Around November 2018, Josh's grandmother invited Ari and Josh to go on a cruise with their family. The cruise was intended to celebrate Josh's grandparents' 50th Anniversary and both of their birthdays, and Josh's sister's 2nd Anniversary. When Ari told her family about the trip, Ari's mom asked if Josh was going to propose. Ari was pretty certain he wouldn't (the cruise was clearly happening for other reasons).

Josh decided he wanted to marry Ari around December 2018. He spent the next several months researching rings and the perfect way to propose. He knew that Ari loved being near water. Ari had also mentioned to Josh that she was particularly excited to be cruising for the first time with a significant other, as she had been on many cruises with her family before and had always hoped for something romantic to spontaneously happen.

For many months Ari categorically ignored several rather obvious signs that Josh was planning something special. One time while driving in the car, Josh just randomly asked Ari what color gold she likes, to which Ari gave her honest and unassuming opinion. On a separate occasion, Josh and Ari were at the mall, and they were jumping from store to store looking for a pair of pearl earrings. Josh identified the most gaudy and hysterical ring in one store and asked Ari to try it on. Ari just thought this was a funny joke and gladly tried the ring on, which gave Josh valuable information about Ari's ring size. Josh also kept asking Ari what weekends she would be at work so that he could plan the trip to get the ring.

Fast forward six months, just days before the cruise, Ari's friend texted her and asked if she thought Josh might propose on the cruise, and again, Ari very honestly wrote back "I don't think so..." (she really didn't! We promise she has a doctorate)

Josh spent two months researching rings from various stores. He knew what kind of ring Ari was interested in (another thing Josh asked her to HER FACE! While Ari was aware at that time that she was informing Josh about an engagement ring, she had no sense of when the proposal would happen). He found the ring, and had to wait about a month to pick it up on a day when Ari wouldn't notice. Josh hid the ring in various places around his office so that Ari would never find it. He finally took it home to pack the day before they left for the cruise.

On the second day of the cruise, Josh and Ari were supposed to have a formal dinner, which Josh thought would be the perfect opportunity to propose. However, the dinner was postponed by the cruise and it was extremely windy outside, so Josh had to rethink how he would propose. Instead, around noon-ish on the second day, Josh told Ari that he had to run back to the room to take some medication. He grabbed the ring out of his bag and sat with Ari on the bed looking out at the sea and showed her the ring. As he opened the ring box, his hands were shaking as he said:

"This is for you."

"For me? For us?"

The next 30 minutes were a blur of hugging, kissing, and some happy tears. Then Josh formally got down on one knee and asked Ari to marry him.

"Yes. Yes forever."

Registry