped. Thanks for reading!
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