The Proposal.
I had graduated from college and was trying to figure out my next steps. I had a job lined up right after graduation as an assistant coach for the APU women’s soccer team. I was still living with my parents and wanted to move out, but wasn’t sure what Garrett’s timeline looked like.
I never wanted to pressure Garrett into proposing. I wanted that to be a decision he made completely on his own. I wanted to figure out if Garrett had a plan because I was deciding whether to move in with some girlfriends.
At Stagecoach 2016 (our first one!) he actually told me he would be proposing sometime within the next 90 days! I was so excited! Garrett is everything I’ve ever wanted and much more. Pretty soon after I met him I could definitely see myself marrying him. He was going to challenge me. I could tell our relationship wouldn’t ever become stagnant. He is committed to growth and would hold me accountable to the same. I wasn’t ever going to feel stuck or think “is this it?”.
Moving on...Garrett had several work trips in June so I wasn’t expecting him to propose during that time. One of his trips was to Adelaide, Australia (speaking at a conference, nbd). A few days before he came home, he sent me some money and asked me to go buy a nice dress. He wanted to take me on a date Friday night after he got home. I should have known immediately. I can’t say it didn’t cross my mind, but this wasn’t out of the blue. Garrett loved to spoil me like this.
I went shopping, found a dress, and got excited to pick up my boyfriend from LAX Friday morning. Garrett and I spent ALL day together that Friday. He was the most calm, cool, and collected that entire day. I didn’t suspect a thing. There was no way he could be so calm if he was going to propose that night.
We got some lunch, some chais, took a nap, and hung out all day. I started to get ready for our date as Garrett did some work on his laptop. We had dinner reservations at sushi spot in Laguna Beach, little cute spot. As our dinner was winding down, Garrett mentioned a gazebo I’ve always wanted to go to was walking distance. If I wanted to check it out after dinner we could.
His grandma loves to paint and she’s done some painting from that gazebo and I had always wanted to check out the spot. It looked like a beautiful view from what I could tell from her paintings.
We walked to the gazebo and at this point I was going on about the finale of How I Met Your Mother I finally watched. A proposal was the last time on my mind. As we made it to the gazebo I noticed no one was in it! How lucky were we, I thought! We get it all to ourselves. Little did I know someone had cleared out or us right before we arrived. It was a cloudy Friday night around sunset. Garrett pulled out his phone and was trying to text behind his back, I thought it was weird, but went ahead and ignored it. I asked to take a selfie together.
He then goes...let me take a picture of you. So I back up and he gets down as if he was going to tie his shoe and out comes the ring! Oh my word. Immediate tears. Garrett got straight to the point and asked me to marry him. I can’t even remember if I was able to get ‘yes’ out of my mouth. But a head nod with some ugly crying was definitely involved.
Through my teary eyes I could see someone taking pictures of us, but I couldn’t make out who it was. Garrett’s friend, Brady did an excellent job hiding in the bushes and coming out at the right time so I wouldn’t see him. Garrett was trying to make sure Brady was ready to take some photos of us when he was trying to text behind his back.
Needless to say it was perfect. I couldn’t stop crying. I was SO overwhelmed and I was SO happy! I was going to spend the rest of my life with this guy! It was the best feeling in the world that this guy that thinks through everything had picked me. He picked me to spend the rest of his life with.
Brady took some photos of us in the gazebo and then we walked down to the water for a little photo shoot. Take a look!
June 10th 2016.
