Congrats to the Happy Couple!

May 30, 2004 6:54 PM

A Very Christian Proposal-via-Scavenger-Hunt in Starbuck's Headquarters Hometown "The whole day was so much fun, and absolutely perfect. It meant so much to me that Sean included the people that were important in our lives. This really is the best engagement story I've ever heard - I'm overwhelmed that it is actually mine!"
posted by scarabic (47 comments total)

Is this write-up supposed to be condescending or do I just read too much into these sort of things?
posted by keswick at 7:00 PM on May 30, 2004

Bleech.....vomit.....
posted by fluffycreature at 7:21 PM on May 30, 2004

That was so sweet, I might need some insulin. Stories like this bring out my inner girly-girl in a bad way.
posted by Dreama at 7:21 PM on May 30, 2004

Awww, very sweet story. Wonder what Sean does for a living - that's one heck of an engagement ring.
posted by Oriole Adams at 7:27 PM on May 30, 2004

Wonderful, creative, and just downright sweet. Best wishes to the couple.
posted by davidmsc at 7:42 PM on May 30, 2004

It really was kind of cute of her fiancé, and that's a lovely ring. It's her write-up that's a bit gushy and gee whiz for me.

But hey, maybe I'm just crotchety. No one I've dated has so much as bothered to celebrate my birthday with me:-)
posted by orange swan at 7:43 PM on May 30, 2004

That's sweet. I wish I'd have done something like that ten years ago.

Now I'm just bitter and dried up. Damn kids and their youth.
posted by SiW at 7:56 PM on May 30, 2004

Is this write-up supposed to be condescending or do I just read too much into these sort of things?
I'd say the former.

But I didn't see any mention of Christianity or other religion on the site. I get the feeling they're liberal Muslims.
posted by shoos at 8:03 PM on May 30, 2004

Check the title for a tone, here. The wee lad and lass have certainly put themselves out there 100% for your judgement, whatever it may be. I just thought that the proposal was elaborate, interesting, and the documenting footage and site was well-put-together. A very personal moment bared for everyone. Enjoy as you see fit, and don't mind my personal anti-Starbucks bent. It just makes the thing all the more Seattle-y. I guess you need to check the family web site for the Christian-ness. I don't mind saying that that footnote scares me a little.
posted by scarabic at 8:14 PM on May 30, 2004

I dont mind the Starbucks angle or their religion, but this method of proposal makes me look like a schmuck (my wife and I got married, literally, because we'd lived together for four years and were bored and I had vacation time). Technically, I proposed on the way to the wedding location.

Best one I've ever seen was an Army soldier who had his girlfriend watching his platoon do drills when EVERY SINGLE SOLDIER marches up to her, drops to their knees in formation, and he proposed. REALLY DAMN COOL. I wish I could find the video of it again.
posted by mrbill at 8:23 PM on May 30, 2004

Jamie was accepted to Northwest University! She graduates Bellevue Community College this summer and moves on to graduate classes at her new school this fall. We're not sure where the tuition money will come from but we are all trusting in God's supernatural provision. - From the Sperte main site.

Emphasis mine. Geez.
posted by davidmsc at 8:28 PM on May 30, 2004

"YOU MIGHT LOOK

Where you both work
(HINT: It's where you worship God too!)"


You need a hint to find where you work?
posted by MrLint at 8:28 PM on May 30, 2004

Here's hoping I find a woman worth putting forth that much effort. Cheers.
posted by botono9 at 8:37 PM on May 30, 2004

If you browse around, you find rants against tolerance, "things that reek to high heaven: homosexuality ... making people think witchcraft is cool"; "Without a doubt, we are living in the END TIMES", etc. bookended with common mentions of Jesus.

My original thoughts of congratulations (not to mention thinking the girl was cute) are hereby rescinded.
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 8:45 PM on May 30, 2004

(The Jesus part was an accidental fragment from another draft. I didn't mean to imply I have a problem with mentions of Jesus.)
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 8:46 PM on May 30, 2004

Thin line twixt love-crazy and actually-crazy.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 9:03 PM on May 30, 2004

I'd imagine the obvious hint after each obvious clue was just insurance in case she couldn't figure it out.

If I was going through the trouble of organizing something like this, I wouldn't want my fiance-to-be to spend the day wandering around some mall somewhere looking for a clue that doesn't exist.

I'm not going to comment on their religious affiliation, as it has next to nothing to do with the proposal story itself, which is sappy yet well-reported.

