As the sister of the groom and the soon to be sister-in-law of the bride, we felt it was only right to have me cover this section, seeing as how I was present for the excitement of planning, the anxiety of preparing, and the frantic panicking when things almost went totally awry. But in order to describe the moments leading up to the special day, we must first go back to the week of.....

*cue the glance up and to the right*

Monday, December 2nd, 2024 - Five days before the proposal. After a lot of disregarded advice and discussion, AJ remained unsure about when and where to pop the question. He thought about doing it between Thanksgiving and Christmas, in Tennessee, or maybe even at St. Augustine Nights of Lights. However, as the only female sibling he grew up with, I warned him that going out of town would look suspicious. He still wasn't convinced. Then his next idea was just as crazy, Christmas Eve. Yeah, for real. I finally got him to hear me out and said, “AJ, what about Saturday night, December 7th? Well be going out to dinner with our family friends, well be all dressed up. Y'all can go downtown to see Christmas lights, and then, BOOM! She won't see it coming.” But why would he listen to me, I'm just the younger, single, little sister. He turned my idea down pretty quickly.

Tuesday, December 3rd, 2024 - Four days before the proposal. The convincing on my part continued, and then it happened. He came to me and said, “Okay, let’s do it Saturday night.” I screeched with excitement, but panicked. This was only a few days away, and there was so much to do! He already had the ring of course, but the place, the photographer, the outfits, and the ring........pop? I was also confused at first. He explained the special meaning behind the candy, “Hannah once told me that if I’ll I could afford was a ring pop, she would still marry me.” And everyone said AWWWW! So that was it, it was decided. He would propose, this Saturday, with a ring-pop. He rushed over to Winn Dixie and came back with 4 different versions of the candy jewelry. Why so many, that was to be discovered the next day.

Wednesday, December 4th, 2024 - Three days before the proposal. It seemed like a normal day at first, well, as normal as it can be preparing for a proposal that was only 3 days away. We were all going about our business, just working, and I walk in on something strange, to say the least. AJ, sitting in his office, blow-torch melting, and razor-blade shaving a ring-pop. Yes, you read that correctly. I asked what he was doing and his smart, brotherly comeback was, “making his haircut look nice.” He then explained that he was trying to fit the large, circular ring-pop in the, ironically, very rectangular jewelry box. He carried on with his project, telling me about his plan to go to Chill Bro's Ice Cream in downtown Tampa, where our photographer friend would be there to capture the moment. Then, FLAMES! He lit the razor blade on fire, melting part of the candy ring. We looked at each other in utter disbelief. His unintentional actions sent us all into a panic. But don't worry, the flames were small, contained, and literally only damaged the ring-pop. The good news? He had 3 back up rings. He prepared another ring, but found it melting quickly. So what did he do to solve this predicament? He put the ring-pop in the display box, and stuffed them in the refrigerator at work. Yes, at work, in the fridge. Perks of only working with your family, no one asks questions.

Thursday, December 5th, 2024 - Two days before the proposal. The candy ring was cut, the box was a perfect fit, and both were sitting the fridge, awaiting their time to shine. Preparations with the photographer were set-up, and the bouquet of flowers was ordered. All seemed like it was going according to plan. And as you can expect, a wrench gets thrown into the mix. AJ barges into the building at work, comes into my office and exclaims, “Hannah chipped her nails!” For a little context, I painted her nails on Thanksgiving, long before AJ decided on the date of 12/7/24, so I figured one would chip eventually. Needless to say, he was filled with hysteria, and says, “I need you to find a way to offer to fix her nails, without her knowing that I told you to fix her nails, so that she doesn't get suspicious.” Easy enough, right. So I schemed a little bit, how could I not? Hannah and I had already made plans to go shopping at Walmart on Saturday morning, just for fun. Or at least that's what she thought. We think. Honestly, AJ asked everyday if she was onto us. I simply told him, “She is either clueless, or playing us all like a fiddle.” That didn’t reassure him. So I reached out to Hannah to confirm our shopping plans, to which she then asked if I could fix her nails that chipped so they would look good for dinner. AJ and I shared a glance, and both exhaled a sigh of relief.....Crisis Averted.

