Third Times a Charm

This year will forever be remembered for the coronavirus pandemic, and for us it drastically shaped how our engagement story occurred. Disney has always been our thing, so of course when we planned a trip to Japan we were going to make a stop at Tokyo Disney. Austin thought this would be the perfect way to propose. He had started making plans on where he would do it (Beauty and the Beast world- of course Caitlin's favorite Disney princess) and he knew someone over there who was going to help him with the plans and a photographer. As you can expect, those plans got scratched when the virus started impacting international travel.

Since we still had to use the vacation time, Austin came up with a second plan, Vegas. At that time we could still travel within the United States. He was planning on doing it at the fountains at the Bellagio. However, once the all you can eat buffet's starting closing in Vegas, he said he was calling the trip off- and of course traveling by airline throughout the states at that point was now cancelled as well.

As we were still determined to not let corona ruin our vacation, we arranged a road trip to Georgia to see Austin's family. We spent the weekend with his family "glamping" in Helen in the Georgia Mountains. It was filled with kayaking, fishing, walks, and fun family game nights. It took some convincing, but Austin got Caitlin to join him for a hike at Amicalola Falls. Little did she know, his friend's wife, a professional photographer, was already there waiting to catch it all on camera. Drawing Cait's attention to a waterfall, Austin FINALLY got the opportunity to kneel down and take out the ring. After the hike, Austin was in for his own surprise when we made it back to the campground to find out his family had decorated the campsite with a cake, a champagne toast and a little surprise!

As we learned, even the best laid plans often go awry, but in the end, amongst all the craziness, our story of coronavirus will always be a joyful one.

#ConqueredCorona

#ConleyFoundAButlerHalf

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