4/5/2017

THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE♡

THE MOMENT WE’VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR… WE’RE ENGAGED!

Y’all – pour yourselves a glass of pinot, take a seat and prepare yourself for the deets of G’s incredible proposal. READY!?

MONDAY

So let’s start with the beginning of the week. As many of you know, we’re waiting for the NFL draft that happens at the end of this month! Most of 2016 – 2017 has been a very hectic blur, so we figured with a few weeks off, we better take a mini vacay while we still have time! After recently traveling home to visit our families (12 hours each way) we’re really over sitting in the car – so G suggested a quick 3 hour trip to Chattanooga, Tennessee! I was thinking some romantic horseback riding and shopping in Nashville, but G was BENT on white water rafting. Don’t get me wrong guys, we’re a pretty adventurous couple (we paddle board, hike, travel) but I’m a little iffy when it comes water sports. I told him numerous times I really did not want to risk my life white water rafting or place our lives in the hands of a toothless tour guide named Rick, but he continued to tell me how it was at the top of his bucket list – so, like a good girlfriend, I caved.

TUESDAY

Gehrig had planned this trip so quickly (or so I thought) – I was kind of annoyed that he didn’t let me help plan any parts of it but it just seemed like a really casual two day trip, no big deal. I thought I convinced him into at least one formal dinner, like we do in every city we travel to, so we went shopping for some cute new outfits. We packed our gross tennis shoes, workout gear and got the dogs ready to go!

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday morning, we woke up to tornado warnings and severe thunderstorms! I was bumming out but G reassured me that we’d be traveling away from the storm. By 11 a.m., the sun was shining and we were throwing our duffles into my trunk. We were wasting time singing to Spotify and I asked Gehr where we were staying so I could look it up on my phone. He said it was a hole in the wall motel, which is when I realized our romantic mini vacation was turning into a rushed 48 hours spent drowning in the rapids and drying off in a dirty motel – eek. I tried to stay positive, it might not a dream vacay but it’s our vacay.. right?!

We finally got into Tennessee and began puttering up this mountain (in my little Nissan Sentra.) I was loving all the scenery and the farm animals, but I couldn’t believe that a motel would be so far up a mountain, like 20 minutes away from everything! My phone service (and hope) was wavering. We finally arrived on this super steep gravel driveway, “uh, babe, we’re definitely lost” I said looking out at an airstream camper. He kept driving through this path and we came up to this beautiful log cabin! He said “surprise!” and I was literally speechless, we were atop this huge mountain & the view was incredible.

I couldn’t believe it! I was so excited about this beautiful venue, we brought the dogs inside and it really felt like a dream – plaid bedding, stone fireplace, coziest kitchen in the world! It was named “The Cabin in the Clouds.” We were having so much fun exploring the place but due to the sketchy weather, we never stopped for lunch, so we were both starving. “Go get ready for dinner,” G said. I asked if he meant the dinner, like the one we packed our cute outfits for – he nodded and I ran right upstairs to shower. I was rushing to get ready & he just kept hurrying me along & saying how hungry he was. I was attempting to fill in my eyebrows, pick out accessories and dry my hair at the same time and his constant interruption was not helping. I was finally ready to go but he insisted we take a photo on the deck with our new Sony A6000 – a fab little camera we bought to document our adventures in quality.

We decided we didn’t need a tripod when we bought the camera, so G was trying to angle it just right with a stool. He was getting so frustrated as the self timer wasn’t working right, the lighting was off and the angle was weird. I was cracking up – G hates taking pictures so the fact that he was so upset about this photo background was totally weird. I kept saying “how can you be in such a bad mood, we’re in paradise!” I had no idea he was moments away from asking the biggest question of his life. He told me to go wait inside with the dogs until he figured it out. I took a seat and watched a few minutes of Total Divas before he called me outside. I walked back to the edge of the deck, where we were trying to get the angle just right, and as I turned the corner I saw G’s mom…with flowers. What!? I felt like my brain was short-circuiting… or maybe I accidentally brushed against some mushrooms on the mountainside – was I hallucinating? I realized it wasn’t just his mom, but his dad – AND MY MOM! AND MY DAD!? I turned around as if to tell G our parents just showed up and he was already down on one knee!

“Will you marry me?” He asked – my brain instantly started functioning again, as I’ve dreamt and prayed for this moment FOREV! “YES YES YES YES YES YES YES OMG OMG OMG OMG” is pretty much what I squealed out as I laid my eyes on my absolute dream ring – a beautiful white gold oval diamond.

I think my heart just about burst open – I’ve never been so happy in my life. My family means more to me than anything in the world so to have our parents witness this incredible moment, it was beyond perfect.

THURSDAY

I couldn’t sleep a wink at all following the proposal – even if I slept for a few minutes I’d wake up and make sure my ring was still there! Our plan for Thursday was to hike Rock City – an amazing trail (that everyone in the world needs to experience!)

(*Side note: the proposal was actually supposed to happen here, but the park closed because of the severe storm & tornado warnings! I wouldn’t have it any other way though, & I know I wouldn’t have made it up the mountain in those heels, ha!)

I later found out that a lot of things had gone awry for Gehrig prior to dropping to one knee (the ring, the location, the weather!) but it all came together to blow my expectations out of the water. We went on a guided cavern tour of Ruby falls – 1,000 feet below the earth’s surface, to explore an underground waterfall!

. . .

Every part of our proposal was more than I could’ve asked for. I’m still in shock that G kept every detail a surprise and kept me in the dark – being able to spend this exciting week with our family is something I’ll cherish forever.

I think our proposal was like a little analogy for our relationship: an unexpected adventure.

AND he asked me to be his wife on the deck of the Cabin in the Clouds – which is pretty fitting, since I’ve been on cloud 9 since the day we met. I am so honored to spend the rest of my life with the most loving, compassionate, smart & driven man I’ve ever met! Thank you to everyone who congratulated us & everyone who has been there with us from the beginning. We’re excited to find out where we’re headed next at the end of the month and then we can start officially planning!

As you might’ve guessed, I have a few ideas.