How We Met: We met at Iowa State University where Emily was attending school and I was visiting a friend. It was at a party in August of 2013.
how they asked: I have been thinking about how I was ever going to propose to Emily as I knew she was the one for me and I wanted to take our relationship to the next step. I knew she felt the same way as we have talked about it before. I was constantly thinking of a romantic ways to surprise her. I put a lot of pressure on myself to make it memorable because Emily would constantly show me really neat proposal videos on YouTube. I could tell she wanted something similar and I wanted to make sure she had her dream proposal. I am not much of a romantic, just ask Emily, but I knew I could make up for lost time by making our proposal one to remember forever.
I had a check list going in my head of the things I knew she really liked. For example, she really wanted her family to be part of the proposal, the proposal to be video tapped, and have it evident that I put a lot of time and thought into it. So every time Emily and I weren’t together from March to May I would be on the phone with my family coordinating different aspects of the proposal and how I want it to be done, and selecting the perfect ring.
I lined up my friend Michael Crocker to fly in from California to film it all and I lined up another friend, Tyler Rinken, who was a photographer to take photos of the moment as well. I had my family buy rose petals and roses to put on the floor, I sent them a bunch of photos of me and Emily to print out to place around the room, I had them set up a speaker to be playing our song which is “All of Me” by John Legend.
“Will you marry me?” was spelled out and rose petals and candles on the floor of the room where she would walk into. I planned to surprise her at one of our favorite restaurants Rubiayat which is in downtown Decorah. They have a small banquet room in the back of the restaurant and they are not open until 4:30 PM. Therefore, my parents and sisters would set up before hand and once the room was complete and everybody was in place the owner called me to let me know that he has a graduation gift and that he would like me to pick it up before they open up at 4:30. It was convenient that Emily and I were already dressed up from my speaking engagement that morning and I had her touch-up her makeup before we left because I told her we had a video interview with the news station afterwards. I knew touching up would be important to her as she always wants to look perfect and I was worried that she might change out of her dress after our speaking engagement so saying that we had a news interview later was a important piece for the proposal.
That day I could not eat a thing. I didn’t eat breakfast or lunch because I was so nervous. And she kept asking me why aren’t you eating? Chris you need to eat you have a big day tomorrow. Little did she know I was extremely nervous for the proposal that would be taking place at 2 o’clock but I wasn’t nervous that she would say no but I wanted it to be perfect.
For more on Chris and Emily’s story click here.
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Photos by Tyler Rinkin // Video by Michael Crocker