His version:

I just want to start by saying that I knew I wanted to marry Ashleigh well before the “proposal” took place. However, my mom came to visit in the middle to late months of 2022 and I told her that I was going to ask Ashleigh to marry me. My mom immediately said “it’s about time! I’ve been waiting for this…”. For the next few months I became an “expert” in diamonds. Watching videos on the importance of the 4 C’s of diamonds (if you know you know). Finally, I was confident in my newfound knowledge of the diamond industry and set out to build the perfect ring for the perfect woman. This took another couple of months as I needed it to be absolutely stunning!

Once I picked out the perfect ring, I knew it was time to start planning the actual engagement. This was, by far, the hardest part because if you know Ashleigh, you know sentiment is the most important thing to her. I came up with a lot of ideas and even asked some of Ashleigh’s closest friends for their suggestions. However, after a lot of failed thoughts and thinking I would never think of something that was sentimental enough it popped into my head. It was a rough draft but I knew at that moment that it needed to incorporate an ice skating rink, because Ashleigh was a competitive figure skater for most of her life, and the most important person in Ashleigh’s life, her son Austin.

For those of you who know the area, I thought the skating rink at Downtown Boston’s Public Garden was the prettiest rink I knew. Next I started secretly texting with Austin and coming up with a plan as to how we were going to pull it off as a team. Austin ultimately helped to come up with the finalized plan and we started to execute. I booked flights back to Boston for Ashleigh and I in Mid-December of 2022.

The morning of December 18th 2022, I woke up as nervous as I’d ever been, because I felt anything short of perfection would be a bust. We got dressed and my mother drove us into Boston and dropped us off right outside of Public Garden. At this point my heart was POUNDING and my body was numb. We got to the rink and put our skates on and off we went.

After about 20 minutes of skating around Public Garden’s rink, Ashleigh received a facetime from Austin, and she looked at me and said “I’ll call him back” but that was going to ruin our plan, so I said no let’s go to the center of the rink and answer the call and show him our view. As we talked to Austin, my heart was racing faster than it had ever raced, and then he said, “Mom, turn around” (this took a few tries because she wasn’t listening to what he was saying), but when she finally turned around, there I was, on one knee. I grabbed Ashleigh’s hand and said, “There’s so many things in life I’m still figuring out as I go, but one thing I know for certain is that you’re my soulmate. Ashleigh, there’s nobody else I’d rather go through life with. The good, the bad, and the moments we’ll remember when we’re old. When I picture the future, I picture us. Ashleigh Lynne Varga; Will you marry me?”.

Her version:

The question I am asked the most is "Did you know?" and the honest answer is no. (hindsight is 20/20 though) Truth be told, I didn't want to go to Boston that weekend. The semester had just ended.. I was exhausted.. and Christmas was just around the corner. But I was told we were going to celebrate his brother, see the fam, and go ice skating outdoors so I packed my bags and off we went. Things were normal for the most part; I was socially awkward the entire time and he was just happy to be home with family. The night before he was on his phone a lot (which was driving me crazy) but I chalked it up to being excited about being home and making plans to see the boys.

Sunday morning we got up to go skating and I'm telling you I really didn't notice anything outside the normal. Looking back can I see that maybe he was nervous? yes, but it came across as wanting to be on time or knowing how important it was to me rather than being blatantly obvious something was about to go down. An important caveat to this story is the fact that skating is so close to my heart; the feeling of being lighter once my skates touch the ice, the way the world gets quieter because the cold air is so dense, and the overall comfort of it. I skated competitively for most of my childhood and it became a safe space throughout the storms of growing up. It is and always will be a sanctuary to me. So him taking the time to just get out there with me was meaningful enough but man does it get better. Boston is a beautiful city and although I will never willingly admit his pride for his hometown is contagious, I was mesmerized by it on that cold Sunday morning. The sun was shining just enough to bring a semblance of warmth. Christmas music was playing and it was tastefully decorated for the season. When we got there he set off to get skates and I went to lace up. When we went to the lockers to put our stuff away there was some random stranger also at the lockers but I didn't know until after the fact that that was his friend he hired to take photos, he just mumbled an awkward oh sorry excuse me and hurried away. When I saw him taking photos, I thought it was a doting father just there to capture his kids enjoying the day. So did I notice the photographer? yes. Did I think "Definitely here to capture the moment my life changes" Yeah, no. Ya girl was blissfully ignorant. So, we skated around a bit and talked. Again, looking back he could have been more engaged (pun intended) in conversation, but at the moment I thought he was focused on his feet or maybe the cold (he forgot gloves, what a rookie). Eventually my son face timed me and this is probably where I went from blissfully ignorant to down right oblivious cause I should have known from the ear to ear smile on the kids face something was up but I couldn't hear him initially so I had no idea what he was calling for. Bobby subtly suggested moving to the middle of the rink so I "could hear better".. as a professional skater I know the middle of the rink is reserved for experienced skaters so they can show off their moves but I figured I could toss in a spin or two if I needed to. Unbeknownst to me this was the last ten seconds of being someones girlfriend.. I skate to the middle and do a few twirls while talking at a loud volume at my phone hoping my son can hear me (very mom of me) until I finally catch on to what he's saying .. "Mom, turn around". I would love to tell you I turned around immediately but turn around? for what? come again? "MOM, TURN AROUND!!". I can faintly hear the Christmas music still playing, my son had a supreme front row seat to the show, complete with my 3 chins all in shock at the moment, and I promise you time stood still. I can see Bobby's mouth moving and his hands shaking but I'm having trouble standing up at this point. When he finally asked "will you marry me", the answer was primal and came from deep within my soul. I choked out "yes, yes, a million times yes" .. I had completely forgotten my son was still on facetime and my phone was in my hand and so I asked him to hold on and put him (still connected on facetime) in my pocket. Now I had to get my gloves off (dont wear gloves to your engagement: rookie move) so he could slip on the most beautiful ring I had ever seen and the size of that thing? GINORMOUS. The entire place erupted with claps and congratulations! It felt like we were in a rom-com from the 2000s and against all odds, I finally got the guy! When I tell yawl he nailed it, it took me a solid week to even recognize that it was real. It was a fairytale. It was personal on so many levels and yet magical beyond belief. I knew a long time ago this was who I wanted to spend my life with, and on this day he told me and the world he wanted that too.