On April 16, 2019 (it was a Tuesday!), Lindsay came home from Milwaukee to take Cooper to a vet appointment. That same day, Charlie was scheduled to take real estate photos of Lindsay’s parent’s house. When she walked in the door to take Coop to the vet, she saw a beautiful human but immediately had to leave for Coop’s appointment (sad!). Secretly, she hoped he would be there when she got back. Thankfully, he was! Charlie needed to take photos of where Lindsay was seated in the house and had to ask her to move, which kick-started their talking. Charlie’s 45-minute appointment turned into a 3-hour appointment because they couldn’t stop talking to each other! To keep the conversation going, Lindsay shared her number on a notecard.

…then Charlie promptly lost the notecard (whoops!). After a week, Lindsay was a bit confused as to why Charlie hadn’t called or texted yet, so she decided to reach out to Charlie on his website with a phrase from his favorite movie (Interstellar). Charlie immediately responded and the two kept talking. They went on their first official date on November 27th (which is why we are getting married on the 27th!). Their entire relationship has been at a distance, but it’s been filled with lots of talking, weekend driving, and adventuring whenever they could.

Some of their trips (aside from the countless trips between Appleton and Champaign) are to Florida, Jamaica, Door County, Northern Illinois, Denver, Bahamas, and Montana. Florida was the first time Charlie and Lindsay spent uninterrupted time together and learned how to road trip with each other. That’s when they learned they made a great team and had fun adventuring together.

Montana was the BIG trip where Lindsay had no idea what Charlie was planning. They started their drive on a late Friday morning and stopped in Minnesota for dinner. Lindsay grilled Charlie on why he wanted to wait so long to propose (as far as Lindsay knew Charlie wanted to wait until after Lindsay graduated…which would have made for 5 years of dating). Charlie was already nervous about the trip and hated having to lie, but lied so well that Lindsay never knew what was coming.

They made it to Glacier National Park safely and set up camp with their friends Seth and Lili. They went for a boat ride on MacDonald Lake the first day and had lunch on a private beach. Lindsay went for a swim in glacier water, and it wasn’t too cold! On the second day, they went for a hike on one of the “easiest” paths (as Seth said), which was still one heck of a climb. But the view was amazing and totally worth all the effort. Day three had a special surprise in store.

Day three involved waking up at 5 am (oof!) and driving 30 minutes through the park to get to Logan Pass Trail Head. It was a quiet ride and Lindsay was a bit cranky from not sleeping too well. They started their VERY uphill climb in the 50˚ weather with So. Much. Wind. Lindsay became even more cranky because she was wearing shorts and began turning a bit purple. So, to stay warm, Lindsay boogied up the mountainside ahead of the rest of her group. Stairmaster Lili caught up to Lindsay and the two hiked together while Charlie and Seth brought up the rear.

Once they got to the peak of the trail, they were on the lookout area and could see more mountains, a beautiful lake, and a goat on another mountain miles out. They also saw the trail heading down to the lake (where Charlie was going to propose) was closed. Lindsay was thrilled because it meant they could go back to the campsite, and she could get warm! But Charlie just *had* to get a photo with Lindsay on the overlook (Lindsay was a bit sassy still). Then they got their photo together where Charlie got down on his knee and asked Lindsay to be his wife. Lindsay’s first words are not appropriate to put in this story (but if you ask us, we’ll happily share!). Lindsay said yes (of course)! They spent the rest of their trip in a hotel in Whitefish, MT. Charlie pulled out all the stops to make this the most special trip, and it was!