Chase Vincent


Sometimes a guy gets lucky in life and stumbles across a girl truly worth the wait. Then he finds out that after all that time, he waited for a Sooner.

I met my fiancé for the first time several years before our romantic introduction. We had hung out a few times through a mutual friend. She was a Panther at Putnam City North and me a Pirate at Putnam City Original. From the very beginning we were on opposite sides of school affiliation. I thought she was pretty and fun but I had prospects working at my school and besides, she was in a relationship. A couple of years later, during our freshman year in college, there was an ever-classy-but-soon-unforgettable hotel room birthday where this beautiful girl, that I recognized, noticed that I had brought Mike’s Hard Lemonade and immediately asked what kind of man drank that instead of real beer. The words of a keeper have never been clearer.

I merely had to overlook the fact that she was going to OU and I attending OSU. Putting up with a diehard Sooner is hell enough, but choosing to date one when you go to the rival school is on another level. Our relationship was five long years of every other weekend. It was miserable. But we loved each other. One year as a surprise gift she gave me a handmade collage with pictures of us and cute phrases. A few months later I told her that I was making her a collage as a belated gift (since in true manly fashion I had waited until the last minute) but the project never got off the ground. Technically it never left the Hobby Lobby sack in my closet. Every holiday, be it a birthday or Christmas or Valentine’s Day, I was grilled about “what happened to it” this and “if you really loved me” that. Five years later the collage was still plastic-wrapped canvas and unopened paint. I realized then the time was right in our lives for me to go to her father. I shopped for weeks for the perfect ring, even going so far as to have it shipped out of state to help save money and get the most beautiful diamond I could buy. On a long night of avoiding class work in Stillwater I found the unfinished collage and immediately knew the way to ask my girlfriend if she would give me forever.

After she graduated from OU (great, a lifer now) she moved near the Paseo Arts district and it became a favorite spot of ours. I walked all the galleries and found the perfect atmosphere to pop the question, the a.K.a Gallery. After asking the owner for a huge favor, she let me to hang my piece in the gallery during the October gallery walk. I made dinner reservations at the always-swanky RED Prime Steakhouse, and rented the exact same room at the hotel where we met almost six years before. Again, as in times past, I procrastinated until the night before to start the collage. We heard the Ben Folds song “The Luckiest” a few months into our relationship and it became our song. It always makes us smile and I wanted the collage to have the same expression, so it became the inspiration. I was up until six in the morning, making 3 a.m. runs to Wal-Mart for spare supplies, and trying to paint outside in the early hours when raccoons attack in Stillwater.

That afternoon I loaded up to drive to the city, making sure I had the ring and collage, but less about getting my dress shirt hiding in its massive plastic bag in the living room. It was two hours before our evening was set to start and I was battling crowds at Penn Square mall frantically purchasing another shirt, buying rose petals and candles and trying to finally be on time for once. The cover that evening was that we were going “out for a nice dinner”. She looked absolutely stunning, and I pulled out all the stops with a fresh haircut and a skinny black neck tie. I mentioned going to look at the galleries since we had some spare time before our dinner plans and she was excited to go.

My heart was racing and I could barely stand the excitement. Making our way down Paseo, we walked into another gallery and two of her friends were front and center. “Hey Hallie, How are you! I just saw your face down a few…,” was as much as one of them spat out before my now exploding heart caused me to spontaneously erupt in a fit of “I’m going to chop your head off” arm motions to signal her to stop talking immediately! Her friend looked confused so I pulled out the ring behind my girlfriend’s back and she quickly began the smoothest recovery I have ever laid ears to. My girlfriend suspected nothing. I have never been so correspondingly terrified and happy in such a small window of time. Minutes later my palms were sweaty as we walked into a.K.a. I searched the room for my strategically-placed photographer friend to make sure he was in place to paparazzi the moment. From across the gallery she saw her face on the wall and walked over to the collage. I dropped to one knee as she studied it with bewilderment. Everyone in the gallery had congregated behind us and she turned around to find me on the ground and everyone else staring at us. My voice cracked as I pulled out my grandmother’s ring box and asked the most important question I have ever asked in my life. Will you marry me?