Friday, December 6th, 2024 - The day before the proposal. As you would imagine, emotions were all over the place. And by emotions, I mean AJ’s. We were all excited, but lets not sugar coat it, proposals can be nerve racking. He was still trying to figure out what to say, how to say it, and how he would hide not one, but two, rings in his coat. I reminded him to keep it simple, her full name and “will you marry me” will suffice. Again, the single, younger sister was giving him unsolicited advice. Cue the sibling eye roll. He decided to check on his ring-pop to make sure all was ready. He retrieved it from the fridge and thought it would be a good idea to stretch the box a little bit more. Spoiler alert: It was not a good idea. All of the sudden, from the office next door, I hear, CRASH! Justin and I quickly look to see what happened, and find AJ standing over the ring-pop box on the floor. He dropped it! The ring-pop was fine, but the box, not so much. It cracked! Commence the panicking. AJ scrambled, pacing back and forth in the showroom, flailing his hands as if he had just washed them and had no paper towels. Help was on the way! Justin took the box and began to superglue it back together. As Justin held the box in place, AJ announced, “We have to postpone! I have to get a new ring box, a new ring-pop, and before tomorrow, there's no way!” Then a calm, realistic and encouraging voice came....no it wasn't in his head, it was Justin, reassuring him that the box would be fine. Meanwhile, during the frantic flailing, deep breathing, and possibly much needed therapy, I caught it all on camera. When AJ noticed I was filming, he proclaimed, “It’s not funny!” It was indeed funny. A simple little hiccup, a little bit of superglue, a shiny new ring-pop, and all would be well.

Saturday, December 7th, 2024 - The day of the proposal. The week had passed, the preparations were complete, and the day had come. It was my day off from work, and thank goodness, because I was running around like a headless chicken. There was no sleeping in for me. I was up at 8:00am, because in a few short hours, Hannah would be at my house to get her nails fixed. She was clueless.....as far as we knew. My mom picked up the bouquet of flowers from the shop and rushed them back home. Moments later, I was informed that Hannah was on the way over and would be there in a few minutes. We hid the flowers in the bathroom, knowing we had to keep Hannah confined to only one side of the house. She walked in the door and I thought, this is it, act natural. *said in the nervous internal voice*. I began touching up her nails, making sure they were perfect. I was a perfectionist, so she was none-the-wiser. Long story short, they turned out immaculate! We left for Walmart to simply go “shopping”. Gliding through the aisles, we thought it would be funny to prank AJ, and have her try on a spunky outfit, and convince him that was her dinner attire. She sent him a picture, and he actually loved it. We convinced her to purchase the clothes, which she had no idea would be her once-in-a-lifetime engagement fit. We left Walmart and she went home for the next few hours. Meanwhile, the frantic frenzy continued. I rushed to the church in downtown Tampa to deliver the flowers for the photographer to pick up. Of course, another wrench entered the plans. The Christmas Day Parade in Downtown was happening, ironically, coincidentally, on this day, this exact day. Despite the 15 minute detour I had to take to get to the church, I made it. The flowers were delivered, and I was off on my way home to prepare for the evening. I thought that maybe, just maybe, I should warn AJ about the parade and the road closures. But I knew he would panic.......and panic he did. Then he stopped panicking, at least for the time being. I arrived home and began getting dressed, curling my hair and such, and I receive a phone call, from AJ: “Jaime! I don't know what to do? I think I'm gonna throw up!” Yeah, word for word what he said. I laughed, mid-curling, and in a typical sister response, said, “I don't have time for this! Call Josh.” Did he call him, I have no idea. What I do know is, my brother was about to be engaged.

The moment had come. AJ and Hannah met us at our house before dinner, and realized she forgot a necklace. We all looked at each other nonchalantly, with eyes wide, and I offered, “You can borrow one of mine.” She did not, but then noticed one of her nails had chipped again. Don't worry though, it was her non-ring hand. We attended dinner at Ruth Chris Steakhouse, ate, and were offered dessert. Prior to dinner, AJ asked Hannah to go to Chill Bro's and she said yes, but in the moment, at the restaurant, how can you turn down dessert? She asked AJ if they should just eat dessert at Ruth Chris, and AJ quickly responded, “NO! We were all aware of the evening plans and passed on dessert in order to get them downtown on time, and so, the two soon-to-be-engaged love birds were off. They circled the area for quite some time before finding parking, giving the photographer plenty of time to setup. Hannah, not wearing her glasses - as usual - walked right passed the photographer, as she was in a rush to use the restroom. Once in the building, AJ quickly texted the photographer, “We’re a go!” Hannah came out, and AJ led her around the Christmas light displays, and eventually stopped under a giant, lit up star. He got down on one knee and began his spiel, “Hannah Rae Burkowkse, blah blah blah bla...” I don't really know how it went because I wasn't there. Then, out came the superglued, make-shift box, which he opened and revealed the architecturally, well intricate, partially melted and shaved, ring-pop. Hannah placed her hand over her mouth and, I can only assume, said yes.

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