I have to brush my teeth again now. Tha-anks.
posted by chicobangs at 11:06 PM on May 30, 2004

OK, waitaminnit - "get yourself a two-Equal™ Latte"?! It's one thing to trademark Equal; another to fucking capitalize the word "latte". Welcome to guerrilla marketing, suckers!
posted by nicwolff at 11:21 PM on May 30, 2004

Jesus loves the Lanham Act.
posted by PrinceValium at 5:16 AM on May 31, 2004

To be fair, it looks like it's the kid's mom with the homosexuality-stinks-love-the-sinner-hate-the-sin list. It's not necessarily reflective of the beliefs of the couple. Just saying.
posted by LittleMissCranky at 5:31 AM on May 31, 2004

Jamie was accepted to Northwest University! She graduates Bellevue Community College this summer and moves on to graduate classes at her new school this fall. We're not sure where the tuition money will come from but we are all trusting in God's supernatural provision. - From the Sperte main site.

Don't scoff. When I went to the Bible college where I met my now-husband, supernatural provision is exactly how I managed to pay for it. I even had someone I barely knew slip me a check for a hundred dollars in a school bathroom. She told me God told her to do it. And mind you, this person had no clue regarding my financial condition.
posted by konolia at 6:07 AM on May 31, 2004

scoff
posted by Pretty_Generic at 6:39 AM on May 31, 2004

To be fair, it looks like it's the kid's mom with the homosexuality-stinks-love-the-sinner-hate-the-sin list. It's not necessarily reflective of the beliefs of the couple.

Point taken, but read this entry by the wife-to-be. It never outright says that's what it refers to, but doesn't take much reading between the lines.
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 7:49 AM on May 31, 2004

My favorite part was where she said her pastor told her that if she ever thought she was going to be proposed to, she should wear a cute outfit. Shallow, much?
posted by eilatan at 8:10 AM on May 31, 2004

You know that feeling when you eat a whole of bag of too-sweet candy?
posted by signal at 8:20 AM on May 31, 2004

I only had 45 minutes to get ready — normally my morning routine takes two hours!

Um, yeah. Sweet story, but a pity that I find the writer so grating.
posted by hattifattener at 8:42 AM on May 31, 2004

It usually takes her two hours to get ready in the morning?? Good Lord, I didn't think anyone was that ugly.
posted by Oriole Adams at 8:47 AM on May 31, 2004

Yeah, JKF, that's pretty ugly. I retract my half-hearted defense.
posted by LittleMissCranky at 9:50 AM on May 31, 2004

I even had someone I barely knew slip me a check for a hundred dollars in a school bathroom.

Must...restrain...self.......multiple...snide...remarks...colliding...
posted by stonerose at 10:05 AM on May 31, 2004

I thought when I was reading this that this would end up to be some sort of advertisement, with all the mentions of companies like Apple, Starbucks, and California Pizza Kitchen. The article also reeked of those "Special Advertising Section" you'd find in a magazine.
posted by gyc at 11:14 AM on May 31, 2004

Love the footnote and may have to borrow it. Rather than the usual bland "News" heading the list of newsite links, they've got a comment about where to go for proof that we are living in the end-times. Chill out- if you're a Christy-fundy, that's pretty funny.
posted by loafingcactus at 11:21 AM on May 31, 2004

I thought when I was reading this that this would end up to be some sort of advertisement...

Naw. Many people live their lives from product placement to product placement. Those little logos are the mile markers and signposts along the highways of their lives. There's nothing in their lives that doesn't have a corporation attached to it.

Kind of like the Olympics, but without the cultural diversity. And with less lugeing.
posted by chicobangs at 11:22 AM on May 31, 2004

So aside from that $100, konolia, which is pretty obviously manna directly from the palm of the deity, what leads you to attribute the rest of your funding as divine providence (I mean, as opposed to your own hard work, good qualifications, and generous support of other people)?
posted by scarabic at 11:36 AM on May 31, 2004

Metafilter: chicken soup for the soul.
posted by abcde at 11:49 AM on May 31, 2004

"I only had 45 minutes to get ready — normally my morning routine takes two hours!"

At this point, I shoved a pen deep into my eye socket and stopped reading.
posted by fillsthepews at 1:11 PM on May 31, 2004 [1 favorite]

Watch. Chris Rock will call her up, and then she'll be adding to her blog how the people at MetaFilter are rude, and how important it is to always do the Christian thing.

But. The Seattle meet up might have a place to gather after all. Wonder if there'll be booze?
posted by Feisty at 1:23 PM on May 31, 2004

My morning routine takes 2 hours, too, but you'd never know it to look at me because 1.5 of those are spent drinking coffee and fucking around here.

Oh well, the site(s) definitely expose some odd views and one or two unflattering attitudes, but I thought the engagement thingie was cute, and well-documented. Apparently there is room reserved on the site for the wedding ceremony, so check back whenever.
posted by scarabic at 4:59 PM on May 31, 2004

I got as far as this: "knowing I was going to be 3 minutes late. I hoped that I wouldn't be in trouble." before I had to stop.

Ewh! Eewh! Eeeewh!

I mean, the "jump out of bed and somehow managed to get out the door in 45 minutes"...and the "thinking about what my pastor would tell me to wear" was bad...but *in trouble* for being 3 minutes late?

And she says it so casually...as though because she's involved with this guy he suddenly gets the right to dictate how every moment is spent...and were she to deviate from his master plan...penalties will be assessed.

Creeptastico.
posted by dejah420 at 9:41 PM on May 31, 2004

Dejah -- I took that "trouble" to mean "missed whatever it was I was supposed to see/experience if I got there on time" not "my spouse to be will be mad at me if I'm late."

Perspective is everything, methinks.
posted by Dreama at 5:27 AM on June 1, 2004

She takes two hours to get ready so she can read her Bible and pray and stuff.

I find it kind of funny that the fundamentalist Christian who thinks all gays (and probably most of the commenters in this thread) are going straight to hell, boys, and is proud of being close-minded and unbending in her opinions would accuse someone else of being judgmental.
posted by jennyb at 6:15 AM on June 1, 2004

yeah, that was sweet in a very mundane, ordinary sort of way. I can't say it wasn't nice, but as someone unrelated to the couple, I can't get particularly interested either. All the pit stops were consumer spots; the clues were not creative, funny, or tricky, and I found it mildly "reality tv"ish the way every moment was documented - just "you and the camera". I appreciate how nice it is to have documentation to look back on, but I am also the sort of person who gets annoyed when I'm in a beautiful or historic spot and everyone is clicking shutters. Every now and then I think it's a good idea to fuck the camera and take the moment on in earnest... it feels like it makes it more superficial to hide behind the camera's eye or pose for it, instead of just really experiencing what is happening as what it is, not as a reproduction of it you'll look at later... I dunno. I probably read too much philosophy. (But I really do feel that, not just think it.)
posted by mdn at 7:42 AM on June 1, 2004

I find it kind of funny that the fundamentalist Christian who thinks all gays (and probably most of the commenters in this thread) are going straight to hell, boys, and is proud of being close-minded and unbending in her opinions would accuse someone else of being judgmental.

Yeah, and I just love how she reduces people's objections to her apparent 'homos stink' attitude to 'having an obvious problem with her Christianity.' Charming, and not at all dishonest!
posted by purplemonkie at 8:14 AM on June 1, 2004

mdn, you know that many people aren't that imaginative. This proposal hunt may be the most inventive thing this guy ever does, and you know what? That's okay.

It's tough for people to be completely knock-you-on-your-ass inventive every time out, and in this case, that wasn't necessary. They're normal, if a bit Goddy, and they've done something that maxes out their creativity, and for that, if nothing else, I'm glad for them.

(May their inevitably large brood of spawn rebel in their teens by listening to, oh, death metal. Lots and lots of death metal! nataS! redruM! Argh! Fuck! Kill! RRRRRRRR!)
posted by chicobangs at 9:10 AM on June 1, 2004

It's tough for people to be completely knock-you-on-your-ass inventive every time out, and in this case, that wasn't necessary. They're normal, if a bit Goddy, and they've done something that maxes out their creativity, and for that, if nothing else, I'm glad for them.

yeah, you're right, didn't mean to sound judgmental - I was honestly responding to the story as a metafilter post, though, not as a personal note to the couple, who I now realize may be reading this thread (hi folks! congratulations! sorry if that sounded mean!).
posted by mdn at 9:22 AM on June 1, 2004

Can't resist:

(from the blog posted by jennyb)

"I'm closed minded, and I'm proud of it. If your mind is too open, your brains will fall out."

Best/worst thing I've read all day.
posted by fillsthepews at 1:09 PM on June 1, 2004

I just thought this was some viral marketing for the new Stepford Wives film or something.
posted by fullerine at 3:05 PM on June 1, 2004

OTHERS were not very nice, and actually down right rude.

Ha ha ha. That's us we're mean. Why do I feel that Metafilter is that asshole kid that's really funny for making fun of nerdy girl in the front but you feel as if you shouldn't laugh but it's really hard not to.

I'm just discovering a side to the internet I had not yet experienced - an abrasive side, where people don't care if they rub people the wrong way, pass judgement, or make derogatory comments.

When you get off the MSN.COM homepage bad things happen. Hello, 1997?

I can't wait until Metafilter finds my site. I'm so cynical as it is, anything that made me more cynical and jaded could actually make me optimistic. Like a circle of life or something.
posted by geoff. at 12:07 PM on June 21, 2004