Exceeding our Expectations

My fiance and I love to explore together and capture the moment by taking self-portraits. This fall, with the leaves changing, we decided to go for a drive in the country to see the array of colors. Since she had never been to Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, I planned for us to go for a drive after church.

It was a beautiful drive and as we neared the park, the sky cleared up and the sun beamed through the clouds. There were plenty of turnouts overlooking cliffs and majestic mountain views, but none of them caught my eye as a place to stop. Finally, a clearing caught my eye. It was a little obscure, and no one had pulled over to take photos, so the setting was perfect.

We got out of the car and began walking a hundred yards off the road. We found a spot with a clearing and began taking photos with the landscape behind my fiance. From time to time, I would set up the camera on the tri-pod so that I could run in the picture with her. After the third time running back and forth, I changed the settings on my camera to allow for more time for “The Proposal” shot. It was “go” time.

As I walked towards her, I reached into my pocket and discreetly pulled out the ring, being careful to hide the ring from her vision. As I stood next to her and gave her a hug, she asked, “how should we pose now?” I took a step back and shrugged my shoulders. “I dunno…what do you think?”

A couple seconds lapsed, and then I got down on one knee and raised the ring for her to see. I was shocked to see how nervous I actually was as I floundered to spit the words out. “Will you marry me?”

“Huh?” she said with a bewildered look on her face.

I actually had to ask again.

“Are you serious? Are you kidding me?” she kept asking over and over again.

She didn’t realize that the big moment had been captured on camera.

“You still haven’t answered the question. Will you marry me?” I was chuckling as I realized her giddy excitement.

“YES! YES! Of course!” she yelled back as she squeezed me with all her might.

Thank you Jan for creating our dream ring. It exceeded my expectations by far and she won’t stop telling me how she couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful ring.

Nathan