A Woodland Engagement
I know I promised long ago to post our engagement story (life has been a bit crazy), but now I'm finally going to sit and write out this lovely little tale!
For the past two years, Tyler and I have traveled to Portland the first week of August to attend the Pickathon Music Festival. We fell in love with the festival and Portland the first go around, so we were looking forward to revisiting a place that felt like home to us. We spent a day in the heart of Portland, eating and sightseeing. The next three days were dedicated to Pickathon.
The first day of the festival, August 2nd, was a kind of grey day. The rain clouds were out and there was the lightest of drizzles, but to me , I was in heaven. I've always loved the rain and I was happy to have a reprieve from the constant sun. We made our rounds through the site and Tyler suggested that we go on a mini hike to find this really pretty elephant statue in the middle of the woods. We hiked along the trails and admired the beauty all around us. In the distance, and through the silence of the woods, you could faintly hear The Cactus Blossoms cranking out their old school country tunes on The Woods Stage. After a good while, we finally gave up on trying to find the elephant. Our memory did not serve us well at all as to what trail it rested near. As we started making our way, I stopped for a moment and took a picture of a tree log covered in moss. When I turned around to ask Tyler a question, he pulled a white box from his pocket and got on one knee. At this point I was starting to get the most immense feeling of butterflies in my stomach that I had ever felt (second to the butterflies I felt when Tyler and I kissed for the first time). I looked into his gorgeous eyes and he asked me if I would be his wife. I was in shock. Total and utter shock. I was too in shock to even cry! Of course I said yes and he put this beautiful ring on my finger. It was everything that I had ever wanted in a ring. I hugged and kissed him and we began walking back to the main stage. He started to tell me that my dearest friend Julie helped him pick out the ring and that he had asked my dad to marry me while I was on a trip to New Mexico. HE IS SUCH A GENTLEMAN!!!! I was beyond happy that he asked my father before and speechless that my dad actually kept it a secret! Tyler was so proud of the ring and knew every little detail about it. Hearing him talk about all of its qualities was the cutest thing I had ever seen. He seemed so proud. As we walked out of the forest, there was a little boy, maybe 11, playing guitar for some spare change. He was playing Maroon 5's She Will Be Loved and I got teary eyed because it finally hit me that I was going to marry the most important person in my life: my best friend, my confidant, my knight in shining armor, my moon and my stars, my soul mate.
The first day of the festival, August 2nd, was a kind of grey day. The rain clouds were out and there was the lightest of drizzles, but to me , I was in heaven. I've always loved the rain and I was happy to have a reprieve from the constant sun. We made our rounds through the site and Tyler suggested that we go on a mini hike to find this really pretty elephant statue in the middle of the woods. We hiked along the trails and admired the beauty all around us. In the distance, and through the silence of the woods, you could faintly hear The Cactus Blossoms cranking out their old school country tunes on The Woods Stage. After a good while, we finally gave up on trying to find the elephant. Our memory did not serve us well at all as to what trail it rested near. As we started making our way, I stopped for a moment and took a picture of a tree log covered in moss. When I turned around to ask Tyler a question, he pulled a white box from his pocket and got on one knee. At this point I was starting to get the most immense feeling of butterflies in my stomach that I had ever felt (second to the butterflies I felt when Tyler and I kissed for the first time). I looked into his gorgeous eyes and he asked me if I would be his wife. I was in shock. Total and utter shock. I was too in shock to even cry! Of course I said yes and he put this beautiful ring on my finger. It was everything that I had ever wanted in a ring. I hugged and kissed him and we began walking back to the main stage. He started to tell me that my dearest friend Julie helped him pick out the ring and that he had asked my dad to marry me while I was on a trip to New Mexico. HE IS SUCH A GENTLEMAN!!!! I was beyond happy that he asked my father before and speechless that my dad actually kept it a secret! Tyler was so proud of the ring and knew every little detail about it. Hearing him talk about all of its qualities was the cutest thing I had ever seen. He seemed so proud. As we walked out of the forest, there was a little boy, maybe 11, playing guitar for some spare change. He was playing Maroon 5's She Will Be Loved and I got teary eyed because it finally hit me that I was going to marry the most important person in my life: my best friend, my confidant, my knight in shining armor, my moon and my stars, my soul mate.
We didn't tell anyone right away because nothing compares to seeing your family's reaction in person. We got to keep our secret for a whole weekend and it was so wonderful and fun. I kept finding myself staring at my ring in disbelief. That really happened! You got engaged!! We drove in a shuttle with Tift Merritt and her band on the last day of the festival and shared with her that we just got engaged. She was so happy for us! What a cool experience, I'll never forget how sweet and sentimental that little shuttle ride was.
We finally got back home on August 5th and shared the news with our family and friends. Everyone was so happy and it was so nice to be surrounded by all the love.
I'm so emotional now. Every single thing wedding related, Say Yes to the Dress, 27 Dresses, etc, etc... makes me cry. Even hearing that other people have become engaged makes me so happy! It is so wonderful to be so happy that I cry always! Maybe that's why I've stopped wearing mascara....
So there it is folks, our beautiful and special engagement story! Enjoy some pictures below to help paint a better picture of this magical weekend.
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| The entrance to Pickathon on our engagement day. Those pretty rain clouds. |
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| This is was pretty much what the trail looked liked that Tyler proposed to me on. It was only a couple of feet from "the spot." |
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| Here is the picture I was taking before Tyler proposed! I guess we got engaged at 3:00 PM on August 2nd (according to the picture details) |
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| Celebratory Fifty Licks ice cream!! |
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| This is Tift Merritt :) |
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| We ended up designing my ring from scratch when we got back home. Same beautiful diamond with a different setting. |
The sounds of our engagement!
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