Trout Creek Bible Camp

Rehearsal Dinner

Wedding Day

Wedding

Reception

Our Wedding

Like all great love stories such as The Office or Parks & Rec, we met at work. He offered to take me on a motorcycle ride, and I accepted --nevermind that it was November. We went to Alsea Falls and hiked through the trees. Neither of us was sure if it was a date. But three days later on November 14th we decided to officially begin dating so it must have been.&nbsp;

How We Met

The difficulty was surprising her.&nbsp;

 

Maddie&nbsp;knew the proposal&nbsp;was coming and time was short. With medical school only 3 months away, there were only a couple&nbsp;weekends when I&nbsp;could feasibly ask Maddie&nbsp;to marry me. I pondered my options for how to pop the question in a way that she wouldn't see coming.&nbsp;I decided on my course: feigned incompetence and some spontaneity.&nbsp;

 

As I was waiting for the engagement&nbsp;ring to arrive, I dropped several dispersed&nbsp;and&nbsp;poorly concealed comments about&nbsp;"plans"&nbsp;for a certain&nbsp;Sunday and how we should go up to see her family that weekend. However, all along my plot was to propose on the&nbsp;Saturday before.&nbsp;

 

We were&nbsp;planning&nbsp;on going up to Portland for&nbsp;the&nbsp;weekend ostensibly&nbsp;to visit family. I called Maddie's parents and asked them to make up an excuse for something they would be doing for a few hours on Saturday afternoon. That way, Maddie and I would not need&nbsp;be under any rush to get up to her parents house as nobody except the dogs would be&nbsp;home.&nbsp;

 

When we called her parents about coming up&nbsp;for&nbsp;the
weekend, they delivered their excuse about being busy with a birthday
party&nbsp;Saturday&nbsp;afternoon.&nbsp;Maddie replied with "oh that's
ok, you know we need constant entertainment." I was afraid&nbsp;she would
say&nbsp;something like this and indicate&nbsp;she wanted to go up early in the
day despite her parents not being home. I had a backup
plan.&nbsp;&nbsp;"But Maddie, do&nbsp;you want to go garage sailing before
we go to Portland? There is no point in us rushing up there." She
excitedly agreed.The other part of the plan was getting Maddie (and her family who would take pictures)&nbsp;to a place&nbsp;for a proposal without her expecting it. I had the perfect&nbsp;place in mind:&nbsp;the little bridge downstream of south falls in Silver Falls State Park. I waited patiently for Maddie to bring up any mention of something nature-related&nbsp;in one of our conversations so I could "spontaneously" think that&nbsp;we should go on a hike. Much to my relief, she did do this while we were eating dinner&nbsp;on the day before the proposal. She was&nbsp;reminisced&nbsp;of our first date when we took a motorcycle ride to Alsea falls. After she mentioned our first date,&nbsp;I think our conversation went something like this:&nbsp; 

Me:&nbsp;"Maddie, I think I&nbsp;would really like to go for a hike this weekend. Do you think there is time after we go garage sale-ing&nbsp;tomorrow?"

 

Maddie:&nbsp;"I think so...where do you want to go?"

 

Me:&nbsp;"Somewhere on our&nbsp;way up to Portland"&nbsp;

 

*Pause*&nbsp;

 

Me:&nbsp;"I think there are some good short hikes at Silver Falls park."&nbsp;

 

Maddie:&nbsp;"Ok. I think that would be nice."&nbsp;

 

As we drove&nbsp;from Eugene&nbsp;to Portland the next day, Maddie was navigating. When we got to around Albany, I&nbsp;asked if Maddie could look up some hikes at Silver Falls state park and find one we could go on&nbsp;that was only a mile or so long. Even though there are lots of trails around Silver Falls,&nbsp;I knew based on the layout of the park that&nbsp;there was only one option that she would pick. I knew it would be the path I had chosen and the path where I had shown her family where to conceal themselves in preparation for the proposal.&nbsp;

 

When Maddie and I arrived at the bridge where I would ask her to marry me, I paused with her. I turned her towards me, clutching&nbsp;her tightly as I&nbsp;waited for her family to come from the opposite direction. As we stood still, Maddie later said she was thinking to herself:&nbsp;"Man, it's too bad he didn't think of proposing here."&nbsp;

 

A few seconds later, she got her wish. "Now that your parents are here..." *Shocked Maddie Face* "...I have something I've been wanting to ask you.” 

 

It all unfurled exactly as I had envisioned and Maddie had dreamed. She said yes.&nbsp;

Madeline & Jonathan

Madeline & Jonathan

Photos