He was sitting at a
table, all by himself,
with a dozen roses
and a diamond ring.
When he asked me to
marry him, the whole
bar applauded.
— Johnson
Lincoln resident
-ff -
By Steve Smith
Senior Editor __
“Will you marry me?”
It’s been said in the warmth of
romantic candlelight. It’s been re
quested on one knee. It’s been asked
in such bizarre places as a parking lot,
. a football game and even on network
TV.
Some say the marriage proposal is,
in today’s society, after the fact. Usu
ally, the bride-to-be and groom-to-be
go to a jewelry store, pick out a ring
and then wait to pay it off. The day
that he can own the ring in full is the
day many couples decide to officially
begin their engagement.
But a few future Lincoln newly
weds have taken the unconventional
route.
One UNL couple began their en
gagement as someone else tied the
knot.
Renee Moyse, a senior advertising
major, was simply intending a friends ’
wedding. Her boyfriend of two years,
senior broadcasting major Rob Ford,
was the best man.
Ford had a few tricks up his sleeve,
which he started planning about a
month before the wedding.
“I had my mother’s engagement
ring and my grandmother’s engage
mentring in my jewelry box, and I had
always wanted them to be part of my
engagement ring, too,” Moyse said.
“Unbeknownst to me, Rob called my
roommate about a month before our
friends’ wedding and asked her to get
them for him.”
Moyse said when she discovered
the rings missing, she confronted
her room mate about it. Her room
) mate told her Rob had taken
them to get the diamonds set in
t a watch, which he wanted to
m buy her for Christmas.
t “She had me totally sold on
that," Moyse said. She
thought liulc about the
rings until Dec. 7,
1991, the day
of their
friend's wedding.
Ford had clued the entire wedding
party in on his plans several nights
before the wedding, Moyse found out
later.
“Everybody knew but me,” she
said. “Now that I think of it, people
were asking me a lot of funny ques
tions and looking at me strangely, too.
I guess I know why now.”
Eventually, the reception rolled
around.
“The bride threw the bouquet and
her sister caught it,” Moyse said. “I
remember remarking that it was a
good thing I didn’t catch it, because
Rob would' vc probably hit the floor if
I had.”
The reception’s DJ said that the
photographer hadn’t gotten a picture
of the sister catching the bouquet, so
he requested they restage the event.
“He said, ‘Renee, make sure you
gel out there, too,”’she said. “I didn’t
think it was odd at the lime.”
The bride switched bouquets — to
one that had an engagement ring on it,
complete with diamonds from
Moyse’s mother’s and grandmother’s
engagement rings — and threw it
right at her.
She said the ring was attached to
one of the ribbons dial decorated the
bouquet. 1
“When 1 caught it, I could feel the
ring hit my hand,” she said. “Rob
was afraid that I wouldn’t find
it right away, but there was no
[ problem with that.
“Then, in front of the en
tire reception crowd of
about 250 people, he
f asked me to
marry him.”
9 to 12 month*
•Announce engagement
•Select wedding date and time
•Set prifiminarybudget
I ,
if ’TTii7?"
•Buy the ring
•Discuss date and type of ceremony vefth fiancee
•Choose best man and ushers
•Start planning honeymoons
6 to 12 month* _...;.
*Siop lor wedding rings
•Compton guest 1st
•Select and order men's formate
~ ‘Finalize honeymoon plans 7 **
__4 months_