The Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN
Good things come to those who wait.
Joe Temeyer waited on Tuesday.
It didn't seem like that would be the case earlier in the day when he slipped the engagement ring in his pocket and told folks at his restaurant, the Family Table in Ida Grove, Iowa, that he was leaving work for the day and going to ask Anne to marry him.
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Anne is Anne Melody, 24, a nurse at Saint Marys Hospital in Rochester. Temeyer, 25, owns the restaurant in Ida Grove, which is about a four-hour drive from Rochester.
Temeyer arrived in Rochester about 2:30 p.m. Melody was in the Twin Cities helping a friend shop for a wedding dress, so it would allow Temeyer just enough time to hatch his plan and wait.
Temeyer wanted to do something romantic, he said, and he thought a series of signs leading up to Melody's home on West Center Street near Saint Marys seemed the perfect plan.
A big sign that said "Anne" taped to a stop sign would catch her attention.
"I mean, you gotta look at the stop sign, right?" Temeyer said.
Successive signs follow: "I love you." "I love you forever and ever..." "and ever," "and ever," going on for 10 to 15 trees on the block by Temeyer's estimate. The final touch were two signs, "Will you" and "Marry me?"
Then it was time to wait. And wait. And wait. And wait.
Melody and her friend looked at dresses. She called to let Temeyer know they were going to look at flowers. Another call alerted him they were looking at reception halls. And then they decided to get some dinner. And, what the heck, on to a movie.
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"I was running around out there with duct table and trying to keep all those signs up, which was getting to be pretty hard, first with the wind and then the rain," Temeyer said.
And when Melody arrived at 11 p.m., she missed the signs. When Temeyer sent her around the block for another approach, she missed them again.
He went to Plan B.
"I opened the car door, got down on my knee and said 'Will you marry me?'" Temeyer said.
"I don't know if I even said 'yes' or I was in shock, but at some point I did say 'yes,'" Melody said. She said "yes," Temeyer nods.
"And then I got in the car and I told her, 'Let's drive around the block. I've got to show you what you missed,'" Temeyer said.
The couple, who both are Iowa natives and met on a winter trip to Spearfish, S.D., more than a year ago, will likely get married in June of next year.
The couple laughed as Temeyer described a worse outcome.
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"I figured if she said 'no,'" he said, "I'd make her take all the signs down."
