Important Dates

Our First Date: August 20, 2005
Our Engagement: January 26, 2007
Our Wedding: April 5, 2008

Our Engagement Story

While spending Thanksgiving weekend of 2006 in Idaho with Teri’s newlywed sister and brother-in-law (Karin and Ian), Jeremy had the realization that he very badly wanted the same kind of happiness which Karin and Ian now shared. Although he had been dating Teri for not even a year and a half yet, there was no doubt in his Jeremy’s mind that Teri was the woman God intended him to share his life with.

Almost immediately following their return to Colorado, Jeremy began to email Karin to find out what kind of ring Teri would like best. Karin was more than happy to help, and over the next week or two found out for Jeremy what Teri was looking for in a ring. Now it was time to go shopping!

After doing some research online, Jeremy had narrowed down his list of jewelers to just a couple. One rather slow night at work, Jeremy decided to leave early so he could stop at the mall on his way home to buy Teri’s Christmas gift and browse for rings a bit. Following a few futile attempts at finding Teri’s Christmas gift, Jeremy abandoned that to go window shopping for some rings. Upon entering the jewelry store, Jeremy was greeted by a sales associate and began to explain how he was there to look at engagement rings (and even had a particular one he wanted to see). Unfortunately, the rings which had looked so perfect online were not as impressive in person—however, just as Jeremy became a little discouraged, the jeweler brought out a second set of rings so that they could be compared to the first. Although neither Jeremy nor the jeweler had that particular set of rings in mind for Teri at first, Jeremy realized almost instantly that they were perfect. A few minutes later, a very excited Jeremy was actually leaving the mall with a set of wedding and engagement rings. Ironically, he had found the perfect rings, but not Teri’s Christmas gift.

Now came one of the most unnerving parts—asking Teri’s parents for their permission / blessing. By now there were a lot of rumors floating around about Jeremy’s upcoming proposal, so he arranged a time to meet with Pete and Leslie and ask (beg if necessary) for their daughter’s hand in marriage. As it turned out, Teri’s grandfather had just sold his house and Pete and Leslie needed help moving him out. The move created the perfect cover for why there was a need to go visit Teri’s parents just a few weeks before they would be there for Christmas.

A number of hours into the day of the move, Leslie devised a brilliant plan and sent Teri away for a while to go fetch lunch (Jeremy, admittedly, had been focusing so much on moving he had almost forgotten the significance of Teri being gone!). After realizing what this meant, Jeremy managed to very nervously (and probably rather incoherently) ask Pete and Leslie if he could marry their daughter. To his enormous relief, they were thrilled (and not very surprised), and were more than happy to give Jeremy their blessings!

Over the next several weeks, Jeremy began to plan how to pop the question. He knew he had to be careful, as Teri has a gift for ruining surprises, and he definitely wanted this to be a surprise. Now, Jeremy and Teri’s 1.5 year “anniversary” happened to fall on the same weekend as Valentine’s Day, so that seemed too obvious a time. In order for it to be a surprise, the proposal would be on a random day—approximately a week before their anniversary.

Finally, after a few weeks of tossing around ideas, Jeremy developed his plan. One key aspect was to appeal to Teri’s artistic side to make the proposal more special, especially since Jeremy is artistically impaired. Jeremy found a local pottery shop where one could decorate a pre-made peice of pottery. Jeremy picked out a heart shaped plate, decorated it, and then painted the words, “Theresa Michelle Holzmann, Will You Marry Me?” on it. The plate itself was going to serve (pun intended) as the proposal.

Now, around this same time, Jeremy was blessed enough to get a new job, and put in his notice at the one he currently had. Realizing that this change in jobs also created the perfect cover for his proposal, Jeremy decided to move up his plans to pop the question to Teri. Jeremy’s final day at work would be the 25th of January, so he would propose the 26th, and hopefully surprise Teri like she had never been surprised before.

A few weeks later, it was now January 26th, 2007—the big day! Jeremy had already contacted Teri’s boss to make sure he knew that Teri needed to leave work on time that day. Now, since Jeremy was free all day long, he woke up early, and went out to buy some truffles and ingredients for dinner. Throughout the day Jeremy set up his house to prepare for the magic moment. The table was set using nice linens, dishes and silverware, the lights were dimmed, a vase full of lilies served as the centerpiece, and a stereo was nearby to play romantic music. Once Jeremy knew Teri was on her way to his house, Jeremy began making dinner: a 3 course meal consisting of a fancy salad, baked swordfish steak with garlic shrimp and cauliflower saute for the main course, and then truffle surprise for dessert.

When Teri arrived she found the house all set up for the special occasion, but fortunately did not seem to know what was truly going on- the, “Celebrating Jeremy’s new job” cover seemed to be working just fine. A few minutes later Jeremy sat Teri down and began to serve dinner, attempting to stay calm in the process. A while later the salad and main course were over, and Jeremy let teri know there was still dessert to come- A nice pudding for Jeremy, and a special sugar-free (which was actually not true) dessert for Teri. Jeremy brought out his pudding, placed it on the table and excused himself while he retrieved Teri’s food.

In the kitchen, Jeremy placed a chocolate raspberry truffle (Teri’s favorite!) at the tip of the heart plate he had made earlier, then placed her engagement ring on top, and then covered the plate with a fancy napkin. After taking a second to calm himself down, Jeremy brought out the plate to Teri, placed it in front of her, and then pulled off the napkin. Jeremy was overwhelmed with the greatest feeling in the world as Teri stared at the plate for a minute or so in complete shock, and then he dropped to his knee at her side and asked in person if she would marry him (Ironically, the Beach Boys song, “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” was playing at the same time, and just happened to be at the “wouldn’t it be nice if we could get married” part…). Although still stunned and a bit dismayed, Teri excitedly said, “Yes!” and after a few minutes of crying and hugging, Teri began to call her family to let them all know the good news. Needless to say, Jeremy was thrilled that Teri said, “Yes,” but he was also very happy with the fact that he finally managed to surprise her with something.

That is how the best day of Jeremy’s life (so far) came to be!