Aaron proposed at a place so close to our hearts and our relationship - Big Sur.

We had a Saturday-Monday campsite booked at Treebones Resort. Aaron wanted to propose on the way there, so that we could have the whole weekend to be freshly engaged. In the week leading up to our trip, he asked if Ashley wanted to get mani-pedis done together. Sussing out that something was up, Ashley opted to go with Jess - which allowed Aaron to get all the surprise charcuterie supplies prepared and packed away.

Saturday morning, Aaron packed up the whole car to make sure Ashley's curious eyes didn't see anything they weren't supposed to. He dressed up and tried very hard to get Ashley to change into a nice dress - pretending to be a "Hollywood Chic" couple. Ashley made some very solid points against this, mainly being: Why the heck would I dress up for a 3 hour car ride before we go camping?!.. Alas, she put on one of her comfortable, yet beautiful dresses as a compromise - Aaron was relentless. Finally on the road, we made it all the way to Goleta before Aaron gasped, turned to Ashley and said "Honey, I've forgotten something. We need to go back." Bless her heart she played along, pretending to use the restroom again while Aaron frantically got the ring out of it's hiding place. That's right - he forgot the ring. Oopsies.

He choose a vista point with no one around that had stunning views from a little shaded nook on the cliffside. It took him a minute to scope out the spot, as neither of us had been there before. During this time, Ashley recorded a secret video on his phone with the quote "I think you're about to propose. You're looking for a place for a perfect picnic... but where'd you go?!"

Aaron surprised Ashley with a full, fancy charcuterie picnic, accompanied by our new proposal plant (named Penelope). He popped the question on both knees while tearing up (notably Ashley was lacking in the waterworks department). We popped a mini-bottle of champagne and just hung out taking selfies for a couple hours until it was check in time at Treebones Resort.

Our weekend there was EPIC! Strongly recommend for anybody looking to get away (no kids or parties allowed). We were welcomed with celebratory glasses of wine and a helper that drove all our gear to our campsite. We ate dinner at the in-house omakase restaurant, where we drastically changed the vibe from a quiet fancy meal to a raucous celebration of our engagement! 10/10 would recommend the Wild Coast Sushi Bar. Since we were staying until Monday, the entire resort checked out, leaving us the whole place to ourselves on Sunday! We hung out at the pool and ate our leftover Charcuterie for hours, enjoying being completely alone, without phone service, and happily engaged. Ashley kicked Aaron's but at Settlers of Catan multiple times, we made our standard camping meal of green chicken curry and explored the local swimming hole.

We finished off our weekend by going and getting Oysters in Morro Bay, as we had intended on our first trip to Big Sur. This is where we turned our phones back on and enjoyed sharing with the world the news.

Thanks for reading that whole bit. We love you!