Gresham and I met in 2008 through a mutual friend at the University of New Hampshire, where I was attending school. Gresham was attending Michigan State University at the time, but road tripped with friends to visit our mutual friend during spring break. He and his friends came back the following year and we all hung out again- strictly as friends. I had a boyfriend at the time.

Years later we reconnected through Facebook messenger. Gresham was traveling frequently for work and I was working as a traveling nurse. He reached out to me to ask me for travel recommendations. We continued to message back and forth with our travel stories and tips. He asked me to grab a drink while he was on a work trip in Manchester, NH. I was living in Portland, Maine at the time for work so I made the drive down. We caught up over drinks and then went our separate ways (me back to Maine and him back to Washington, DC). We continued to text message back and forth for a few weeks before I realized that he was interested in being more than my friend. (Apparently, I was oblivious)

About a month later, I decided that I needed to see him again. So, I hopped on a plane to DC on my day off. Shortly thereafter, I accepted a travel nursing assignment in Virginia for three months, which ultimately turned into a full year and moving in together in Alexandria/Arlington, VA.

After Gresham and I moved into our new home in Michigan, we still had to go back to Massachusetts to get our pups from my parents' house. (They had been watching them while we moved in and got settled). We decided to make a fun New England vacation out of it and go hiking- one of our favorite pastimes.

Our original plan was to head up to the White Mountains and climb Mount Washington in New Hampshire. Unbeknownst to me, Gresh had planned on proposing at the top of Mount Washington. His plan was to get engaged in New Hampshire since that was the state that we met in and reconnected in. In typical Meg fashion, I changed the plans last minute and convinced him that we just HAD to go to Acadia National Park in Maine instead. I had never been, and it wasn't that much further of a drive after all! (Poor Gresh.) But, as he says, I was just preparing him for typical life with spontaneous and sporadic Meg.

We got to Acadia National Park and it was breathtaking. (Highly recommend, by the way). After checking into our hotel we went into town to a bar to grab some drinks and appetizers before we headed to the top of Cadillac mountain to watch the sunset- which had been recommended to us by the hotel receptionist.

Gresham had come up with a new plan by this time. He was going to propose to me the following day at the lighthouse that he had researched to take some pictures. Gresham LOVES lighthouses. Over drinks that night he casually asked me which kind of pictures I liked best- lighthouses over the water or mountain top sunsets. I said, "hands down mountain top views." He looked at me kind of funny, and then called the bartender over for another round of drinks. He threw back two more beers before he said he was ready to go.

And again, poor Gresham, I threw another wrench in his plans. We got to the top of the mountain and Gresham took me to a more secluded spot to capture the sunset on his camera.

He told me that we needed to get a picture of the two of us together with the sunset behind us. So he had me go and stand in a specific spot while he set up the camera. (For reference, we do this all the time. He sets up his camera to an auto-mode where he can take multiple pictures of us together. So this wasn't weird to me). He had me facing away from him, looking at the sunset. The only weird part I thought was that it was taking him a really long time to get everything set up. I was starting to get impatient, and screamed "what are you doing back there?" He quickly yelled back "Don't move!" So I stood still and waited for him to come join me. And I waited and I waited. And finally I turned around to once again ask him what the heck was taking so long, and I turned around and he was down on one knee with a ring. And he said, "Hi!" We both laughed nervous laughs, and honestly I don't remember all of his wording because I was freaking out. But at some point he did ask, "is that a yes?" To which I nodded my head and gave him a big hug.

I'd say it was a pretty epic proposal.