Project Dandis Officially Goes Live!

Last Sunday, on July 17th, 2011, I was privileged to ask Candis to marry me, and she said yes =).  It was quite the fiasco, but all I have, and all Candis has, is the many deepest thanks to our friends and family who made it all possible, and who kept it quiet for several weeks leading up to the big day.  I had originally thought of something outlandish to do for a proposal, but in keeping with what is appropriate for us, and doing something that would be meaningful and special for us, I opted for simplicity.  So here a few pics and some context =).

All photo credit goes to Dowoo Lee, who I’ve known for just about a decade now.  Thanks Dowoo for your hard work.

So this place has a lot of meaning for us, we’ve been here often, Ra Sushi in the Glen.  We used to go here a lot to get our sushi fix and actually after a long while of knowing each other and having dinner here, we finally sort of started our journey here at this restaurant.  Sharing sushi is one of our things that we love to do.  We find out where the new sushi places are, and crack down on the place.  We’ve always been very happy with Ra both for their sushi, (and imported green tea), and the memories that we’ve had sharing food here.

With the restaurant just gearing up for dinner there were plenty of seats to choose from, and with it being a 95 degree day and like 80% humidity, it didn’t make much sense to eat outside, but funny how things work out, when we walked in we were “mysteriously” escorted outside. 

Candis: “Why not eat inside, it seems like it’d be more comfortable because it’s so hot outside!”
Dan: “Ehh… heh, yeah, I like the patio, don’t we always eat on the patio?  Anyway, what was that roll with the mango in it?”

For some reason, I was stuttering like a 3 year old child.  Either way, it was hot and we were both scowling at the temperature.  Luckily Candis tells me that she did not expect anything at this point.  =)

At this point, thanks to some clever planning by a few ladies who you’ll see in a bit, I put down the wine list, and out comes Zack, one of the managers at Ra, with a special sushi plate for us.  As everyone knows, Dragon rolls are the defacto standard when you want to compare one sushi restaurant against another, and having loved and ordered this roll many times in our history, I thought it’d be nice to work with that, doing what we love together, sharing the food we love together, with a little added inedible bonus sitting in a box in the middle of the plate.  Zack drops off the plate “compliments of the sushi chef” and Candis looks at me with the, “… heyyyahhh… what’s that!!” look.  =)

So I said lots of things here, and yes I teared up like a baby, and Candis started crying too.  But by God’s grace after the question was popped, she said yes! 

A quick shot of the sushi plate.  Love the dragon roll hearts.  And hey, seriously they were delicious.  After all of the stress was gone, I was actually really and ate these up pretty quickly.  So a quick funny side story.  As all this was going down, I realized I couldn’t hold on to the ring, and I had to some how get it up to Chicago a week before it was supposed to go down.  At Tek’s wedding, none other than Danny Bae agreed to transport my camera equipment and the rock to Chicago for me.  At that point, he gave my gear to Dowoo, and then passed the rock on to Christina.  Nervous work going on behind the scenes, as it’s stressful carrying someone else’s engagement ring and passing it around.  But everything went smoothly. 

I actually got the ring in March in anticipation for this day, and I put it inside my roommate’s room knowing Candis would never go in there.  Good ole’ Karlo.  Funny thing, I never looked at the ring after that day that I bought it, so I had Christina look inside it for me, because I wasn’t sure after all those months if there was still a ring in there, boy that would have been bad if it was missing.  =)

A big hand shake from Zack and congratulations as well.  He was instrumental in getting it all to go down.  But even more so were Dowoo, and these two ladies here, Naly and Christina.  To put it succinctly, they outright beasted the planning process for this proposal.  The level of specificity and feedback I got, as well as their helping hand… it was quite amazing.

You really can’t beat a picture like this.  It’s golden =).

 

High fives from Christina and Naly, but it was really more so me giving them high fives as they made it so easy for me to do it all with their help and planning.  At this point, Candis was getting the story as I’ve told it here.  Blessed indeed.

What was great about this whole thing was that Candis was completely unaware that this first part was a surprise yes, but the second part was an even bigger surprise.  After dispersing at Ra, I told Candis we were actually gonna have dinner somewhere else, and I only chose Ra because of its sentimental value for us.  So, Dowoo, Naly, and Christina quickly jetted off to the second location, while I delayed a bit with Candis.  Meanwhile, a huge group of our friends along with my parents from Seattle, and the entirety of the immediate Kim clan awaited our arrival for dinner at Chef Ping.

