how we met
I will never forget the first time I met Jamie. Let me take you back to April 15, 2016; my good friend and I were traveling across the United States of America, and it was the first day of Coachella. But it wasn’t the day that was memorable, or the festival, it wasn’t the bands, it wasn’t dancing until the sun came down, what was memorable happened in the most unlikely way possible. I think that is why our story is so special. The last act of the day had finished, my friend and I were walking back to catch the bus that would take us to our hotel and that is where our story begins. I remember it so clearly, the moment has played over in my mind countless times, each time I get that same feeling of butterflies, a smile washes over my face and I still cannot believe it happened. It was late, the once over populated hotel pick up area was now deserted, the fenced walkways that were previously over flowing with eager festival goers was now empty. And then it happened, as I was making my way slowly toward the bus two people rushed past me. Why was anyone rushing at this hour when there were no lines? I looked up as they ran past and one of them looked back over their shoulder at me and smiled. I was captivated by her smile, it was so natural, it was so innocent, so beautiful.
My friend and I looked at each other and without having to say a word we followed. Deciding that I needed to make an impression that would equal the smile I had received from one of the mysterious women, I jumped the fence so that I was now in front of her. It seemed to work, we introduced ourselves; her name was Jamie, she had this incredible accent, her smile was even more beautiful up close, her laugh was contagious and her eyes were the most beautiful things I had ever seen. The bus ride to the hotel was over an hour and we sat next to each other talking the whole way. We parted ways ensuring we would keep in contact via online messaging. We spent the next two days together at the festival, running around holding hands, dancing and kissing the days away in our own little world. It was the most fun I had ever had, she was the most interesting person I had ever met. At the end of the festival I took her phone and wrote a note for her to eventually find, it read: ‘Just a small reminder that you are incredibly beautiful and I am so glad that I met you. Thank you for an amazing Coachella. I’ll never forget it, or you, love Blake xoxo’. I never did forget her. We kept in contact and no matter how much more I got to know about Jamie, I always craved more, I wanted to know more. We began to facetime daily and eventually Jamie came to visit me in Australia. I had fallen in love with her.
how they asked
From the day that I met Jamie I knew that I would never meet anyone else like her. I had known that Jamie was who I wanted to spend my life with for a long time. As cliché as it sounds, I never understood people when they said things like ‘when you find the right person you will know’, but after meeting Jamie those sayings made sense, I finally understood. It was like for the first time in my life I could be completely myself, I was more comfortable being with her than I had ever been in my life. I wanted the proposal to be meaningful to both Jamie and I, and since we had met at Coachella and were planning to go together, I decided that I would propose on the same day we had met the previous year; April 15. Being on the other side of the world meant timing and organizing was difficult.
I wanted to keep things traditional by asking for her father’s permission, and because her parents are separated and Jamie and I both value our families I also decided to ask for her mother’s blessing. I arrived in LA a week before Coachella, the second day was spent helping her mom move to a new house and so I had to seize the short opportunity I had while I was alone with her mom in the moving truck. I was given her blessing and it was so difficult to contain my excitement for the rest of the day. The excitement was short lived however when I realized I still had the task of asking for her father’s permission. The next day we headed out to Jamie’s father’s ranch. To paint a picture as to why asking her father was such a nerve wracking experience, early on in our relationship Jamie was on a trip to Mexico with her father and sent me a photo with him where he was wearing a shirt that read ‘Guns don’t kill people, fathers with daughters do!’. I had a few opportunities to ask when we had moments alone, but I just found myself freezing. Her father is quite intimidating, but it is because he is such an admirable guy, he is the manliest man I have ever met. One of the trucks ended up getting a thick length of wire wrapped around the rear drive axel and her father and I bonded over removing it. I had a new-found confidence and the next time we were alone I mustered up the courage and asked him for his permission. It went far better than I expected, and he thanked me for asking and gave me his permission.
The final step was organizing the actual proposal. I had been organizing the proposal with Champagne, Cathie and Ashley; our friends who would be staying in Palm Springs with us for Coachella. Champagne is a photographer and Cathie and Ashley, like Jamie, are bloggers. The girls were all doing some work for the same brand so we devised a plan to tell Jamie that the brand wanted them all in the same shots and that we would go out to the desert in Palm Springs and shoot it Saturday morning. I had already made plans with Jamie to go out to lunch together to celebrate the anniversary of us meeting, however there were no lunch plans, I made them up. This meant I could dress up nicely without Jamie being too suspicious. We all drove out to this beautiful location in the desert and Champagne began to take photos of Jamie, Cathie and Ashley. After a few shots, Champagne said they had gotten what they needed. I then suggested to Jamie that we shoot some of the photos we needed to do. I took a few photos and asked her to come and see if she liked them. I started scrolling through the photos we had taken and then started to show her photos that we had taken together from the weekend we met and all throughout our relationship. I had put them on a memory card for this moment. I told Jamie that we had shared the most incredible year together and that I couldn’t spend another day without her.
I got down on one knee and pulled the ring out of my pocket in the #themrsbox I had gotten her and asked her to marry me. She said ‘yes!’
