Asking The Father If It's Okay To Marry Erica

• It's Friday 21st July.

9am, I've asked my boss if it's okay to leave an hour early and work through my lunch.

Got the okay.

4.30pm, catch the train to her parents home.

5.15pm, texted Erica to say I'm seeing friends.

5.20pm

I arrive at her parents home, had a nice chat, was nervous, the parents had a chat with each other, I waited.

The father said he wanted to discuss this with Erica, to make sure she was happy.

Ah.

• Saturday 22nd

Whilst Erica was in the shower, I swapped the Monopoly boxes, replacing her game with my creation.

So there you have it.  The game is ready to be played, but I haven't received the okay.

• Sunday 23rd

Erica texts me at 10.30pm to say that her parents give their blessing for me to marry her.

---

Darn.

And there goes the surprise.

She knows it's coming.

The only thing I have is that she doesn't know what it is.

Unless, she opens up the box to have a look.  Although I doubt that she would.

Putting Everything Together ~ The Disaster

I must say, I went through a bit of stress trying to place the sticker for the board on top of the Monopoly board.  I messed up, creating air bubbles.  So went back to the print shop to order again.

They asked me how I was trying to apply the sticker to the board.

I started from the corner and tried to roll the sticker on.

Big mistake!

The print shop guys recommended to roll on from the edge of the board instead of from the corner.

I did hesitate thinking if I could do that right since the glue of the sticker was so strong, I didn't want to place it incorrectly and have another disaster on my hands.

They guys at Hobs (https://hobsrepro.com/) were amazing.  They offered to do this for me although they didn't have to affix the sticker to the board, they kindly offered and done an amazing job.  Their customer service was excellent.  I will definitely return for all the wedding booklets etc...  And would recommend this place to get your stuff produce if you were to copy myself.

So I went in on Monday 17th July to get it fixed.  Told them they could take their time.

On my lunch I went off to the shop and bought some drinks for them since they were going the extra mile for me.

When I went in to deliver the drinks, to my surprise they had done the job.  I was expecting maybe it'll be completed by the Thursday/Friday in time for when I wanted to propose.

I was amaze at the standard of the work and job done.  It looks like a real Monopoly board.

I tried to pay and was told it was okay and didn't have to pay.  Again another surprise!

These guys are great!

Photos

Here are some photos.  

This photo shows what I've done, renamed Monopoly to Erica'opoly.

You maybe able to see I've removed the go to jail and replaced it with a priest with the words 'Go on honeymoon'.

All the streets are the dates we went on.

Parks are mentioned, so instead of houses, I've called them stalls.

As the board folds and compacts to one quarter of the size, the board looks a bit wonky, but I placed the board on my bed, I should have used a table!

As you can see, rolls a seven or eleven, the seven lands on Chance, Erica picks up a card, tells her to go to 'Wedding Ring' instead of Luxury Tax (that has a ring on it anyway).

And here's the card she'll pick up.

I'm not sure about this, if I should have her pick it up, or if I should show her, or if I should just say it???

This was a sticker to place on top, I wasn't sure if I should have redone the board with it as a pink square, or keep it natural.

On reflection, I wish I just renamed the Luxury Tax to Wedding Ring and not have a pink square.

A sample of some of the cards I've made up.

Go On Honeymoon!

On Honeymoon & Just Visiting.

As you can imagine, I've made some cards to reflect this spot like the original game.

Our first dates.

A fun card.  I love Rick & Morty.  I want to get Erica into this show!

Another fun card.

Finished! - Board Done, Cards Done, Job D.

After a long long trial & error, I've managed to complete the board, the title deeds and game cards Chance & Community Chest.

The trial & error part was the back & forth visiting the print shop.  Plus the fixing of the cards.

I'm very impressed with the end product.  And hope this works!

If anyone wants to copy my templates, I'll upload them later.

I'm going to take some photos of Erica'Opoly (Monopoly) to show you what I've done.

For now I thought I'd let everyone know this board game has been completed.

I'm planning to propose this Friday/Saturday 21/22 July 2017, by swapping her board with mine.  Then asking her if she fancies a game.  And I can imagine she'll be too tired to play on Friday, but not too tired for Saturday.

Who knows...

Wedding Proposal on a Budget

When you don't have a friend who can carve a masterpiece out of wood, don't have a thousand pounds to spend on Photoshop and don't want to try and obtain a knock off copy.  The next best thing is to make your own using a cheap Monopoly board found on eBay or something similar, and a print shop.

What you need:

1. Cheap Monopoly board (from eBAY for example)
2. Paint.NET (http://www.getpaint.net/index.html) FREE
3. OpenOffice  (https://www.openoffice.org/) FREE
4. A local print shop

I personally own MS Word and have suggest Open Office as the next best thing.

I read various blogs on how to get started then Google'd the details on the etc...

1. Dimensions: 15.7 inches long, 10.5 wide and 2.0 inches high
• https://www.reference.com/hobbies-games/dimensions-monopoly-board-bc6de46dbf794148
1. The JPG Demensions:
• http://cdn.collider.com/wp-content/uploads/monopoly.jpg
2. Font: Sans Serif, Light, Bold & Bold Inline
• http://www.creativebloq.com/graphic-design/font-day-monopoly-11618618
1. For a free version, go here:
• http://www.dafont.com/sans-serif-plus-7.font
3. How Many Cards of Chance & Community Chest: 16 each
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chance_and_Community_Chest_cards
4. The Board Design: UK Version
1. http://c8.alamy.com/comp/E6K3R2/monopoly-the-original-uk-version-of-the-popular-property-trading-board-E6K3R2.jpg
• This was to see the positioning of the property titles
5. Refill site: From Hasbro: US Site
• http://www.hasbro.com/en-us/product/monopoly-classic-game-token-refill:BAA7C82C-5056-9047-F535-28B080649DB9
6. Trick Dice: Rolls a 7 or 11
• https://www.magicshop.co.uk/loaded-dice-acrylic-red-tricks?utm_source=google_shopping&kw=pla-100154271681&fl=1000&ci=55197027081&network=pla&gclid=CKWy-Mz4qNECFQg6GwodCucPmA

The original font costs money so have added the next best version of the Sans Serif.

I will be using an extra Chance card together with the trick dice so that my girlfriend will land hopefully on Chance on the first go by rolling a 7, or a few rolls (11+11).  There's a few possibilities where she'll land on Chance.

Right now I have just created the board that took me approximately three hours.  Once it's been produced I'll upload photos.

Essentially, I'm going to use a local Print shop, the kind that does those signs for shops, business cards, and the like, to create a sticker of the board using the dimensions above, handily I found a picture with the correct measurements.

Then I'll buy the cheap board, carefully remove the top and stick on the replacement cover.

I'm going to work on the cards this evening.

As I'm writing this blog on the day I've started, I have a little over 5 weeks to get this done before St. Valentine's day.  Also, I need to ask her father for permission too.

Hopefully this won't get too stressful!

My Wedding Proposal

Proposing to your partner can be daunting, run of the mill, same as everyone else.  Thinking of a new idea, or something that you think she won't know is very tricky.

I stumbled upon an article a year or so ago regard where a man came up with the idea to craft a Monopoly board with the help of his friend:

I thought this idea was genius and so original.

With limited time and budget, I thought I'd use this idea.  As I get the feeling my girlfriend wants me to propose this month, or very very soon after.

With this in mind, I set about sourcing ideas, materials, templates, to create my very own Monopoly board using all the places that mean a lot to us.