Here’s our entrance =).  Funny story again, Candis was like, “Ohh Chef Ping!  We wanted to try this place for a while!”  But she saw Christina’s car in the parking lot, and then she saw TASIA through the window, and said, “So we’re gonna have dinner where Tasia is mysteriously ALSO having dinner??”  In my head I was like, DOH! 

Suffice it to say, she had no idea the scope of the surprise until she walked into the private party room at Chef Ping, and 40 of our friends and family congratulated us with thunderous applause.  =). 

This was actually the real surprise, knowing how important it was for Candis’ family and friends to be present to celebrate with her.  =)

My mom running out giving Candis a big hug, sort of a preemptive, welcome to the family.  Candis was pretty blown away by the whole showing of my Mom and Dad who flew out for this occasion. 

Shock.  At this point, all the guys were like, “aww she’s shocked,” but then all the ladies went, “OHHHHH!!!”  And imitated her like she was trying to show off her ring, HAHAHAHA.  I heard someone say, “oh your hand must be so heavy girl!  You better be shocked with the other hand!”  And someone else said, “way to cover your mouth with your left hand… OHHH!”  Girls are funny.  I assure you it was not premeditated.  If you know Candis like I do, you know when she’s exclaiming like this, it’s always the left hand haha.  The guys just were yelling “woooh… yeahhhh!” and clapping their hands, haha.  Funny the differences in what people notice.

 

My good friend James blesses the food before everyone is befuddled with the meal.  One of the many friends who commuted a long way to be here at this dinner.  He along with so many sacrificed quite a bit to be there, and again, our feelings of thankfulness to our friends and family are still strong in our hearts. 

Shortly after the prayer, Candis hit up a quick hug with Hannah, long time friends.  Hahaha, Kodak moment there, nice one Dowoo.

It looks like I have to clean my sensor haha =).  I know all the photogs out there are like, “I see that dot Dan…”

I think I might be covering up Naly!  Sorry Naly!  A group shot outside to capture those in attendance =).  Thank you so much to everyone for coming out and being a part of this crazy surprise.  I know so many of you sacrificed a lot to be there.  And I know a few of you had to painfully keep quiet for a month while you saw Candis, met up with her for meals or coffee and what not.  We wanted to share this special moment with you guys because much of why we’re together is because you all prayed and supported us, and it is the absolute minimum and least we could do to thank you. 

To answer everyone’s immediate question, the date is pending, but stay tuned =).

A few quick shoutouts.  Firstly, we know God orchestrated everything and made this all possible.  From grace to grace He provided the means and the way for us from the first day we met at Smith Memorial Hall for special praise practice, to this day where we now are engaged to be married.  We know He provided us with family who prayed and supported us, friends who labored and partnered with us through every stage, and to God we are eternally thankful, and to our family and friends who helped to get us here, we feel such a burdened thankfulness. 

It is our hope that sharing this moment with us was a blessing for you, and it is also our hope that the food was good =).  Again, it is the very least we could do to show our appreciation to you for your prayers and support throughout the years. 

Special thanks to my mom and dad for trekking out to Chicago for this big day.  Thanks to the Kim Clan for being a huge support system for us both in prayer and in every other imaginable way possible. 

Special thanks also going out to Naly who, with her fantastic professionalism and attention to detail made the proposal a smooth and enjoyable time for us.  Also thanks to Christina and Danny who were involved in doing the risky and stressful work of transporting the goods and holding on to them until the time was right.  Special thanks to Dowoo for sacrificing his time and at times his own enjoyment of the festivities to serve us with his photography.

Special thanks to Hannah and James who helped me out with ideas and gave me some honest feedback throughout the planning process.

And again, thanks to everyone who came out and all those who could not make it to the dinner as well.  We attribute nothing of this to ourselves as we know we are products of prayer, and products of God’s grace.  This is one of those “phew” moments for many of you as you can relax for a bit knowing your prayers were not in vain haha, but then… don’t relax too long cuz we still need more prayers =).  We covet our friendships and partnerships with each and every one of you.  This is truly a story that shows the beautiful body of Christ.

Project Dandis officially went live on Sunday, July 17, 2011 at 620pm at Ra Sushi in the Glen.  We can’t wait to see what our engagement time will bring as we prepare to start the next chapter of what God has in store for us.  =)  Thank you God, like wow.

Advertisement