So I know there’s been many questions, inquiries, and people wanting to know details of the recent engagement to the love of my life, Jennifer Leverett. So I thought for the sake of many repeated stories (though I will be willing to always share with joy) I would write the story for you. So please know this isn’t the shortest story but I believe the God has been writing it from the beginning. This isn’t from the beginning of our relationship, just the engagement. This is from my point of view:
Back in the beginning of Jennifer and I talking countless nights and hours getting to know each other, we would literally talk about everything and learning the hearts of each other. One night I opened up about the topic of “bucket lists” and things we would like to do before we die. Jennifer that night opened up about how, no matter how random she thought I’d think it to be, that she would always love to play a really hard piano piece on a grand piano on a stage in a really nice shinny red dress. At that moment she told me of it, I thought to myself “If I ever came to the point where I wanted to marry this girl and that the Lord would lead to that, I think that would be an epic engagement idea.”
Fast forward a few months and after two and a half months of talking endlessly, doing Skypes, and only seeing each other for a few times doing long distance, Jennifer and I were able to spend the whole summer together for an incredible time of getting to know each other. What was giving signs of evidence that the Lord was at work was being more confirmed together. I began to truly fall in love with her and to me there was none more beautiful inside out than her. (details of our relationship will be spared for the story’s sake).
It eventually came down to where we believe the Lord was leading us to be together and the talks of marriage had come up and we had eventually went looking for rings. Jennifer eventually found the one that she really liked with another friend and there was no reason to mess with a good thing. Windsor’s Jewelry company where the ring came from so much like my engagement idea so much that they thought about making it a commercial of theirs, but wasn’t guaranteed.
In the middle of August I decided to start making some phone calls to schools, universities, and churches that could possibly have both a grand piano and a stage; this list isn’t easy to make. I had come down to a few options, but one that really seemed great was Maxwell Theatre at Augusta State University. I got in touch with Kelly Thomas, the theatre manager who at once really was welcoming and willing to look into helping it become real. On his own he thought it would be a great idea to do it after a night of a concert and I thought it would be good since it would be hard to convince Jennifer that something wasn’t up if we just randomly showed up at a church or a concert hall for a random reason. The following weekend I went to visit Jennifer before I started working back at the bank.
On a Friday that she was teaching I decided to check out all the places that I had contacted when Jennifer was teaching so she wouldn’t know that morning. I made my visit to ASU and met Kelly. They showed me the stage, dressing room area, and we started talking about all the possibilities. He even told me of a concert that would be going on September 16th (our anniversary date) by the St. Petersburg Quartet that night and we met even the director who was excited about the idea. I thought the place was perfect and to have real dressing rooms made it all more real and exciting. So after visiting Jennifer and a week later I then called Kelly and told him that I wanted to go with the idea.
A couple of days later I got in touch with one of Jennifer’s close friends named Jenn Eckert. I thought it would be even more surprising if Jennifer didn’t even know I was in town. So I told Eckert what I had planned and she was more than thrilled to be part of something potentially big event and even an engagement. She agreed to help and that I would buy the tickets to the concert and just had to convince Jennifer to go with her that night and soon before she scheduled anything. Jennifer said yes to the invite, not knowing that it was my idea and Eckert told her she had won the tickets. The plan was to take Jennifer to the concert and do it afterwards without her knowing I would be there.
So for the next three weeks the planning of smaller details begun without Jennifer knowing. I had bought the music of “Prelude in c sharp minor” by Rachmaninoff; a piece Jennifer knew and played and was very difficult. I bought three copies with a plan to tea stain it to make the music look old, and in case I failed would still have one extra. I bought the dress after help from some friends about styles and casual conversation with Jennifer about what type of dress she would like to wear and her size. Guys….it’s a risk to buy your girl a dress when she doesn’t know!!! Then the ring had arrived from Augusta, GA and was shipped to Lexington, KY on September 9th, a week before the planned engagement. Petals were bought, and more things all in preparation for the evening. Jennifer never knew all what was going on.
On September 5th I asked her father, David Leverett, permission to marry his daughter. He said “Yes” and prayed for both of us upon request and cried. He is truly a great man and loves his children much, but also loves the Lord saying “I’m sorry John, I just don’t see how you can pray to the Lord and not get emotional.” Amen!
When September 16th came, our anniversary, I had told Jennifer that I couldn’t come that weekend because I had to close at work and was just starting and didn’t know my schedule yet. That morning I called her on our anniversary to say hello and as we talked it had been 10 days since we last saw each other and was getting hard. She asked me when I would see her again and I said I didn’t know, but she didn’t know I was coming that day. That everything was planned for me to be there all weekend and even as she said the concert would be fun she would rather be together for our anniversary, she didn’t know it was going to be quite a memorable evening.
