How We Met
Moshe and I met when I was 18 and he was 25. We both worked for the same coffee shop chain, and we became fast friends. A year or so later, Moshe transferred to my shop and became my supervisor. I was working toward a promotion and he took me under his wing. During this time, everyone who worked with us suspected we had a crush on one another (they were right). However, we were both too shy to make a move. One night, Moshe was training me on closing down the shop and we ended up staying long after we were finished without work, just talking. One conversation led to the next, and we were confessing our feelings for each other and shared our first kiss. Everyone we worked with pretended to be surprised upon finding out we were dating. The rest is history!
How They Asked
Moshe and I take an anniversary trip to Cambria, CA every year in October. However, after a stressful few months with work and grad school, I decided to plan a relaxing 3-day weekend trip to Cambria in June. Unfortunately, work came up. Moshe insisted that we still go up there for a day trip on a Sunday. Though I was hesitant at first and wanted to reschedule the trip, I agreed to it because he seemed so excited. Little did I know, Moshe had been trying to plan the proposal since April and this was his PERFECT chance. We’d been together for 3 and a half years at this point so I played with the idea that maybe, just maybe, I’d get proposed to- so naturally, I got my nails done the day before. However, I wasn’t feeling too hopeful. Let me pause to tell you that just a few weeks prior to this day trip, he took me up to the mountain peak that we had spent our first date and I was so sure I was going to get proposed to. He even took me to the spot where we sat to have a picnic, but NOTHING. I walked back down that mountain feeling so defeated. Now, back to the story. We drove up to Cambria from Santa Barbara and everything seemed totally normal! We stopped at all our favorite places and I kept having to tell myself not to get my hopes up and just enjoy the day. However, there were a few things tipping me off throughout the day. For one, Moshe said that he couldn’t get reservations at our favorite restaurant until 7:30, but when we walked by the restaurant at 5, there was hardly anyone there!
Earlier that day when I’d said I wanted to walk on the bluffs he said, “let’s go later- around sunset.” Sure enough, right around sunset, we drove to the entrance of the bluffs to take a walk and enjoy the sunset over the ocean. I watched him very carefully as he got out of the car and even scanned his clothing to see if I could see a ring box, but no. I was feeling defeated and as we walked onto the bluffs, he was pretty quiet.
I felt a bit sad because I KNEW I wasn’t getting proposed to today, but I was also so happy just to be there with him in one of our special spots. On the bluffs, there is a bench that we always stop to sit at and watch the sunset before we turn back, but when walking up there I saw someone who looked like the grim reaper running from the bench so I begged Moshe to turn around. He kept assuring me that it was fine, and we continued walking. Upon getting to the bench, I noticed a picnic was set up that looked like someone’s proposal.
Being totally defeated and oblivious to this point, I told Moshe we should definitely turn around. He started walking off the path toward the picnic set up and I continued to tell him we should turn back because I didn’t want to ruin someone’s proposal/romantic picnic! Once we got up there and Moshe was digging around in the picnic box, I realized it was ours. HOWEVER, I thought that it was just a romantic picnic he had set up for us (and the reason he said he couldn’t actually get dinner reservations until later). It never once occurred to me who might have driven two and a half hours to come set this picnic up and that they definitely wouldn’t have done it if it wasn’t for a proposal). Sure enough, Moshe pulled a small box out of the picnic box and got down on one knee. Immediately, I started crying (and so did he). He could hardly get any words out other than “Will you marry me?” He forgot to open the ring box, but without any hesitation, I said yes.
At this point, I also noticed my friends running out from behind some bushes that were literally on the edge of a cliff, with cameras in hand (The grim reaper mystery solved- it was just my friend wrapped in a black blanket to keep her cover). We all celebrated by popping the bottle of champagne from the picnic basket, and after some photos, my friends left us to enjoy the sunset together.
