mark and i met working at smasburger. me, a vegetarian, him definitely not a vegetarian but somehow he made flipping burgers somewhat fun. we went out for drinks one night after work, to tgif during a snow storm and still to this day is one of my favorite nights. i guess you could say the rest was history.

we started dating and travelling together, going to california, europe, hawaii and beyond. we then moved in together in our little apartment in caldwell and love the space we have created. fast forward a few years, we adopted our dog, cooper, and have become a cute little family.

eight years later, here we are, engaged and so excited to start planning out the rest of our lives together :)

well mark is a liar. but he did it for a good reason :) i was told that on monday, february 20, 2023 that mark was going to ask my dad for his blessing. we had been looking at rings for a few weeks and then he said, well now i need to talk to your dad. so we had a plan. or so i thought.

we were away that weekend for marks birthday in washington dc and we decided that on our way back up on sunday night, we would stay at my dads and hang out on monday since we both took off. and on monday morning, we would all go watch the sunrise and then go walk and get coffee. while we went to get coffee, mark said he would take my dad away and walk alone with him to ask him for permission. it sounded perfect, my brothers were going to be there and i would take them ahead while mark stayed back with my dad. cool, perfect.

however, mark had a completely separate plan in mind. he had already asked for my dads blessing a week earlier (when he told me he was going to a brewery with his brother) and he already had spoken to all of my brothers to make sure they were down there. meanwhile, i figured oh they were all off on monday too and there was a game on so that makes sense that they are all together at my dads house. silly me.

so there we are, monday morning at six am walking down to the sunrise and it was a bit of a gloomy morning but that didn't matter. i love being up that early, listening to the waves and starting my day with my feet in the sand. and mark was going to ask my dad for permission which meant he would ask me to marry him soon! and it turns out, he would ask way sooner than i thought.

mark asked david to take a polaroid picture of me and mark and i guess that was everyone's que. mark came up to me, hugged me, and that's when i thought hey what's going on? he stepped back, got down on one knee and my first words were "stop what are you doing?" because in my mind, he still had to ask my dad for permission!

i was shocked, stunned, i cried, said "yes of course!" and fell into his arms. it was truly the most incredible morning of my life. and to have my whole family in on this secret, and that they all somehow hid it from me, make it an even more amazing surprise.