The Proposal

In love. The first thing I saw in front of Diagon Alley was the violent purple triple-decker Knight Bus, with a conductor and all, just up the street. Jared and I were finally on our trip to Univeral Studios in Orlando, Florida, with the sole purpose of going to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We'd been planning this trip for a year, and only within the last few month had things fallen together enough to allow us to go. We had arrived in Orlando the day before, and our first and only goal of the day was to get as much of the Harry Potter experience as humanly possible. I practically ran up the street to have my picture taken with the conductor and the talking head hanging in the window of the bus. Once done with the photo opportunity we turned to find Diagon Alley, which was actually made it at an angle right next to the Leaky Cauldron, and once you got inside a little bit the bricks looked like they had just melted away, and the whole alley opened up in front of us. I seriously almost cried when I first saw it; I was so overwhelmed. Everything looked absolutely amazing, colorful, and so detailed! Nothing was forgotten or left out. Just WOW! You looked up the alley and the building at the end was Gringotts Bank, complete with a dragon perched on top. 

Our first view of Diagon Alley

The first thing we both wanted was to buy our wands, so we meandered up the Alley, then turned to the side and entered Ollivander’s Wand Shop. We and a small group of people entered The Wand Experience, where we were taken through the shop by an assistant and met Ollivander himself. The shop was full floor to ceiling of wand boxes and other wizardry stuff, just like it’s described in the book and movie. We crowded into Ollivander’s study and the actor started telling us about wands and how the wand chooses the wizard. Then he picked a girl from the front of the room and had her come stand by him, and he started handing her wands to try. The first thing he had her do was water some plants, and there was a flash and they wilted, so he said no, let’s try another. He had her try to move some wands and they fell, so he said no, then he pulled out a third wand, kept repeating “I wonder…I wonder…” then gave it to her and the music swelled, the lights shined on her and it was obviously her wand. He pointed her to his assistant, and told her they would explain the rest of the wandlore to her, then thanked us all for shopping at his store and out we went. We followed the assistant straight into the actual shop, and there we were met with tons of wand options to choose from. After reading all about them, I decided to get a Reed wand, and Jared got a Birch wand for ourselves. We also picked out two character wands; I got Sirius Black’s wand (my favorite character), and Jared got Voldemort’s (of course). We also wanted interactive wands, which you can use at certain spots throughout the Alley and Hogsmeade, where if you do the wand motion correctly whatever you’re pointing it at will move/make noise/light up or whatever it’s supposed to do. 

It breathed fire!

Once we both picked out our wands Jared took mine from me and told me he’d get them and to go ahead and wait outside. I said no, I’d get my own because they’re expensive and I didn’t want him buying it for me. He was insistent and told me to go take pictures and wait for him outside. That’s when I knew: He was going to propose with my wand!!!!! So I went outside and tried to distract myself, taking tons of pictures up and down the alley, wandering around and inspecting the storefront windows and discovering the entrance to Knockturn Alley. I didn’t go too far, mostly because I was keeping an eye on the front of Ollivander’s for Jared to come out. I was outside long enough that the dragon on top of Gringotts started roaring, and all of a sudden it let out a great ball of fire from its mouth! I could feel the heat from it, and got several pictures. Then the dragon went quiet and everyone went back to their business. I overheard one guest ask a store employee how often the dragon does that, and the employee replied that the dragon (she) was very inconsiderate of the business dealings on the alley and would roar and spit fire at random.

It happened!!

The whole alley was very well laid out: you definitely felt like you were really in the wizarding alley, actually shopping for all sorts of magical supplies. There was Ollivander’s, The Leaky Cauldron, Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes, Madam Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions, Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlour and Quality Quidditch Supplies, all of which you could actually go in and buy stuff, but then there were storefronts for Gringotts, Florish and Blotts, and lots more. That was just up the initial alley, not including the other branches of the alley and Knockturn Alley! But I was impatient, and after what seemed like forever Jared finally came out and waved me over. He told me they had a second show for Ollivander’s and that we were going to go back through. I knew this was it! I asked Jared if we could video the show this time around, since we hadn’t the first time, and he agreed and pulled out the camera and started recording. I wanted the proposal on film, damn it! So we went and right after we entered I saw the attendant make eye contact with Jared, and the door closed behind us and they took us and a very small group back to the same room we were in the first time through. A different actor was there, and I saw him look over all of the group and identify Jared and I, and sure enough he picked me to come to the front of the room and give the wands a try. The first time I waved it to water the plants they wilted, and he fixed them with another wave of his wand, then he had me ring a bell, but I made all the other bells in the room ring too which he silenced with his own wand. Finally he did the whole “I wonder” thing and pulled out a third wand and started explaining the attributes of a Reed wand, which is my wand. He handed it to me and the lights shined on me and the music swelled and obviously I found my wand (and also Jared had obviously told them I’d picked out a Reed wand) so I went over to the assistant by the door and we went out. 

I'd prefer this box to a traditional ring box any day

The assistant pulled me to the side of the door and started talking about my wand as Jared came out of the door still recording the whole thing, and once he’d come out the assistant opened the wand box and I looked down at it and my ring was on the wand!! I turned to Jared, eyes wide, and pretty much immediately started to cry. He handed to camera off to another assistant and took the wand box from the first assistant. He looked right at me and told me “You are my magic.” Then he got down on one knee in front of me and asked “Will you marry me?” I was crying so hard I could hardly get “yes!” out of my throat, then I saw Jared was crying too and that made me cry even more. He stood up and hugged me and kissed me, then took the ring off the wand and handed it to me for me to look at. It is gorgeous!! A cushion cut sapphire held by four prongs raised high over a white gold band with two forked branches set with diamonds reaching up toward the sapphire but not connecting to it. The diamonds go halfway down the band leaving the underside of the ring closest to my palm smooth. After I’d looked at it (difficult, because I was still crying and had to blink the tears away) Jared handed the wand/box to the assistant and took my ring from me so he could put it on my finger. Then I threw my arms around him and kissed him again and we both cried some more. I was (and still am!!) so incredibly happy! The assistants, everyone who had helped Jared pull it off, were all clapping and congratulating us, and several of the other guests in our group had hung back and were clapping too. The store manager disappeared briefly and came back with pins that said “I’m Celebrating!” and she wrote “just engaged” on them. She gave them to us, then led us out front so she could take our first picture as an engaged couple in front of Ollivander’s shop. We thanked them all, several times, and left the store. Neither of us could stop grinning! 

I think this pictures says it all for me

We did many more activites that day, but I spent a good majority of my time alternating between staring at my ring and looking at my new fiancé. Even though I'd had the suspicion that Jared would propose at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter for several weeks it didn't detract from being in the moment and actually having it happen. No, I wasn't surprised, but I was still overwhelmed with emotion and bawled like a baby. Also, his words "you are my magic"...be still my heart! I have no idea if those words were planned or if he was just winging it, but it couldn't have been more perfect than it already was. Rest assured, this is definitely one for my Happy Jar! Now I'm looking forward to planning our wedding day, and can't wait to spend the rest of our nerdy, goofy lives together. 

Butterbeer for the win!