How We Met
Bryan and I met while playing on a recreational co-ed soccer team together. We’re both extremely competitive which led to us not being the biggest fans of each other, to begin with, but as you can tell we soon came around to being pretty fond of each other.
how they asked
It was our first day in Banff, Alberta Canada and Bryan let me know that he had a little surprise in store for us that afternoon. I figured he just made our reservations for dinner somewhere to kick off our vacation. He always enjoys making little surprises, in fact, our first date was one he planned. We were ready a little ahead of his schedule so he said, “We have time, we might as well stop at one of the lakes we want to see. Lake Minnewanka is on the way if you want to stop real quick and check out the view before we go to what I have planned.” Looking back, he was so calm and comfortable in these moments; not showing a hint of being nervous! As we drove to the lake (without directions as always), he kept saying, “I THINK I know how to get there.” See this happens to be a common theme when he drives and let’s just say we commonly end up taking the scenic route.
Naturally, I’m giving him a hard time about it, but we eventually we get there. There were several people out on the frozen lake taking in the view. We walked way out past them wanting to put our footprints in the furthest untouched snow. It was the most perfect bluebird day surrounded by the incredible scenery of the Rockies. As we walked, I felt this inner excitement for an unknown moment that was ahead. I could feel the anticipation, but for what I didn’t know. The conversation was natural as we walked, and he was beyond confident. As we reached the pristine, untouched, fresh snow I hear him say, “You’re always getting on to me for saying I THINK things, well ML, there’s a couple of things I KNOW and one of them is that I want to spend the rest of my life with you.” Up until this point, we were walking ahead hand-in-hand staring straight out into the mountains.
At the sound of this, I turned to face him. Looking at him, smile at me, I saw everything I wanted in my future in this man standing before me. My best friend. My teammate. My forever partner. My heart pounded and my eyes welled uncontrollably. (Yes, I cried.) I knew this was no longer going to be a stop on the way to a LITTLE surprise. He then took a knee in the powdery snow, pulled a tiny little wooden ring box from his sock, and asked with the biggest grin on his face, “Will you marry me?” I nodded through the tears as it was all I could manage to do and kissed his grinning lips. He slid the most beautiful ring I had ever laid eyes on onto my finger. The rest of the day was a complete blur of pure bliss.
I turned around the realize a photographer was there to capture the whole moment and she proceeded to give us a mini engagement session. We called and texted friends and family to let them know. We ate a fantastic relaxing dinner reminiscing about each moment of the day and recapping all of his secretive planning. No other words to describe it other than absolutely dreamy. A purely perfect day.
