Jen Causey-Kidder
Jen Causey-Kidder February 05, 2013

scavenger hunt proposal

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I have an absolutely adorable proposal story to share with you today from the talented Day 7 Photography! Alex planned a very elaborate and touching scavenger hunt for his sweetheart Ann that took place all over the Rice University Campus, ultimately ending in his marriage proposal. She traveled by golf cart through four special stations, each having a group of her best friends who led her through a small challenge that awarded her a gift and a clue that took her to the next station. How adorable!?! This story was seriously too good to shorten… so here it is from the bride herself…

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“Two weeks prior, my friend Hannah told me that she had won an architecture award and was invited to an awards gala. She said she was allowed to bring just ONE guest and she wanted to bring me! I was excited since I am incredibly proud of Hannah for winning an award and because I’ve never been to a fancy gala before. She told me to meet her on campus to pick her up and we would drive there together. The day of the gala, I was running a little bit late and quickly dressed then rushed over to pick her up. I drove up to where she was waiting on the curb and stopped to let her get in, apologizing for being late. The first thing she said to me was “The gala’s been cancelled!” I was super sad, then confused…why would they cancel on such short notice?! I looked around and saw an EMS golf cart parked nearby, then saw Sean and Nick, Alex’s roommate, approach us. It hit me then that perhaps the gala wasn’t actually…real. But what was coming was so much better :)

Hannah handed me a beautifully wrapped gift and told me to open it. It was a 1000 piece puzzle of one of my favorite works of art, Hokusai’s “The Wave.” Alex and I had picked it out online months earlier since we love doing puzzles together, but I thought he had forgotten about it since he never told me he received it in the mail. Taped on the box was a clue referencing a book called “Bone.” This book has special significance because it was how Alex first got my phone number (that sneaky guy!). When I was a freshman and he was a sophomore at Rice, we accidentally went on a date at Chipotle (accidentally because we thought more people were coming but it turned out to be just us two, haha). He had walked me back to my dormitory, Lovett College, as we chatted about one of our favorite things, Calvin & Hobbes books. He mentioned that he wanted me to read an epic comic book called “Bone,” then casually said “Oh, if you want to borrow it, just give me a call!” knowing that I didn’t have his number (like I said, sneaky!). He grabbed my phone and punched his number into it, then called his own phone to make sure it worked…

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To get to Lovett College, Alex had provided me with a Rice EMS golf cart. When we were first getting to know each other, we used to drive around campus on a similar golf cart while Alex was on his overnight EMS shifts, chatting late into the night. One particularly memorable incident was when I fell off the cart when Alex turned around a corner too quickly, something I’ve never let him live down. In general, I’ve always wanted to drive a golf cart because they are an awesome and adorable mode of transportation. What better way to solve my engagement scavenger hunt with a golf cart?! I loved it! After Hannah taught me how to drive the cart, I drove over to Lovett College and parked. I got out and headed toward the quad, where I saw a trampoline with two familiar figures jumping up and down – our good friends Bev and Josh. I teared up as I realized that Alex had planned for friends to be waiting at each station. I had been nervous about what was to come because I had no idea what Alex had planned, but seeing the faces of my friends was so reassuring…

I climbed onto the trampoline (a difficult feat in a dress!) and was ready for my first challenge. Bev and Josh read me quotes from my favorite TV shows (Alex and I love watching TV together) and I had to guess the character and show. Josh even acted out some of the more awesome lines (“It’s a fire!!!…sale!” -Tobias Funke from Arrested Development) and they bounced me up and down on the trampoline as “punishment” for getting answers wrong. After I got enough points to win the challenge, they handed me my next gift and clue. The gift was a “shammy cloth,” a super absorbent towel that I’ve always wanted simply because of its funny name…shammy…and its usefulness (for some reason I have no cleaning rags at my apartment and clean everything with paper towels, including an unfortunate incident involving a flooded bathroom floor). The clue read “Dos Dientes,” a reference to the time Alex had his wisdom teeth out and was put under general anesthesia. I took care of him all that day, driving him to and from the oral surgeon, grocery shopping for him, and helping him mail a package at his college, Jones. At Jones, I couldn’t help but take a video of him in his dazed, still-groggy state, in which he told me he had “dos dientes” taken out (among other random Spanish phrases) and could “fix things with his mind”…

