On the way home from The Copper Horse I’d never been happier. It was Christmas eve my favourite time of year, I’d just had an absolutely amazing dinner and in a matter of hours would be tucking in to the first of two HUGE Christmas dinners in two days. Oh, and my childhood sweetheart had just agreed to spend the rest of her life with me! As we drove back home Dom could not stop staring at her ring and admiring it from every angle…clearly I had been right to trust my instincts and had done well! Even after all these years I really had managed to surprise her and she was desperately excited and dying to tell the world! The proposal hadn’t gone remotely how I had planned but in its own way it had felt kinda right and its chaotic nature was bizarrely appropriate for Dom and I. Anyway the main thing was that Dom seemed to think that it was absolutely perfect, that was all that mattered. I actually had to take her phone from her to keep her off twitter; I wasn’t about to let anyone find out before we’d even told our families!
She wouldn’t have to wait long, we had to pop back to the studio for Dom to pick up some presents and then we were off for Christmas at the future in-laws where we could finally share the news.
Now, for many couples telling the in-laws can be an incredibly scary thing; will they approve, will it turn into a scene from Meet the Parents? In my case I was pretty sure the news would be well received, Dom’s mum hadn’t been overly discreet in the implication that she would not object: “Look at this Matt, it’s Dominique’s Grandma’s ENGAGEMENT ring… I’d love for her to have this but it would have to be given to her for SOMETHING SPECIAL.”
Subtle. Really subtle. In fact so keen was she for the pair of us to be married there was simply no keeping it from her as she explains:
Having just finished some last minute Christmas shopping (mainly buying an extra turkey after realising Matt would be coming for dinner!) I shot out of the final shop and stopped in my tracks as I noticed that the gate of the studio owned by my son and daughter was slightly ajar. Dominique is one of those people that has to check absolutely everything 30 times before we go anywhere (much to our annoyance when trying to get away!) so I knew she would never leave it open and, as Liam was waiting in the car and Dominique was having lunch with her boyfriend Matthew, I was instantly on edge fearing the worst. As I scurried across the road I expected to be greeted with broken glass or worse, a burglar. Cautiously peering down the studio steps my heart stopped as in an instant I saw a shadow, a flash of brown hair and finally the startled gaze of a shocked Dominique as we both jumped out of our skin at the unexpected sight of each other!
“God mum, you made me jump! What are you doing here? Did you get Matt’s Turkey? We’ve just had lunch, I just needed to come and pick up some presents I’d left here, ooh actually don’t look, I think there’s one of yours here…mum?” I wasn’t listening; something else had caught my eye. “WHAT Is that on your hand Dominique?!” I knew before I even asked! “Ha, trust you mum, nobody’s supposed to know!
Grinning from ear to ear and hugging her tightly I was swiftly sworn to secrecy until they could share the news properly, but that didn’t stop me flashing a huge grin and cheeky wink to an oblivious Matt on the way home!
Magpie, I tell you! All in all we managed to keep the secret from Kathryn for 0.8 seconds before she spotted the sparkling diamond. I swear for the last two years she must have been looking at Dom’s ring finger before she acknowledged her face! The rest of the family were not quite so swift on the uptake.
Now, remember the opening bit from Home Alone when they realise they’ve overslept and everyone starts dashing around the house in double-time shouting insanely? Well this was roughly the scene that greeted us as we stepped through the door to the house. Liam’s partner was Skyping her parents, Liam himself tearing the house apart in the search for wrapping paper, Dom’s younger brother was shouting orders down his comms at his Call of Duty comrades, Paddington was running round in circles barking indiscriminately and Dom’s father was balancing a cordless phone beneath one cheek whilst holding his mobile to the other and using his spare hand to stir the gravy. Chaos!
It was a good 20 minutes before we finally managed to draw everyones attention and as they all looked up at us I waited for Dom to share the news. And waited. And waited… Eventually turning my head towards my fiancee I realised that she was also staring expectantly at me, apparently I would be sharing the news, something I hadn’t planned and had absolutely no idea what to say!! Eventually I spluttered something out.
“Peter, I need to ask for your daughters hand in marriage”.
There was silence. Then some more silence. Then an awful lot of silence as even my heart stopped beating. Then suddenly there was a roar of congratulations, the sound of champagne corks popping and an obscene amount of hugging and the yell of approval from the happy father of the bride!
Everyone was happy, the perfect Christmas eve! Well almost everyone; whilst the celebrations and Christmas festivities continued long into the night and I gorged myself on Christmas dinner one individual in the room was unusually quiet for the moment…
This is actually reading more and more like some sort of P.G. Wodehouse blog! I’m half expecting Gussie Fink Knottle to turn up at Christmas dinner and imagining that Matt is going to have some sort of Jeeves character to get him through the next folly! Brilliant!
By George (By Jove by Jeeves) that’s a good idea! How much do Gentlemen’s Gentlemen cost these days? “Dom stop looking at veils…we’re getting a Butler instead!”