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Engaged

One of the main topics I couldn’t yet write about on my first posts of the year, was my plan of getting engaged. But now I can talk all about it without ruining the surprise.

It all started around December, where the plans started to take form. I’m from the north-east of Mexico, where most people are used to travel to Texas for shopping. So I planned a trip there to get the plan going. Having moved to Guadalajara (west, and more to the south part of Mexico) two years ago, accomplishing my plan was getting more complicated than usual. After many travel attempts to the north, because of one thing or another, I couldn’t make it in January, but my parents did. I asked my mother to look around and send me photos, hoping to do the shopping that way. I was visiting my girlfriend that weekend in Mexico city, and while having dinner with some friends I finally received a message from my mum. The message had a single picture of a ring and the words “I got it”. I was shocked! I didn’t want my engagement ring to be picked by my mother, I wanted to choose it myself! Well…at least remotely. I could barely hide my red face in the dinner table, and my girlfriend was wondering me suddenly messaging back and forth, not saying anything about who I was talking to and even trying to hide the screen from her eyes. I excused myself from the table and called my mum, she said it was no big deal, that I should call the place and tell them to hold it for me. I made plans to go in two weeks.

Two weeks passed and again I could not make my trip. It was now mid February and my plans to pop the question on Valentine’s day were frustrated. I finally made definitive plans to travel to Texas by the end of the month. My excuse was that I had ordered my Lenovo X240 and I had to pick it up. So finally I went to the jewelry store, explored more options and made my choice. The next problem: to have it sized in her number was going to take one week. Since having it sized by the store was of no extra cost and covered by warranty, it was the wisest thing to do. So I came back to Mexico empty handed.

It was now March and I had no excuse to travel back. March is important, because after Valentine’s, the next “big” date is my girlfriend’s birthday near the end of the month. I was hoping my parents would go but their agenda was busy too. Fortunately, my mums best friend, whose daughter lives in Texas, was travelling soon and I asked her to do me the favor of bringing the ring back for me. She did, but delivered it to my mum, in the north-east of Mexico. The ring was still not in my hands and had to travel all the way to the south-west in a secure way (we don’t trust mail here). My mum and I ended up planning a meetup in Mexico city, she would get to visit my brother who lives there, and I would finally get the ring. That moment finally happened one week before Ada’s birthday.

So with all the complications and timing problems, and adding to that that I live in Guadalajara and she lives in Mexico city, I couldn’t plan a big moment or fabricate a special situation for the occasion. So, being the software engineer and a photographer, I relied on technology and photography to create a good moment that not only will be emotional at the time, but can also be saved and relived in the future. I made a nice slideshow video with lots of photos from all our years together using Google+ photo gallery and video editor. I’m passionate about photography, and I’m dedicated to technology. It makes sense to put to work my two passions together to get the third and most important one that completes my life.

On the weekend of her birthday, I traveled to Mexico city on a red-eye bus and arrived very early in the morning. After a nice rest at her place, and before leaving the house to get something for breakfast, I sent the video to her Google+ account and told her to open what I just sent her in her tablet. She smiled through the photos but never expected where they leaded. Right after the last photo, I popped the question.


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She said yes! And after the emotions calmed down, we went to get some street tacos as a celebration breakfast. We just love tacos.

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Later that night, we celebrated the engagement and her birthday with some friends. Here’s my girlfriend fiancee and a friend who also got engaged this year.

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So after a long relationship with many ups and downs and long distances and short ones, and many many adventures together, we have formal plans to continue living more adventures for (hopefully) the rest of our lives.

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By Gabriel Saldaña

Gabriel Saldaña is a web developer, photographer and free software advocate. Connect with him on and Twitter

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