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We drove over to Jones College where I found two of my good friends, Tina and Susan, waiting in the Fairy Fountain courtyard. They also had FaceTimed in Miranda, my best friend who is overseas right now in Hong Kong, to witness the big day. I loved how Alex took the time to coordinate so Miranda could “be” with me even if we were thousands of miles apart! My challenge here was “Bite the Bag,” a game where you pick a paper bag up off the ground with your teeth while standing on one leg (it sounds strange but it is addictively fun!). I found out I was freakishly good at this game two summers ago and it’s something I still love to play and teach other people how to play. After beating their game, Susan and Tina handed me my next gift and clue. The gift was a mesh screen you could stick to your car windows to keep you cool while you drive – it might seem random to give as a gift, but people who know me know that I really dislike being hot while driving and being cool puts me in an infinitely better mood. So practical, I loved it! The next clue referenced a place where Alex and I “danced and spun in the moonlight.” I immediately knew it was the top of a Rice sculpture called 180. 180 is a slab of granite on its side in the middle of the engineering quad and it’s part of a set of three: 45, 90, and 180 (each named after their angle to the ground). Last year, when I was still a senior at Rice and Alex was in his first year of medical school, Alex would visit Rice to spend time with me and we would take long walks around the campus at night. On one particularly beautiful spring night, we climbed atop 180 and danced in the moonlight. It was a moment of whimsy and pure joy for the both of us…

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I hopped into the golf cart and drove down the road to the engineering quad. I got out and walked toward 180 where I saw two people waiting on top of it – my sister Joy and her fiance, Ben. I climbed onto 180 (Alex was really making me work hard!) where I saw an elegant picnic cloth and wine glasses waiting. They immediately blindfolded me, sat me down on a pillow, and explained my next challenge: a blindfolded cheese taste test! I was pretty hungry from running around (and because Hannah told me the gala would have snacks…) and cheese is one of my favorite foods of all time so I was ready. They handed me cheese after cheese as I guessed their names (my favorites were the Apple Smoked Cheddar and the Gouda) and took sips from a glass of delicious White Zinfandel. The last “cheese” took me by surprise – it wasn’t cheese at all! It was actually a Canadian dessert that I had been trying to find at a Houston bakery for the last few months – a nanaimo bar! I read lots of food/cooking blogs and one of my favorites is written by a Canadian blogger who makes these amazing Canadian desserts called nanaimo bars – a treat made of layers of creamy custard, milk chocolate, shredded coconut, and almonds (some of my favorite things in dessert, plus the name is awesome). I was thrilled to try my first ever nanaimo bar and touched that Alex truly did know the way to my heart…through my stomach! Joy and Ben handed me my next gift and clue. The gift was the board that the cheese was on – it was a gorgeous, round wooden cheese board that swiveled open to reveal a set of cheese knives. Awesome! The clue was a reference to “the place where Dillon got his mickey mouse poncho.” I knew it had to be Fondren Library. Over three years ago, when Alex and I were getting to know each other, we used to make silly bets. I won one of our bets and my prize was supposed to be a mickey mouse poncho that Alex somehow had. The day he was supposed to give me my poncho, we were chatting in front of Fondren Library with our friend Dillon when the rain suddenly started to pour. Dillon was biking home to his house off-campus and didn’t have an umbrella, so Alex gave him my poncho. Ever since then we’ve joked that Alex still owes me that poncho.

