How We Met
Brad and I had always known who each other were when I started pharmacy school in 2014. Brad was in his second year as I started my first. It wasn’t until the summer of 2015 when our two paths finally crossed. Brad had recently adopted a puppy from the humane society, and had asked one of his friends to watch the puppy while he went to run some errands. Coincidentally, this friend happened to be one of my good friends. Our mutual friend had been sending me snapchats of the puppy, and I was at home doing nothing, so I figured I’d go to her house to meet the little guy. I absolutely love dogs so I was really excited to come play with the new puppy. When I got to her house I asked her who the owner of the puppy was, and she told me it was Brad, “the guy in her class.” After a while of bonding with the puppy, Brad came to pick him up from our friend’s house. He stayed for a bit and we all chatted, and we decided to make plans to go out the next night. I gave him my number for him to start a group chat to get some friends to go out.
That next night a big group of us pharmacy students went out as it was one of our last nights of summer before school started again. I was ready to go home, and didn’t have a ride home or anyone to walk home with. Brad offered to walk me home, and we talked and got to know each other the whole way. The next day, Brad had texted me asking if I’d like to go get fro-yo together (Brad’s favorite dessert). We went to Orange Leaf together and ended up sitting there until the place closed because we had so much to talk about and get to know about each other. School started shortly thereafter, and not a day went by that we weren’t together. We would take Brad’s dog to the park, study together, spend snow days together, etc. It wasn’t until January 2016 when Brad finally decided to make things “official.” However, ever since that date we’ve become even closer and fallen more in love with each other. We both knew early on that we had found “the one.”
how they asked
Brad and I decided to take a trip out to San Francisco just for fun. While we were there, we also wanted to visit Yosemite National Park and Napa Valley (we’re big wine lovers!). On November 1, 2017, we headed out to Yosemite National Park from San Francisco to go see some landmark parts of the park. Brad was being very secretive this whole trip, and would not tell me which hotel we were staying at in Yosemite, so I knew he had something up his sleeve, but I didn’t know it would be this big!
Once we got to the park, we had some time before we needed to check in at our hotel, so we decided to explore Yosemite a little. After visiting Yosemite Falls and Tunnel View, Brad had informed me we needed to get back to our hotel so we could change and freshen up to go take pictures when the sun sets for a “Christmas photo.” I didn’t think this was strange because Brad is always all about pictures, especially when we travel to new places. However, getting back to the hotel took longer than we thought as there was traffic backed up on the roads due to construction.
Once we got to the hotel, they informed us our room was not ready, and would not be ready for a few more hours. Brad started panicking, because in the back of his mind he knew we had to be at a certain spot before sunset, as he had a photographer there waiting for us to capture the proposal! The hotel gave us a room to use temporarily to get ready in, but we only had about 15 minutes to change so we could make it on time. After we were ready we rushed to get in the car and head out to the place Brad decided this picture needed to be, Taft Point at Yosemite National Park. Unfortunately, about a mile from the hotel, we were stopped in the same traffic for 30-40 minutes due to construction again. Brad’s face was bright red, and he kept saying how sick he felt. I thought this was just because he had barely eaten all day, but really he was nervous this proposal wasn’t going to happen because we didn’t know if we would make it to Taft Point before the sun set. Brad kept getting out of the car to go talk to the construction workers about when this would pass, informing them he was proposing to his girlfriend and needed to get to Taft Point before sunset.
FINALLY, the traffic started moving, and Brad wasted no time getting us to our desired destination. Zooming up the mountain as fast as he could go, Brad finally got us to Taft Point for our “Christmas photo.” By the time we got there, we had about 45 minutes left until the sun completely set. We got out of the car and started walking towards our designated spot. When we arrived, two men were out there that looked like they were just taking pictures of the beautiful view. Brad asked them where I should stand to get an optimal sunset picture (little did I know, these were the photographers Brad had hired for the proposal). They positioned me and offered to take the photo for us. Brad walked over to hand them his camera, and as he was walking back, I saw a small box in his pocket. When he walked back towards me, Brad got down on one knee and asked me to spend forever with him. I was so shocked and so excited I could not wait to say YES! Once he put the ring on my finger, he turned around and informed me the guys taking pictures were also with him, and they were capturing the entire moment. I could not believe all the effort and planning that had gone into the proposal, and was just so excited that someone was there to capture the best moment of my life.
After the proposal, the photographer took some additional pictures of us around Taft Point to complete the shoot. Once we were finished with the pictures, we went back to the hotel to a room decorated in rose petals and complimentary champagne to celebrate our engagement. While it was stressful for Brad, it ended up being better than I had ever dreamed of. I now have the most perfect pictures to remember this day by, all thanks to my amazing fiance for all his hard work and planning. If the proposal was this epic, I can’t imagine the lifetime of adventures that awaits for the two of us!
