how we met
how they asked
After a terrible flight experience in the fall, we had been given flight vouchers which I used to surprise him with a weekend in New York. He later turned this on me, saying it was his turn to surprise me with a trip and to not plan anything the last weekend of February. I was suspicious of everything for months before, as we went on nice dates and spent the holidays together skiing. Then in February, we got a puppy together, which I remembered I had once said would be an adorable way to propose. But still no ring. I had kept my nails done for months just in case so by the time our trip rolled around I was ready. Like I had done him before, he told me nothing of where we were going and hid the GPS from me. One long car ride later and he told me we were there as we pulled up to the yurt he had rented us on top of Lookout Mountain. The view was insanely gorgeous and I thought then that even if he proposed on the deck of the yurt I’d be impressed with his planning. But he had more in store. Knowing my love of hiking, he had a hike planned for us the next day at Cloudland Canyon State Park. We woke up the next morning to watch the sun rise over the miles and miles of view and then I got to work making sure I looked good, just in case. I put on makeup and curled my hair, even adding fake lashes, which I felt ridiculous for. We were just going hiking after all! It was chilly but the sun was warm as we headed out on a 5 mile loop that would take us by many a lookout point. He stopped and spent time at each one, not even realizing he was giving suspicious me a heart attack each time he did so. I enjoy videography as a hobby, even doing some weddings on the side, so he videoed us all day as we trekked. At the end of that hike, he proposed going down to the two waterfalls, which was a serious climb down some icy steps. Along the way I looked down and realized my hands were so swollen that I couldn’t even get my everyday rings off my fingers. At the first waterfall we put my hands in the freezing water hoping it would help, and he started massaging my fingers, paying special attention to the left hand. I wore a ring on my left ring finger at the time, so having that stuck on there was not the best. As we hiked back up the stairs I carried an icicle in each hand, knowing that if this was it then we might have a problem. Luckily by the time we reached Cherokee Falls, my fingers had remembered how to be their proper size. Knowing this might be it, I sat on a boulder and gave him some space while he set up his phone to record us walking around in front of the waterfall. He wanted us to walk away from the camera and stop and do a little pose in the clearing. Before we did so I stopped, kissed him, and told him I loved him. He says that that was when he realized I had probably guessed it but on we went. As we stopped in the clearing, he dropped to one knee, pulled out the ring, and said “I know you’ve been waiting for a while, and I know your fingers are really puffy right now, but Lilli will you marry me?” I’m convinced I partially blacked out because all I could say was “yes” and “I love you” for at least five minutes. To spite me thinking nobody knew when he was doing it, they actually were all in on it. He had planned a engagement party the next day for our families halfway between where they all lived and on the route home. My friends and family all admitted to barely making it through me saying he was “never going to propose” knowing what they knew and that they had found me very funny. We had talked about getting married in that fall, so the longer he waited the more I had wondered what he was up to. And whether he knew how much time it took to plan a wedding (spoiler: he didn’t). All in all, it was perfect. He even got my best friend to plan an engagement party for that next week for all our friends in Auburn and just made it so easy for me to just be there and not have to worry about a single thing.
