Shannon & Duanne in Rochester

Life with Duane is always about making me happy. Every time he makes any plans, he works around making sure whatever it is, it is being done to ensure my smile, and so his proposal was just that kind of plan. He was trying to get me to go on our annual vacation and I kept putting it off saying we just didn't have the money with us buying our new house and all. He went ahead and booked it anyway and gave it to me for Christmas. Suddenly a cruise for just us to Mexico turned into a one with his parents, my mom and her boyfriend, his sister and my best friend...
The night before we ported in Mexico, they have a captain's dinner where you get dressed up and have a fancy dinner and meet the captain- so there we were- all dressed up for the evening Duane acting very...almost giddy. At one point we were dancing on a stage in front of hundreds of people and his heart was just racing... I found out later, he was about to do it, but the music stopped before he could make a move. So after that I was sick of being dressed up so I went back to the room and threw causal clothes on so we could walk around and look at as we cruised in the middle of the ocean. The three of us(best friend and I and Duane) were looking over the edge of the boat and oddly enough talking about how I would never get engaged, but if I did, I want to be shocked. Suddenly, Duane took a few steps back and just stood there with this look on his face.. I looked back and didn't think anything of it... then I looked back again and he just gave me this smile. I walked over to him and put my arms around him and told him I loved him. Suddenly he breaks into this speech about how lucky we were to find each other again and what his life has been with me. Then he asks me "Would you be shocked if I did something right now?" I was like OH MY GOD... That's when he gets down on one knee and pulls a ring box out of his sock and opens it and asks "Shannon, will you marry me?" I just started crying and screaming and he had to ask again and of course I was like YES. As we are hugging and kissing, my mom walks around the corner and couldn't figure out why I was crying! His parents had already went to bed, and I couldn't make any phone calls with no service in the middle of the ocean, so we walked around the ship and told strangers of our news just to celebrate with someone! Just like Duane- Making sure every moment was perfect with my proposal...About a month before our trip, he told me he had a shoot upstate(he is a associate producer) and that he needed to do some interviews. He actually was driving 6 hours to ask for my fathers blessing. That's the kind of man I have. His heart is ALWAYS beating for me.