When Brandon Parker was preparing to propose to his girlfriend Melissa Absher, he had a to-do list of sorts.
The Spokane, Washington, man penned a song, planned a party with Absher’s family in Montana, and he ordered 100 pounds of gravel from a sapphire mine.
After pulling Absher aside at a family barbecue and proposing with a stand-in costume jewelry ring, Parker made one more promise to Absher with a 100-pound bag of Montana gravel: “Let’s go find your sapphire.”…