Grab some tissues.....and watch this engagement....This reminds us of why we have to wait on the Lord...View the attached
http://photosbyknight.com/gray/
Back Story:
As proposals go, the engagement of Robert Gray Jr. and Keisha Williams was a breathtaking affair: An eight-hour surprise journey for the bride-to-be through 10 rooms and suites at the Buckhead Ritz-Carlton, each room filled with dozens of roses, dozens of candles, gospel music and scores of family and friends praying for the couple and wishing them well.
At journey's end there was a "yes," a kiss and a splendid diamond ring. A photographer took copious pictures the whole way through.
The engagement of Keisha Williams and Robert Gray was so spectacular that the photos have become a Web phenomenon.
That was in April. Then, a few weeks ago, Atlanta photographer Ross Oscar Knight posted the photos in a slide show on his Web site and blog. Now, more than 100 million hits later, the couple's private, bended-knee, will-you-marry-me has become a Web phenomenon.
Not love at first sight
Such a fate seemed unlikely when the couple met in December 2003. They had arrived at the same time for a surprise birthday party for Gray's friend Gavon Harris. As Williams struggled to wrest balloons and party favors from her car, Gray acknowledged her with a nod of his head and kept right on walking. By the end of the night she thought he was a loser. He thought she was stuck up � but pretty.
On Valentines Day 2004, Williams got a bunch of roses with an anonymous note: "Wishing the best for you always." A month later, at a dinner hosted by mutual friends, Gray asked Williams if she'd liked her flowers. How did he know she got roses? "Because I sent them," he replied.
They talked every day afterward, and by last September they were talking marriage but agreed they'd wait until the time felt right. What Williams didn't realize was that the time felt right to Gray.
During the next several months, in a small journal, Gray secretly began designing his proposal. He drew on his Christian faith to come up with his vision: a version of Solomon's golden temple as described in the Old Testament, filled with candles, roses, and the prayers of their parents and 50 family members and friends. Then he used his experience as an accountant to figure out how to pay for it all.
How much did he spend? Gray won't say.
"I'm tight with my money," he said. "But Keisha deserved nothing less."
Still, during his secret preparations, "There would be times she'd want to know why we couldn't go out to dinner or go do something and I wanted to turn around and say, 'Because I'm broke!'"
Roses and gold
He shared his plan with his parents, who've been married for 36 years. Robert Gray Sr. said his son presented him with a color-coded, minute-by-minute outline of how the evening would run.
"I said, 'Robert, now this is a production, but since God gave you the vision you are obligated to follow through with it," the elder Gray said.
That took some doing. Gray, for instance, brought his father along as he looked for hotels. He didn't want anyone to mistake him for a drug dealer or rapper, or question his ability to pay.
To throw Williams off, Gray chose for the proposal date April 28, her brother's birthday, when her family would be celebrating anyway. Then he enlisted his friends, instructing his male friends not to say anything to their wives or girlfriends.
"None of his boys teased him about it; instead it was, 'Oh, my God, I can't wait!'" said buddy Will Johnson, who was charged with keeping alive 400 roses Gray had flown in from South Africa for the proposal night. "It was inspiring."
The big moment
When April 28 came, Williams' brother Terrence drove her to the Buckhead Ritz under the pretense that they were on their way to a formal birthday dinner.
As Williams stepped into the lobby, the hem of her white gown tickling the floor, she saw Gray coming toward her in a tuxedo. Her journey through 10 rooms and an evening filled with flowers, candlelight and prayer began.
By the time she reached the proposal room heavy with the scent of red and white roses and glowing with candlelight, "the breath literally left my body," she recalled. She understood why Gray had been so often absent in the weeks leading up to the night.
All was captured by photographer Knight. It took the three of them two months of sorting through 1,000 photos to come up with a slide show. The couple e-mailed it only to those who attended the engagement and to the friends and family who had missed it, about 65 people, and then let Knight post it on his site.
The e-mails and phone calls started almost immediately. Knight heard from his Web host that his site was crashing its server. Strangers approached Gray and Williams at Starbucks and Zaxby's.
"It got to the point that we didn't want to leave our houses because people would stop us and point and say, 'Rob and Keisha!' Or they'd be hitting their cellphones saying, 'They're here, come quick,'" said Williams
The sudden attention was frightening.
As for a wedding date? Gray and Williams say they haven't gotten to that yet. They're still trying to absorb all that has happened, to figure out why their proposal has caused so many to swoon.
When asked how he knew that Keisha would one day be his bride, Rob replied
�It was more of how she carried herself as a woman and I could see her passion for Christ.�
Keisha agreed that those same qualities were what attracted her to him. �Much like God, Rob loves me in spite of who I am and what I do. I�m not the easiest person to get along with. I�m not that friendly and I�m very spoiled,� she admitted �Robert says I�m mean sometimes but he loves me anyway. I trust him unconditionally.�
