The Proposal

I told you about how I recently got engaged to the love of my life, and it was just the sweetest and most romantic proposal ever, so I have to share it with you…

Near the end of June my boyfriend told me to leave July 14^th open because he had a surprise planned for me. Knowing him and the fact that he can’t keep surprises secret for long, I was sure he would end up telling me what it was by the end of the day. He didn’t. I was already surprised. A week went by and still he hadn’t told me. He did give me clues along the way, such as: you’ll need to wear comfortable shoes, no sandals, it’s outdoors, and it’s in a state where we can pick up lottery tickets (I have a slight scratch off lottery addiction, so this was exciting news!). I came up with all kinds of guesses ranging from white water rafting to hiking to driving race cars. He warned me that even if I guessed right, he wasn’t going to tell me. Finally about a week before the surprise he let me know that it was going to be in or near Nashville and that it was very early in the morning so we’d be staying the night up there.

Now, ever since I had told my friends that he had planned a surprise for me, they all started saying he was going to propose. I was 100% completely and totally convinced that this was not the case. We had talked about it and I knew it was coming eventually, but I was sure he still needed a bit more time to save up. I was fully expecting to come home from the surprise and show my friends that I was right and they were wrong. Little did I know…

That Friday night we got a hotel in Brentwood and went into downtown Nashville for the evening. I was allowed to pick where we ate, so I chose Spaghetti Factory (which is amazing in case you haven’t tried it). At dinner he finally had to give in and tell me the surprise. He just couldn’t hold it till the morning. It was going to be a sunrise hot air balloon ride! I was thrilled to bits. I had always wanted to go hot air ballooning and now I was going to go. I don’t know how he managed to keep a straight face at dinner after he told me that part, though, because I then proceeded to go on and on about how I couldn’t wait to rub it in my friends faces that they were wrong about the proposal. He held it together though. After dinner we walked around downtown for a little while and even went to stroll along the Shelby Street Pedestrian Bridge (apparently he was scouting out a plan b in case the weather ruined our balloon flight). After our stroll it was back to the hotel to get a few hours of sleep before our 4am wake up call.

Saturday morning we were off on our adventure! We met up with the crew in a parking lot nearby and after they had checked the weather and wind patterns we drove off to a local field where we could set up. I was in charge of the video camera while he got to help set up the balloon. I never realized how enormous the balloons actually were until now. It was so fun to watch it all take shape and start to slowly rise into the air. Once the balloon was inflated and in the air over the basket we were told to hop in. It was just the pilot, him and me in the basket. The rest of the crew would be following along in the van to keep an eye on us and be there when it was time to land.

We cruised along for about ten or fifteen minutes, watching the scenery go by. The pilot did something he called “contouring,” so instead of just flying up high and cruising along, we got to follow the land and were brushing the tree tops. It was the most amazing feeling. The sun was just coming up and although it wasn’t raining where we were, we could see rain bands in the distance. At this point, he asked me if I would take a picture of him on his iPhone. I agreed and he handed it over to me. I looked at the screen and there was a picture of him holding a box from Tiffany (I’d recognize that blue box anywhere!). I should mention that I am not a morning person, at all, so even though I was awake and having a blast, I wasn’t firing on all cylinders at this hour of the morning. I just thought to myself “hmm… I wonder why he’s got that picture on here….” I then proceeded to try to figure out how to get to the camera setting (I don’t own an iPhone, so I had no idea what I was looking for). As I’m doing this I look over and notice that he is down in the basket digging through his backpack. I ever so sweetly start to ask him why he’s down there, out of the way, when he had just asked me to take his picture. Why wasn’t he posing yet? As I’m starting to tell him this, he turns around and I see him pulling a Tiffany bag out of the backpack. My first thought was “Oohh!! He got me a present from Tiffany! I wonder what the occasion is… Oh gosh, did I forget some big occasion? I didn’t get him anything!” It only takes a few milliseconds for these thoughts to run through my head before everything finally clicks and I realize what is happening. He takes the box out of the bag and hands it to me so I can untie the ribbon. Once I’ve untied it, he takes it back and opens it to reveal a ring box. I was completely surprised, to say the least. I looked at him and all I could say was “Baby, you did it!” As I stood there, he got down on one knee and told me how very much he loved me and never wanted to be apart from me and asked me if I would marry him. I said yes!

We shared lots of happy hugs and kisses as we finished the rest of the flight. Once we had landed (in a school parking lot of all places), we popped the bottle of champagne provided by the crew and toasted a successful flight. It was a dream come true and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with him!

Here's a photo of the balloon as it started to rise