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The library was a quick walk from the engineering quad. As I entered the main quadrangle of Rice where the library was, I saw Nick and Akhil playing soccer in the grass. It was the perfect day – sunny with blue skies and a breeze and I was excited to play with them. I kicked off my heels and walked over to them where they explained my next challenge: binocular soccer! There’s a YouTube video showing a Japanese game show where the players are wearing skin-tight spandex suits, have binoculars taped to their eyes, and are playing soccer…my kind of humor. They handed me my pair of binoculars and Akhil defended me as I tried to kick the ball into the goal, a set of hedges. I can now really appreciate how confused and dizzy those Japanese game show participants felt! I must have looked ridiculous running around in a dress with binoculars, chasing after a soccer ball, but I was successful in the end! Nick and Akhil gave me my next present and clue. The present was a Hug-E-Gram, a set of “disembodied mickey mouse arms” that are supposed to give your loved ones a hug no matter where you are (there’s a really cheesy infomercial about them which I find hilarious). Alex really gets my weird sense of humor :) The clue told me to chase a “clay man” hiding behind me…I turned around, and I saw Gumby!! Gumby is one of my favorite people (clay person?) ever. I don’t know why I love him so much but he always makes me happy, so much to the point that I actually bought a full-body Gumby costume and ran around the library during finals time handing out cookies. Gumby (who turned out to be Eric, another one of our good friends) was waving at me from behind a column on the side of the quad, beckoning me to follow him.

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I jumped onto the golf cart and drove as fast as I could after Gumby, who was really putting on a show with a few tumbles and falls as he ran across campus toward the business school fountain. I parked the cart next to the fountain and stumbled across the grass in my heels (not sure why I didn’t take the sidewalk…) toward the Turrell SkySpace, a building in front of the music school. As I approached the building, I saw strangers looking down on me from above and a single figure (Alex!!!) standing inside the lower level. Hannah handed me a bag with all the gifts I had collected along the way and I walked down a narrow stone passageway to Alex. As I walked into the room, I looked up and saw beautiful decorations – soft lanterns and tulle drapings with letters spelling out “Our Story, His Glory” – on the walls. Alex stood waiting for me with a smile on his face. He took the bag from me and began to pull out the gifts, explaining each gift’s significance to our relationship and to our future together. The puzzle represented how he will be my best friend – the person I can do a puzzle with on a rainy day and lean on for support. The shammy cloth represented how he will be there to build a home with me and clean up the messes of life with me. The car window screen represented how he would always drive me around (I really dislike driving so Alex is my best chauffeur!) and take care of me when I’m tired. The Hug-E-Gram represented how he would hug me and tell me that he loved me every day. He then gave me my last present – a T-shirt with a corny joke on it (two blocks of cheese holding hands saying “I’ll grow mold with you!”) the knelt down and opened a ring box then asked if I would marry him (or was to “grow mold with him?”). Of course, I said YES!

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The whole experience had seemed so surreal up until that point, but now that I was with Alex, everything became so clear. The rest of the evening was a happy blur filled with friends, good food, and lots of laughs. I am so thankful and humbled to be marrying a man who loves God and who loves me unconditionally. God is so good to us!” – The Bride-to-Be

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Alex and I had been discussing marriage over the last year so I knew the proposal was going to happen sometime soon. I had no idea exactly when or what would happen, but I knew I was in good hands no matter what! One of my favorite things about the proposal was that several of our good friends were waiting for me at each station – these are people who served as my cheerleaders and guides not only during the proposal, but throughout my life. The scavenger hunt was so much fun because it was filled with the people I love and lots of laughter; only Alex could have planned such a perfect proposal for me. I know that our commitment in marriage to one another is “strong and true,” as he put it, and that this proposal is only the beginning of a very beautiful adventure together as husband and wife :)

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Sean (from Day 7 Photography) and I actually go way back. We met in middle school at church camp and have remained friends ever since. When Alex and I began talking about our wedding details, choosing Sean as our photographer was a no-brainer. It’s been a true honor and pleasure working with Sean and seeing how much he’s developed as a photographer over the years.

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I’ve been using WeddingBee.com and TheKnot.com the most. Having a giant, shared Google spreadsheet with my fiance has also helped with budgeting and setting up a clear timeline of events. -Ann

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