Our Next Chapter: The Proposal

What a whirlwind of a week is all I can think right now!  It’s hard to even put my feelings into words right now! I honestly believe I experienced the happiest day of my life on May 11^th. To say I didn’t even see it was coming is an understatement!!

Before diving into what you want to know {how it all happened}, I wanted to give a quick background on Jeremy and I’s relationship. Take you way back to High School. We were friends with all the same people but never really spoke until right around Spring Break our senior year. Both of our good friends helped introduce us and to make a long story short, we started dating too and all four of us spent the rest of the school year and the summer together. 

Once summer was over, we knew we both were going to different college (I, Oklahoma University and Him, University of Arkansas).  We decided to try out long distance and wrote letters to each other to help pass the time. {I still have all of the letters he wrote me} Ultimately, we realized it wasn’t going to work out and went our separate ways. 

Over the next 2 years, I would see pictures of him and wonder if I would ever see him again. Summer between our sophomore and junior year, we randomly ended up at the same party together.  We spent the rest of the summer together and in the end didn’t know if we could make long distance work again.  We ended up talking all through the fall of our junior year and on January 4^thhe asked me to be his girlfriend again. The next 3 years we spent doing long distance and the last year and a half we have finally lived in the same city.

Fast forward to January 2019 when he decided to propose. For this part I wanted Jeremy to tell his side of the story.

“Let’s start from when I realized that I wanted to propose… It was early January, Hannah and I had been dating for four years. Most girls after four years of dating would be pushing the envelope pretty hard, but Hannah really didn’t mention getting married other than a slide smart remark when another person would prompt the question “when are y’all getting married”. I liked that.

 Anyways, back to the point… I have known Hannah was the one for me for a long time. I had always imagined us being together, but really didn’t have a timeline for when I would propose. Until, I had a rough going with some family troubles at the end of 2018 and Hannah was by my side through it all. She went above a beyond. Once all of the smoke cleared from that situation, I knew I wanted her to be by my side forever, and lock it up as fast as possible. 

My first adventure in “locking her up” was to find a ring “suited for a princess” (as she had subtly hinted about a “few times”). I went to a few local ring stores in the Dallas area and was educated about the 1 million different ring styles there are and I was as lost as can be (if there are any guys reading this, do your research). I consulted Hannah’s college friend Diana, my mom, and even women I worked with to get their opinions on every style. After many weeks of research, I eventually found the perfect one.

The next adventure I would undergo was to plan the proposal. Every girl dreams of this day, they have 100 different perfect proposals in their head, they imagine prince charming riding on a white horse with a guitar playing in the background (how could I mess this up??)….. no pressure. The proposal needed to be special. It needed to be a surprise. 

I assembled a group of our friends to be in a place that I was familiar with, a place that she would not be suspicious about, and a place with beautiful views. Fayetteville, AR, my college town. My birthday was the Thursday before the weekend planned and I had her convinced that we were celebrating my birthday weekend.

The plan for the proposal was for me to make breakfast for everyone in the morning, to go to a brewery in Fayetteville, then to go to Mount Sequoyah to pop the question, then dinner reservations at a nice place in town, and then celebrate on Dickson street.

The proposal went as planned. I was as nervous as I have ever been in my entire life. Her reaction meant everything to me. It was wonderful. I have 7 other people to attribute the smooth proposal to and am extremely grateful for each and every one of them. I am so excited to spend the rest of my life with Hannah.”

To understand how I was so shocked, I wanted to tell my side. 

We had talked about getting married but it had always been a distant thing. I knew at the bottom of my heart Jeremy was the one for me.  But I never felt any rush to marry him. Partly because I had just bought a house and he was so busy with work. We were just happy and loved being with each other. I had been telling everyone that next year (2020) was the plan for us to get engaged but little did I know.

Jeremy’s birthday was coming up and he had suggested going to Fayetteville, Arkansas to celebrate with some friends in a cabin. May 9^thwe celebrated Jeremy’s birthday in Dallas and then May 10^thleft for Arkansas. I thought the plan was to hike and hang out on Dickson Street.  It was forecasted to rain so I didn’t end up packing anything fancy and almost didn’t pack make up.  I also left my camera at home because I knew we wouldn’t be able to take any pictures.

On May 11^th, we woke up to Jeremy’s friend running downstairs asking if he was making breakfast which I thought was very odd. Jeremy got up went upstairs and made everyone breakfast. I got up and my best friend, who had come on the trip with us, asked if I was going to get ready and what I was going to wear today. I said I would get ready later but for now wear athleisure.  

Once Jeremy had served breakfast, we made a plan to go to a brewery in town, then go up to Mount Sequoyahand after go to a restaurant close to Dickson Street for lunch. It was a chilly rain that morning, so I figured I would just throw on some jeans with a sweater and some booties.  We headed out to the brewery and spent some time hanging out there while the rain passed. After the rain was gone, we drove up to Mount Sequoyah. Jeremy was driving so fast and I could not figure out what was going on but figured he wanted to get there to show our friends.  It is such a beautiful look out over Fayetteville and has a gorgeous cross statue at the top. 

We all got out of the car and admiring the views when Jeremy asked to take a picture with me. I was so excited because we had just had a discussion about how we never take pictures together.  I handed my phone to one of our friends standing there and got in position to take a picture.

He kissed my forehead and said, “This weekend wasn’t about my birthday but was about you. You are my best friend and I want to spend the rest of my life with you.” He pulled the ring out of his front coat pocket and got down on one knee.

My breath was completely taken away from me. Cue the water works and shaking. I cried and fell to my knees with him in front of me on his knee. I don’t think I have ever felt so many glorious feelings all at the same time in my whole life.  Feeling all those emotions at once the only thing I knew how to do was cry. Jeremy said I said “yes” because I blacked out and don’t remember. He put the ring on and I cried even more. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. He was so excited to tell me all about the tiny details in the ring. 

We FaceTimed my parents and my best friends from college to share the amazing news.  After we took some more pictures together, then our friends left to head to the restaurant. We stayed up on Mount Sequoyahto take in every moment and have some time to ourselves.

After we headed back down to the restaurant where our friends had champagne waiting for us to celebrate. We ate lunch and then walked over to Dickson Street to hang out. By the end of the night we were all exhausted and went back to the cabin where more champagne was waiting.

I cannot tell you how wonderful that weekend was. All the details that Jeremy thought of to make it such a special day for us. He truly is the man of my dreams!