Wedding: The Engagement: The Empire State Building

Saturday, March 4, 2000 – 6:45pm – The Empire State Building

After dinner, we walked over to Fifth Avenue, and then south toward our last stop at the Empire State Building.

Since I was a little boy, I had always been fascinated by this building.  Back in those days, it was the tallest building in the world.  Since I yearned at that time to be an architect when I grew up, I had always wanted to see the Empire State Building in person, not just in books.  I had been able to do so twice since 1992, and now I was taking Cathryn there for her first visit.

But it wasn’t until a few weeks before our engagement that I came to understand the romantic associations of this edifice, particularly in the movies.  Almost without any coaching from me, in the three weeks before March 4th, Cathryn and I had watched Sleepless in Seattle, An Affair To Remember (one her favorites), and its remake Love Affair, all of which feature the Empire State Building as a major plot device.

So it seemed a perfect choice as the place where I should propose marriage to Cathryn.  Even though I had bought tickets online in advance, we still had to wait a good while in line to reach the 86th floor observatory.  We wanted to go all the way to the 102nd floor, but that level was closed because of the crowds.  After we spent a few minutes taking in the impressive views, it seemed we were ready to go, and Cathryn thought – just for a moment – that perhaps we had come all this way just for the fun of it, and that a proposal would come some other time.

But then I asked her, and gave her the ring, and there we were – engaged!  She started crying, and then I started crying, and we were kissing and crying, and then . . . well, then we had a plane to catch . . .

Just after he pops the question . . .	. . . she says “Yes!”
Smiling back down in the lobby	Wave to the folks back home!