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His Girlfriend Loves Fairy Tales. To Propose, He Built Her A Fairy Tale Storybook With Secret Puzzles About Their Life

December 21, 2016

Growing up, Shirin loved to make fairy tale story books for her family so, for the proposal, I decided to create a fairytale story based on our relationship. Each page was locked until she solved a puzzle about our relationship.

One thing I've always found remarkable is how Shirin and I fit seem to fit perfectly together. As I pondered the theme “The Perfect Fit”, I realized that The Perfect Fit could also refer to many more things, like the fit of a ring on a finger or the pieces of a puzzle fitting together. Armed with a theme, the story came together quickly.

The characters were also easy because we have code names for each other - Superman Santa and Ms. Gingerbread.

Chapter 1, below, is how we met. To solve the puzzle, you need to know that we met at SantaCon, how we were dressed and where we had our first kiss. I was Super Santa, she was Ms. Gingerbread and we kissed under a mistletoe. Once those three elements in the circle are lined up, the Christmas tree can slide up. That unlocks the next chapter.

The second chapter is the story of our adventures on the road with our RV, nicknamed The Slim Roller. As she moves the RV, little wooden icons popped up on the road. These were either fun things we did together like Burning Man, Zion National Park, Coachella and a gnarly grizzly encounter in Alaska. I also included some of the obstacles that could've derailed us, like how I got really sick on our first date but she went out with me again or sleeping in a Walmart parking lot stranded in Elko, Nevada.

The third chapter is all about Pickles, our labradoodle puppy. He has added so much joy to our life and taught us so many life lessons, like "Go crazy with excitement whenever a member of the pack comes home". Slide the left and right sides open and you'll see Pickles is now in the middle, walking into the distance with us. It also unlocks the final chapter...

In the last chapter, Super Santa finally figures out that Ms. Gingerbread is his "Perfect Fit". The've been on a quest to find the perfect fit, but she's been there with him the whole time.

When she got to this part of the story, I was down on one knee and asked her to marry me. Amazingly, she was so caught up in the story that she didn't even realize that I was proposing until she actually saw the ring.

All the pieces - 400 in total.

Exterior Design:

Here's the actual photo that I started with to create one of the etchings you saw above.

The back cover is the road we were traveling on the day that I proposed. I found an image online.

Of course, I ended the book with our tagline - "live a life of adventure and change."

Here's a video of the entire book: