The proposal is a very interesting one so grab a cup of coffee because you're in for a lengthy tale! 

 

So! Here we go..

  It all begins when one day I decided, it's time to get the ball rolling. Yes, this is the girl. fastforward - after searching for months on a ring, I knew all along where the perfect ring was - somewhere towards clearwater. So I leave work instantly to go pick it up. Upon picking up the ring, I'm asked a very intereting question that I knew in the back of my mind would need to be answered and fast but i kept burrying for a later time. He asks, "So, you've got the ring. Now, how are you going to give it to her?" I stare at him for a moment, smile, and I said, " I have no idea". About a week later I am sitting in my room alone staring at this ring which I have no clue what I am going to do with it. I am a creative person in nature, so there's no option of a 'typical' proposal for me. No... not a nice dinner then drop to a knee. No... not a cheesy rose pedal proposal with a happy candle lit champagne toast which makes up for about half of the world's population in wedding proposals. Definately not doing the whole, "write your message on a banner and have it flown over a beach during sunset that reads ' will you marry me?'".

This proposal had to be me. It had to be us. so what was it going to be?  Well I will try to make this short. Ashlee is a mermaid - she says she is and flops around like one so if it quacks like a duck? right? So that stirred my creative ideas. I wanted to create a narration video that came from a mermaid scouting company ( just hear me out). this mermaid scouting company seeks out humans that truly believe they are mermaids. They recognize that there is a mermaid within you and you need to pursue actually becoming a mermaid. well in order to become a mermaid you need to look, act, smel,l taste, like one. You need to have what mermaids have.

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(Heres the video if you'd like to watch it)

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(Clue 1) Mermaids have pirate valuables. Mermaids bang the sides of pirate ships and boats in the night while pirates are out scoping out land with thier spyglasses. Mermaids would try to get these pirates to drop things into the sea so they can collect them in their chests stored at the bottom of the sea.

(Clue 2) Mermaids love men on shore. They watch them everyday as they fish and strole the beautiful sun kissed shores but most certainly would scare them off if ever seen. So, mermaids try to smell and look as attractive as possible when it comes time for that encounter. Mermaids always have perfumes, ointments, and healing lotion stored in their chest at the bottom of the sea.

(Clue 3) Whats a Mermaid without her harp. Mermaids serenade the calm quiet sea at night when no one is listening. They store their harp in their chest at the bottom of the sea.

Find these three things, then find your mermaid chest and you are on your way to becoming a mermaid. So there's the scavenger hunt.

I went ahead and built a animation instrctional video from a fake mermaid recruiting company seeking out individuals who feel like they are truly a mermaid deep down. This video instructed Ashlee to 1. find a key (which she knew where this key was) 2. Find all the clues. The clues would have a map that leads to the next clue and then finally to, 3. The mermaid storing chest (Which contained her ring inside of a clam shell). 

I designed the scavenger hunt so she would find the clues slowly throughout the day and finally would find the chest on the beautiful North Beach at Ft. Desoto. I employed three of her closest friends to help me hide the clues one step ahead of her - She would find one clue as her friends are setting up the next clue ahead of her (didn't want those clues sitting out in public all day!).

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So the day took off! I set up a box with a dress that her friends picked out for her along with the DVD and instructions. The DVD was a mermaid scouting service DVD that instructed her to go find the key (to unlock the chest at the end) then to go find all three clues then finally she would find a chest. She was on her way - I planted a phone with a GPS tracking app inside of her car so I could communicate her location with her friends that were one step ahead of Ashlee so she would never run into her friends planting the clues. She finds all three clues and finally comes to the chest which was facing in the opposite direction of my location. I run up behind her and I proposed and the rest is history. Is she a mermaid yet? I don't know. One thing I will say about the clues is that I purchased a vintage steamer trunk that lit up as soon as I put it on the brown sandy shores of the beach that looked unlike anything I have ever seen. The chest is from the 1800s that I managed to score off of craigslist! Her ring is a complete mermaid ring with custom pearls only suitable for the finest mermaids.