The movie choice of “Bridesmaids” should have been a tip-off.

When Matt Ruis of Pillager took his girlfriend, Cayanne Robben of Staples, to a birthday movie Thursday it foreshadowed a question he was ready to ask her later that night.

Although he had considered asking Robben to marry him on the anniversary of their first date, Ruis admitted to being a little impatient and opted to pop the question on her 19th birthday.

“I wanted to come up with something special and unique,” the Deerwood Bank credit analyst said.

When the movie was over he headed west on Excelsior Drive, north on the service road that parallels Highway 371 and left on Woida Road. Fortunately for Ruis, as he approached the junction of Woida Road the Highway 371 the traffic lights turned red. It placed the couple, who had been dating for 11 months and two weeks, in the perfect spot to see the message in lights on the Deerwood Bank’s sign: “Cayanne Robben. Will you marry me?”

“She was really shocked,” the 24-year-old Ruis said. “She didn’t really think I was serious.” 

When he took the ring box out of his glove compartment she slowly began to realize he meant business and asked if she could touch the ring. He insisted on an answer from her first.

She said yes. The light turned green and they wisely headed the car into the bank parking lot.

Robben works at Christmas Point, just down the road from the Deerwood Bank. Ruis had tipped off family members of what he was up to but everyone kept quiet about the proposal.