Engagement story: so our best family friends, The Porters, live in Portland, OR and a few years ago before I met Colin our families went wine tasting because Portland has beautiful wine country. After 3 wineries I naturally declared “this is the best day of my life!” because I was with my favorite people and having amazing wine, duh. Then when Colin and I started dating I would always mention that he needed to meet the Porters and go wine tasting because it’s amazing. Fastward, and it’s almost our 1 year anniversary. We wanted to do a fun trip but Sully needed to get his 1 year check up so we eventually decided to road trip to Iowa on Friday to see Dr. Sandeman. However, when I came home from work Wednesday, Colin said, “Tay we aren’t going to Iowa, pack your suitcase for 50 degree weather, we are going to the airport!”. He even secretly contacted my manager to request my time off. So once we got to the airport he printed the boarding pass and I realized we were headed to Portland to stay with the Porters (Brianna Porter is my bridesmaid and her two brothers are Ushers), which I was so surprised and excited about! Then the surprises just kept coming. We landed and mysteriously my sister is waiting at the airport but she said she had a meeting there, which was actually true. Then we get to the Porter’s house and my parents are also there and my dad said he had a meeting there as well so they figured we could make it a family trip, which was very believable. Meanwhile, in their kitchen there is a chef preparing a ton of food and Susie told me that tonight the “kids” were going out to dinner while the adults had people over for a “business” dinner, when in reality they were going to meet up with Keaton, Colin’s brother, who had just gotten in town. Meanwhile, the kids went out for pizza. So the next morning, Colin said the last surprise was taking a party bus to wine country. And again I was so happy and surprised I would finally be going back to wine country and with Colin this time! Once we got to the winery, Colin pulled me aside and said I have a present for you and took my hand and led me up into the winery. At this point my heart was racing but I was still confused. We got to a little table with a white table cloth and two glasses of white Pinot nior and Colin got down on one knee and said “Tay, I can’t believe you didn’t figure this out, but this isn’t a family trip. Will you marry me??” And obviously I jumped up and down and said yes. Pretty sure I forgot to even put the ring on till a few minutes later. My hands were shaking and as we walked back down the hill I saw Colin’s parents and Keaton waiting at the bottom with my family and the Porters and I officially lost it and the water works started flowing hard! And little did we know at the time but the Sandeman’s had secretly hired a photographer for the event who was hiding in the winery, crawling through the mud and taking pictures of us, which was amazing. So we all proceeded to wine and champagne taste, took the party bus back, which got pretty rowdy, and the last surprise was that the chef in the kitchen was actually preparing a 3 course meal for our engagement dinner, which we ate at the Porter’s beautiful home and it was delicious. It was truly the best day and Colin and our families worked really hard to keep it a secret and I was completely shocked!