Obviously I had been planning to propose to Vienna for awhile. We had been dating for several years, and year early on we pretty much knew we were going to get married. I decided to pop the question shortly after Bridget (Vienna's mom) had her diamond fall out of her ring. Rather than getting her ring repaired, she and Mike (Vienna's dad) decided that they wanted to give me the diamond so that it could be in Vienna's ring.

A week or so after that, when my sister came into town, my car had an issue and I had to miss work. I took advantage of that to go with my sister and get the diamond set in the ring while Vienna thought I was waiting for vehicle repairs. When it was finished, me and my sister began spitballing ideas as to how I would propose. We considered having me do it at the Mission Inn as well as some other places, but we decided on the spur of the moment that I should do it in Big Bear because we were already heading up there and it had recently started snowing.

On that trip to Big Bear me, my sister Christina, Vienna, and Daniel (Vienna's brother) enjoyed browsing some shops and trying out Indian food for the first time t a place called "Himalayan Restaurant" . I purchased a small snow globe in a gift shop that had a bear on it which I planned to give to Vienna afterwards to commemorate the occasion.

When the moment came, we still weren't really sure exactly where we were going to do it. Christina had been talking all day about how she wanted to get a good sunset photo, so that provided a good cover for the photography. However, when we came to the place I had originally planned to do it, at the boardwalk on the far end of the lake from the dam, we found that there was absolutely no snow and the river was dry beneath the boardwalk. We quickly had to change the plan and tried frantically to think of a spot as the sun was setting. We decide to go for broke and try to make it to Boulder Bay as quickly as possible, all the while with Vienna thinking we were just trying to catch the sunset in a good spot. She later commented that she thought it was so funny that I was so committed to helping Christina get a good sunset photo.

We arrived in Boulder Bay shortly before sunset - and I mean shortly. We got out and found a sheltered spot where the road wasn't completely visible. At that point, I just had to get Vienna to come over to me. She had conveniently been right next to me all day until right when I was ready to do it, at which point she was content to stand on a rock and look at me funny when I asked her to come over. I told her I wanted to explore under the bridge, and stopped her where Christina had set up her camera to kneel down and ask the question. I remember barely being able to say the words and Vienna saying "Are you serious?" (in an excited way), before she of course said yes. We then took a few photos and by the time we walked the short distance back to the car it was already dark.

After I proposed, we began heading down the mountain to meet our families at Romano's Macaroni Grill to celebrate, which Vienna was completely unaware of. There was a ton of traffic and we could barely see through the fog, so it was actually a really scary drive down. I remember finally getting to the bottom of the hill, out of the fog, and realizing that I just got engaged and hadn't been able to think about it because I was so focused on the sketchy drive. It kind of hit us both all of a sudden. I suggested we go to Romano's to get some desserts to celebrate, and she happily agreed. Our families were somehow running late, despite the traffic, so we still had to stall. We took her to Barnes and Noble to get her a wedding planning magazine, and when we were done our families had arrived. We walked into the restaurant, our families cheered for us, and we celebrated.

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