I worked till 11am at the bank and hit the road, every once in a while texting Jennifer about how busy work is and she assumed I was still in Lexington not know I was just an hour away. Eckert picked up Jennifer just a few minutes after 6:00 to take her out to dinner making it a “girls nice date night” so Jennifer would be already dressed up for the evening. I arrived at her parent’s house around 6:25 in time to say hello to her parents, show her mom the ring to honor her, and I had picked up 15 dried roses I gave Jennifer over time with plans on giving her the 16th new (her favorite number is 16) that night, have a quite soup her mom made and then left the house at 7:45 to go to the concert.
I arrived at the theatre around 8:10 and when I received a text from the manager that they had gotten their tickets and were in the auditorium I then got all the belongings, flowers, dress, (and ring) and met the manager at the side door and down the steps to the dressing room. During intermission and the second half of the concert, without Jennifer knowing I was there, I set up the dressing room with the dress hanging, photos, letters, and made a rose petal trail from the top of the steps to another staircase that would lead to the front of the stage. When the concert was done, the manager and his stage quickly took down all things from the concert and rolled their best Steinway piano out to the front of the stage, and when I knew for sure the girls were gone I went out and laid the 16th rose, the music, a letter, and the last of the petal trail to the piano. When all was set, I then texted her friend “Eckert” saying we were ready.
Eckert and Jennifer went to a pie shop just a couple of minutes away while she was awaiting my text. She she received it she then mentioned that she had “forgot” her pearl earring her grandmother had given her and Jennifer, on her own, mentioned about going to the theatre. The concert ended at 9:35 and they got back to the theatre around 10:15. As the girls walked to the theatre, Kelly the manager acted like he was talking on his phone and Eckert told him she lost an earring and Kelly told them to come inside and that they have a lost and found. As they came in Kelly opened the staircase door to see a trail of pedals going down and said “I think if you follow these petals you might find what you’re looking for.” I was hiding just a few feet away in the dark in an office. Jennifer thought it strange but Eckert made nothing out of it as they went down only to eventually lead to the dressing room as it was lit up and set up.
I wish at that moment I had a voice recorder but all I know is Jennifer told me she almost felt like fainting once she saw it all and the dress. The dress had fit!! Jennifer read letter #1 which had a list of things I loved about her and then was instructed to put the dress on. When done Eckert left and came up the same way to meet me and get my camera to take photos and hide in the dark. I then waited behind the stage curtains where Jennifer couldn’t see me but I could her. Then in just a couple of minutes she walked up the small stair entrance to see a beautifully lit stage with a black grand, red rose, music, and a letter in her beautiful dress. I almost dropped my mouth to how beautiful she looked, it was all magical.
She walked to the piano to read the letter I put on there and then she played her piece incredibly well. Just six days before Jennifer cut her left index finger badly trimming her bushes in the front yard and became a scare for us when we weren’t sure if she could play, but her finger seemed to heal quickly as many people were praying for her finger for that night. She played so well, and I’m sure with nerves. She said at that moment she just wanted to see me, but maybe realized it wasn’t going to happen until she played. She played her piece well as I had the joy of watching her from behind and taking in the moment, then the final note was done.
When there was a pause I then took my shoes off and started to read my last letter as she turned around to see me. I wasn’t worthy of this moment or for the gift that God gave me, and I felt in that moment that it was holy; so I took of my shoes. I read the last letter about my love for her and our relationship, a prayer that I read out loud to God about us and our future and then read a quote of Bonhoeffer about his desires to always love and live with the woman who says “Yes” to him. And then from that quote I then got on one knee and asked Jennifer for the honor of wearing my ring and that she would marry me….and she said “YES!”
I think she wanted more than anything just to hug me and kiss me before the ring came on since we hadn’t seen each other in a long time, but eventually it went on and fit perfectly. It was beautiful. She was in shock and awe of the night and at that moment one or two things on that bucket list were coming true. It was the most beautiful moment of our lives that she would be my love who would say “YES”. After we hugged and celebrated I had invited her closest friends and family over to her parents house. She called her parents to tell them she was “engaged” on the phone not knowing we were heading over to see them and many more.
When we finally left the theatre, she stayed in her dress, we then arrived at her parents late at night only in her surprise and joy to see that her parents, brother Jonathan, and many of her closest friends were there to celebrate. It was a night of our lives as we all celebrated and made a toast of champagne in which her dad gave a blessing.
I am so humbled and thankful for what the Lord has done. I am very thankful to those who helped me with this, Jennifer Eckert, Kelly Thomas, Maxwell Theatre staff and the Leverett family. I am going to marry the most wonderful woman in the world.
I share this to you not in a way of pride, though I am proud of Jennifer, and to explain some story. I share it for those who want details, but I did it big that night because I loved her and wanted to make it special in the most incredible way I could for her. But in the end, she said “Yes” and that big decision for both of us I pray the Lord will bring many years of lives together in joy. The wedding is March 31st, going to be the next greatest day of my life.
I love you Jennifer Leverett, and I’m so thankful for you. Thank you to everyone who has invested in my life to be the man I pray I can be for the Lord, and thank you to those who have loved Jennifer and made her the woman she is.
And lastly, I want to thank Karen Jan Leverett, for showing us all that every second of life should never be taken for granted. This one’s for you.
