How We Met
We met in college 6 years ago and had several encounters on campus. We would either be near each other in the cafeteria, or walking past each other on the side walk taking glances and fully aware of each other. Crystal always was busy and I could rarely get a time to actually talk to her.
It wasn’t until I had to go the library for some research that I learned she worked at the library. The first time I saw her there I hesitated to go up and ask for help. But I knew this was a prime opportunity to talk to her. The library is where I realized how easy she was to talk to and how much we had in common…and I might of held up the line at times from talking with her every time I visited. She later told me that her boss told her “you better keep him!” It wasn’t until one of her friends invited me to hike with a group of friends that we had opportunity to hang out without time constraints or people waiting in line behind me. After that first outing we found all kind of excuses to invite each other to things. We both liked each other a lot, but at the same time didn’t want the other to know.
Unfortunately, by the time I finally caught her full attention it was the end of the school year and I was leaving for a year as a missionary. That last night before I left we sat outside and talked for hours, I gave her a book as a gift and we parted not knowing what the year held. We spent the beginning of that year with a Skype every now and then, she was still reserved, but by the end of my missionary year we were skyping weekly. When I came back home, I knew I was going to make her my girlfriend.
how they asked
Skipping ahead to years later, I took her to a lake on a canoe and canoed her over to this small island where I sang her a song I wrote and asked her to be my wife, and she said yes! We had friends come all the way from MD to TN.
We set up and decorated the canoe early in the morning, and we set up a special place across the lake for the proposal. While I sang and proposed, our friends were hiding and recording and taking pictures. I had to make this a top secret mission, because Crystal’s attention to detail makes her hard to surprise.
I sang her a song that I wrote in which the final lyrics were “will you marry me sweet love of mine?” After I proposed and she said yes, we had friends jump out of hiding from the other side of the lake and cheer, it was a great surprise and a day we both will never forget.
