Our engagement story... :)

This is the story of the day that we got engaged.... enjoy!



DC:  Valerie and I spent this summer in separate places which, while also being terrible and lonely, made it hard to plan a good proposal.  Fortunately, I got lucky and Valerie booked a quick trip to Denver to visit me for a weekend. I already had the ring at that point so it became a whole lot easier to plan a proposal for that weekend.  


The week before the event I took my Sister-in-Law to scout out a good location, which we found in Gem Lake near Estes Park. I told Valerie that we would be hiking with my brother and his wife.   So she arrived knowing part, not all, of the plan. 


Our hike day arrived beautiful and sunny, so we drove up from Denver to pick-up Brian and Marisa and headed for the trail.  We arrived there to a mostly empty parking lot (YAY!) and cool weather. We packed up and set-out for the 1.7 mile hike to the lake.  That 1.7 miles wasn’t the best hiking I’ve ever done.  I was pretty weighed down with nervous excitement which, along with the tuxedo in my backpack ( ;) ) was quite a load.  Thankfully, Marisa was distracting Valerie so that I could be a nervous wreck in the back.


When we got to the lake my brother went to the other side of the lake to the spot I had picked out to ‘explore’. A few minutes later I left Valerie and told her that I was going to climb the rocks with my brother and that she ‘probably wanted’ to stay with Marisa. I was trying very hard to communicate that she ‘should’ stay with Marisa


Valerie:  “There we were enjoying an intimate, lovely little moment by the lake, with my head on his shoulder, holding hands, when he stood up and said basically, ‘I’m going to go climb on the rocks with my brother, you stay here’”


DC: I realized that Valerie wasn’t going to be very happy about that, but I figured that what I had planned would make up for it.  I went to the other side of the lake behind some boulders, opened my backpack and pulled out two things:  a stack of pictures that I had attached to pieces of construction paper and a tuxedo. The pictures were all pictures of Valerie and me from various points in our dating life with meaningful song lyrics written on them attached to pieces of string.  I had my brother hang them from the trees and rocks that stood on either side of the path that led from where Valerie and Marisa were to where I would be waiting.


 Meanwhile, I changed into my Dad’s tuxedo, in the pocket of which was one very special piece of jewelry.  When this was done we called over to the ladies and waited.  


Valerie:  When DC radioed over that there was something we should see I got excited and we started down the trail towards them. The trail was only wide enough to walk single file and looking back now, I realize that Marisa made sure I was first.  It was important that I be first to the tree because it was ornamented with pictures of DC and me. When I saw the beautiful decorations on the tree I began to suspect that this was not JUST a delightful little hike in the mountains.


I definitely expected that the pictures would be a mix of DC and me and Brian and Marisa--I thought they were surprising us both, so I tried to hang back a bit so Marisa could find her pictures too. As I looked at them and read the familiar lyrics, however, it became apparent that all of the colorful little delights were from DC to me. After looking at the six on the tree, I noticed that one more was attached to a rock across the path so I headed over to look at it. In doing so, I walked right past the the alcove in which DC was waiting for me. I didn't even look up, I was so focused on the pictures. After admiring the last picture, I looked up and saw him standing there, 50 feet away...IN A TUXEDO!


It occurred to me that he might be proposing, but I could hardly let myself think about it because it was too exciting. So instead of thinking, I raced over to him and threw my arms around his tuxedo-ed body, whispered, "I love you" and kissed him.


DC: At this point it gets to be a bit of a blur for me. My heart was racing from the excitement and nerves and the edges were getting a little blurry. Nevertheless I wasn't going to let the moment slip by so I whispered in Valerie's ear that I had already talked to her Dad, something she had been very adamant that I do before proposing, and then reached into my pocket and pulled out the ring. With the ring in my hand I got down on my knee, and looked up at Valerie as I opened the box.


It was kind of a strange feeling to notice myself there in that position, I don't think I had quite taken the time to imagine what it would be like and then there I was about to ask this incredible woman to spend the rest of her life with me. And she seemed to be no better prepared for the moment, with her hands over her mouth and eyes watering up. But the thing about being in love and being in this kind of moment is that you don't need to be prepared and you don't need to be able to think about how you're supposed to act, it just happens, and it happens exactly the way it's supposed to.  And the way this one happened was that Valerie looked down at me, I asked her if she would marry me, and somewhere in the flurry of kisses and hugs she said "Of Course!"


It should be noted that I never heard that "Of Course!" She swears she said it right away but it must have gotten lost in the moment because I was still waiting for an answer and she was waiting for me to put the ring on her finger, but before I really had a chance to start panicking, she repeated her answer, this time as a resounding, "YES!" and I put the ring on her finger with my shaking hands. We had a few minutes to bask in the glow of engagement before the backpacker in me started to notice the dimming light and thickening clouds. So after I changed back out of the tux (because who wants to hike in a tux?), we began our hike back down the trail, hand in hand and blissfully happy, taking pictures with Brian and Marisa, and laughing about the surprise and joy of it all.


And now here we are planning a wedding and getting more excited by the minute to share our day with all of our friends and family.  Thanks for being a part of it!  And if you have any questions or want to hear more stories just drop us a line and we'll see what we can do.