It can now be told. A blogger-friend just proposed to another blogger-friend in the most amazing, romantic, unlikely place. And she said YES!
Jay and Aileen are now officially engaged!
And the moment happened away from Manila — in Davao — at a zipline — in the presence of other bloggers.
Flashback to a couple of weeks ago…
Jay met Dine and me at Bo’s Coffee Katipunan. Dine and I were about to go to the wake of Amiel in Ateneo; he was coming from two TV networks and wanted to drop by and chat. We engaged in small talk for a while till we got around to asking Jay when he planned to pop the question to Aileen.
Jay reminded me of that day in early February when I plurked, wondering what a great marriage proposal line would be. He had replied to that plurk: “I didn’t need a search engine to find you… but i love the top result”. What I did not know then was that Jay was already in the throes of planning the marriage proposal scenario.
You can read Jay’s entire plan HERE. He wanted it to be unusual, away from Manila, a great surprise for Aileen, unexpected, and still romantic. What great timing for the Davao Food Appreciation Tour (FAT) that Blogie was organizing. Jay only told a few people. Drew was the official co-conspirator in Davao because the tarpaulin with his marriage proposal had to be done there. Of course, Blogie was in on the secret too.
The Davao venue was the Xcelerator, the longest zipline in Asia. Arrangements were already made with the owners of the place to have all bloggers go ahead and Aileen would zip last. As she approached the endpoint, she would see the huge tarpaulin from afar with Jay’s marriage proposal. Then Jay would meet her at the end and present his engagement ring.
Jay told just a few bloggers in Manila and we are honored to have been counted in. I tell you, keeping that secret for weeks has been one of the hardest things for me. My heart was so bursting with excitement, I even dreamt about the both of them!
The other day, just hours before Jay and Aileen left for the airport bound for Davao, Jay asks to chat with me. He wanted me to see the website he had made for the both of them. Wow, my heart soared. I was probably one of the first to take a glimpse at this.
But as most plans go, there is an element of Murphy’s Law in this. Jay underestimated the power of real-time plurking. Hahaha…
Around 11:00 AM today, Arpee (who had gone to Davao) plurked that Jay had already proposed to Aileen. Blogie had apparently told him over the phone and Arpee, who was not with them at the zipline, thought it was already done. Some of us in Manila (including me) immediately picked up on Arpee’s plurk and replurked the news, which were likewise replurked by our friends (viral!!!). A few moments later, I got a private message from Winston. The moment had NOT happened yet!!! Yikes!
We all scampered to delete our plurks, afraid that Aileen might see them before she took off the zipline. And the plan would have been given away. For once though, I am glad that the major mobile carriers had no signal at that place. Aileen was communicating with us via SMS plurks only, which meant she had no internet access. Pshew!
At a little past noon today, we finally got confirmation that the deed had been done. Our bloopers did not spoil the day. Happy plurks went out again announcing the news.
I will eagerly await the pictures, the many blogs about this day, the videos, and everything else that will follow. But for today, I am savoring the moment here in Manila while they are over in Davao.
Feeling conspiratorial myself, I had emailed Drew a message for the couple which he was to deliver to them after Jay’s proposal. I hope you got to read it, Aileen/Jay, because it carried with it all the best wishes I could think of for the both of you.
This is so definitely NOT the end of a love story. It is just beginning…
(UPDATE – more links):
1. Aileen’s version of the proposal
okay, now I’m really jealous for not being in Davao.. but, wow, really, this made me a bit teary-eyed this morning.. such a lovely couple.. now, this is what I call an inspiring start to a day..
ayt nick, same here. hahaha. i won’t mind being selfish if i’d say i’m the happiest person for both ate aileen and kuya jay. weeee.. sayang and I was not able to go with them in Davao.
Thanks for the kind words Jane! I heard you wanted to go to Davao too! Weeee!!!
Jane: Talaga, Aileen! Enjoy your engagement period & wedding preparations, my dear!
Wow! that was indeed very sweet … good thing she said yes … congrats to the happy couple!
Thanks Jane for keeping it a secret even if it was very very hard to do so ! Imagine me, keeping this a secret for months ! Everything was planned but as all plans go, the unexpected lurks. I didn’t know that there was a literal “Plurk Riot Day” that Saturday morning when a pre-announcement was made ! hahahaha! But all ended well and even our friends from GenSan were there clueless of what was about to happen but were surprised with the events and very happy for us.
Jane: It was a wonderful thing to be in on the “secret”, Jay. Yes, that was quite a Plurk riot we had. Grabe! Hahaha…
I knew about the plan and was really stressful when I saw the premature announcement in plurk. Good thing it was under control.
Very romantic!