The Proposal

December 8th was just another day on the calendar until last year. Now it will forever be one of my favorites.

It all started a week earlier when my BFF Beth texted me and asked if Shane and I would like to go on a day trip to Buena Vista and Twin Lakes with she and Bruce the following Saturday. Beth said she had pitched a "friendcation" type blog post that she needed to take photos for. This is obviously very believable since she's a lifestyle blogger and does this kind of thing often. I remember her saying something like "you don't have to be in all the photos, but it'll be fun to hangout!" Classic Beth. ;)

My closest friends also know I love me a good day trip to the mountains, so I was all about it! I told her I'd need to check with Shane to see if he was up for it, so I asked, and he oh-so-coyly was like "Do you want to go? I'm fine with going if you want to." Really trying to keep it cool.

So I told Beth we were in but I also remember saying "for a split second when you asked if we wanted to go, I thought this was a secret ploy for Shane to propose." HAHA!

To give you a little back story, Shane and I had been dating for just shy of 2 years. We had been talking seriously about marriage for a few months, we were in pre-engagement counseling to make sure marriage was the right thing for us and Jesus' plan for us, and I knew that if we were going to move forward, Shane would be proposing before the Spring. So you can maybe imagine that I was on edge every time we made fun plans during that particular season.

But back to the story, I put any thought of a proposal out of my mind because I had convinced myself Shane wouldn't propose until after the New Year. Saturday arrived and we all bundled up for the 20-something degree day and headed to the mountains. Looking back I can see all the signs pointing to where the day was headed, but at the time I was so oblivious, and I am SO GLAD for that. I would have been so anxious the entire day! On the drive up to the mountains, Shane was so quiet (weird) and Beth kept saying things like "we can hang out in BV all afternoon but I really want to go to Twin Lakes first." I just kept agreeing.

We arrived and everyone piled out of the car into the frigid tundra -- remember I said it was 20-something degrees that day? Bruce setup all the camera gear to get what I thought were going to be some epic landscape photos and Shane was hanging out with him. I grabbed my camera and headed down the hill alone to get some photos of the ice-covered lake and snowy mountains. After a few minutes, I thought it was weird that Shane hadn't followed me down, so I headed back up to find him and he was waiting for me on the top of the hill. (I got butterflies just now thinking about it all over again!)

He said "I wrote you a note." I'm always asking Shane to write me notes, so I was obviously thrilled. He handed it to me and on the front it said "to Megan: to open on our wedding day." I shouted "WHAT!" and started nervous/excited laughing as Shane said some sweet things, got down on one knee, and asked me to be his wife. I said yes, obviously. But before I did, in my deliriousness I turned to Beth and Bruce (who were taking photos) and shouted "I told you this was going to happen!" Hilarious.

Everything after that feels like a blur. We took photos, there were lots of hugs, and we all got back in the car to head to Buena Vista for "lunch". We pulled up at someone's house and I started putting it together that we were at a sweet friend's house and our closest friends were inside. (You can see the surprise here.) As soon as I opened the door, I saw some of our best Colorado friends and my best friend from Tennessee standing in the middle of the living room and immediately started crying. Then my parents popped out of nowhere and I was done. We all got to spend the weekend in BV, play games, and let the fact that we'd just gotten engaged settle in a smidge.

Every part of the day was the best surprise, and I still feel so loved by how much time and effort Shane put into our special day and the beginning of our new adventure together.

For all of you wondering if I actually waited to open that note until our wedding, I most certainly did! And let me tell you, it was worth the wait.

Do you have a fun proposal story to share? Link it in the comments!