Pretty crafty: With flowers, candy and sentimental declarations standard issue for Sweetest Day commemorations, Scott McKanna of Minooka decided he needed to dream up something different.
McKanna’s Sweetest Day plans went way beyond giving a present. Eager to propose marriage to girlfriend Karla MacNichol of Minooka, he wanted “something different from your standard down-on-the-knee. That’s just too common,” he said.
His inspiration came from a newspaper article about a Frankfort craft store, the Country Gazebo. “My girlfriend’s a big fanatic for stuff like that,” he said.
So McKanna and store manager Karen Cooke arranged an outing among the store’s shelves of ribbons, flowers, laces and other craft supplies, where MacNichol would find a custom-made plaque decorated with a single rose asking her to “Be mine forever.”
Secrets have a habit of getting shared, but not this one. “I was very quiet about it,” McKanna said. “I didn’t tell anybody.”
Of course, nothing works perfectly. As MacNichol browsed through the store, “sure enough, she passed up the sign,” he said. So the resourceful McKanna shifted to Plan B. “I said, `This is really nice. Read this, Karla,’ and handed her the plaque.” That’s when he produced the second installment of her Sweetest Day gift, an engagement ring, and got his longed-for “yes” after a swat on the arm and some tears.
The romantic interlude may have been almost as memorable for the people in the store as for the newly engaged couple, who plan to marry next November.
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“You don’t hear of (an unusual proposal) that often,” Cooke said. “It’s so romantic, so different.”