How We Met
Sometimes listening to God’s plan for your life means signing up for a dating app. Thank you, Lord, for smartphones and coffee.
If you know our story, you know we’ve wanted to get married from the beginning. After a lot of discussion and prayer, we decided the earliest we could possibly get married would be the summer of 2019. We also knew we wanted to have about a year to plan our wedding and enjoy being engaged.
How They Asked
Dylan’s mission in planning this proposal was to keep it a total surprise. I am very nosy by nature, and I like to be involved with all planning and decisions, so he had his work cut out for him. Dylan was gracious enough to keep me a little involved; he told me to keep my nails painted between February and November. Cue the eye roll.
When school got out in June, I headed to California to visit my sweet Señoritas from the Fiesta House. Part of me wondered if Dylan would show up at the beach or Palm Springs, but I reminded myself that just a week prior, Dylan had expressed how nervous he was to talk to my dad (and he always said he would ask my dad before he bought a ring), so there was no way he was asking anytime soon. Kaycee took me to get my nails done, something we often did while living together, and I jokingly told Dylan he could propose anytime. Please note, we planned to get our nails done at the beginning of the trip in Palm Springs, but Kaycee said we should wait until Monday, the day I was heading home, so we could go to her usual place.
I went home and began to enjoy my summer off of work. I headed to camp on Thursday to spend time with Rachel, and we talked about rings. I told Rach that I wondered if we would get engaged that weekend, since we were headed to Skamania Lodge (one of my favorite places in the world) on our way out of town, but Rachel said Dylan hadn’t talked to her about anything yet, so I took a deep breath, told myself to be patient, and let the dream of Skamania die. That night Dylan helped me pack for our camping trip with Jared and Abby, which took an incredibly long time because, being a planner, I wanted every detail of what we would be doing. We finally got my stuff packed up, and Dylan picked an outfit for me to wear for our lunch date at Skamania. He told me to be ready on time the next morning because obviously, he knows me well, then he drove home to Beaverton.
On June 29, I woke up before my alarm and felt so calm and so in love. I spent time thanking God for bringing Dylan into my life, listened to our Spotify playlist, and I took time getting ready, wondering if there was any chance we could be getting engaged, but reminding myself that wasn’t possible. Dylan showed up at my apartment with a lavender latte from Thatcher’s, he told me how beautiful I looked, and we headed out the door. The drive was totally normal. We talked and sang and held hands. When we arrived at Skamania, I was on full alert, looking at all the spots I knew could be great for a proposal, but I didn’t see anything. We ate lunch, and Dylan said he was feeling a little nauseous, so we walked around the grounds for a little while. Still no proposal. I had it in my mind at this time that he had planned this day to celebrate our anniversary since I would be out of town on the actual day. I reminded myself to enjoy the time with my sweet boyfriend. We said goodbye to Skamania and headed toward a winery that a friend “from work” had recommended to Dylan (turns out it was actually my friend Hayden who recommended this place, but Dylan couldn’t tell me that or it would’ve blown the whole surprise.). While driving, Dylan kept saying he felt sick and that he might have to pull over to throw up. This quickly changed to telling me we should stop and take a picture in the Gorge – I didn’t catch on to the stalling at all.
We arrived at Syncline Winery and were greeted by an employee who informed me that 1. We had apparently booked the “picnic area”, 2. I would need to change into tennis shoes for a hike, and 3. We needed to sign a waiver in case we were bitten by a rattlesnake. This is when I knew that Dylan had planned a wonderful anniversary wine-tasting picnic extravaganza. He ran back to the car to grab my shoes, and we made our way up a small trail that left me very breathless. The view from the top was stunning. Mt. Hood was out in all her glory. As we turned at the top of the trail, I saw flowers, pictures of me and Dyl, a painting we had made together one date night, and wine laid out on a blanket.
My. Heart. Stopped.
My first thought was, “AHHHHHH”, which was followed by, “Pull it together, Irons. If you’re sobbing and he isn’t proposing, he’s going to feel so bad.” But as we walked closer, I let all the tears fall. I told myself that this had to be it because if it wasn’t that would be a very cruel joke. Dylan took my hands, told me to put all my stuff down, and said all the sweetest things I don’t remember. I was an absolute mess. The overwhelming feeling of love left me with the ugliest of tears. My best friend was down on one knee, asking me to be his wife, and that was the greatest honor of my life.
After the initial shock wore off, my best friends popped out from behind a tree, and the tears started all over again. We took pictures and laughed and cried and drank wonderful champagne. Then we had a couple hours to ourselves to dream up our lives together while sitting in a hammock on top of a mountain, staring at Mt. Hood. When we got back home, Dylan and my family had planned a surprise engagement party at my parents’ house.
Remembering this day and writing down the details brings me all the sweetest feelings. I am so so blessed, and I cannot wait to marry this man.
Side note from Dylan: I had originally planned to propose to Brianne at Skamania Lodge. The plan was put in place two months in advance. Then, the day before the proposal, Skamania cancelled. Everything had to be changed very quickly, without Brianne picking up on any stress. Syncline was so helpful with my sudden change in plans, and our friends Rachel, Devin, and Trent made sure everything was set up perfectly since I didn’t have time to head to the Gorge on such short notice. The irony of the whole situation is that Skamania has given me the wrong information; nothing was happening at the Lodge that day, and I totally could have proposed. I actually took a picture of Bri standing in the spot I had planned to propose and sent it to our friends. It all worked out perfectly in the end though, and we are so thrilled to start our lives together.
