Dear Reader,
I did. A couple of weeks ago I popped the big question to the lovely, talented and lovable Lauren Busath. The day was not as eventful as most engagements, but I thought it was perfect for us. We are very excited to be getting sealed in the Bountiful Temple in August! In celebration of the recent events, here the story. However, we wanted to get both sides. Everything in bold is Lauren's writing. Everything else is me.
Now, Lauren and I have dated twice...once back in 2012-2013 for a few months before she left on a full-time mission and now. We went on our "first date" in February of this year and had such a great time. I felt as though we hadn't skipped a beat since the last time we had been out. So, come the beginning of May, I was head over heels for her already. We had already been to my sister's wedding together and we were doing pretty much everything together. Thus, the engagement was not a foreign concept.
After dating only three short months - this time around - Dale and I both knew we wanted to get married. I knew an engagement was coming, but I didn't know when, how, or with what! Because Dale and I never went ring shopping together, I was very curious as to what the ring looked like or if he was even looking at them! Thanks to the probing of a good friend I found out Sunday, June 12 that he had indeed ordered a ring, yet it was still not in his possession. I was pretty excited yet a little nervous at the same time. Getting engaged is kind of a big deal. Needless to say, however, that week I definitely did my homework of how long ring sizing generally took (for the record the answer is FOREVER) and paid special attention to the size of his pockets. I wasn't really expecting anything that week though.
Ah-ha! Thanks, Leah, for the probing that gave away my secrets. Anyway, I got the ring on June 14th. It was burning a hole in my pocket for several days. It was a really busy week, so it was extremely difficult to find a time that would seem inconspicuous but be free at the same time. We were both working a lot and she had just been called to the relief society presidency in her ward. The pressure was on, though, because I wanted to have a ring on her finger before getting major wedding prep done. So I decided to enlist some help. We'll tell you about that in a minute.
Finally, Friday rolled around and Dale invited me to go on a hike with him the next day. Following a bridal shower in the morning, I called Dale and told him I was on my way home. He was grateful as he had been "shopping for his dad" at the mall and wanted to be home when I got there. I told him I was about thirty minutes out. Of course it ended up taking me an hour to get to his apartment after changing and being intercepted by a roommate.
I was DYING! Little did Lauren know that I had gone that morning to pick up the second part of proposal idea and I had gone up the canyon to hide the ring and the package. I was hoping to head up to Stewart Falls since we had talked about going hiking up there, but there was some kind of event at Aspen Grove that made it difficult. I decided that we would just go to Rock Canyon instead. I ran up the mountain and straight up to the cave that I had in mind. We had been up there before to watch the sunset once, so I knew she wouldn't be too suspecting of going to explore it if I suggested it. After 20 minutes of finding a good place to hide the ring, I put the package at the entrance of the cave and waited...and waited...Lauren was at the Bridal Shower still. I wasn't leaving that mountain until she called. She finally did.
I then looked back at the bag and recognized the handwriting as his own. By the time I turned around Dale was kneeling on the ground in a ring and box in hand and asked me to marry him. I of course said "yes!" - since I'm writing this. To be honest, I was so surprised that I didn't really pay a lot of attention to what he said, but I'm sure it was great, and he was smart to keep it short. ;)
I did. A couple of weeks ago I popped the big question to the lovely, talented and lovable Lauren Busath. The day was not as eventful as most engagements, but I thought it was perfect for us. We are very excited to be getting sealed in the Bountiful Temple in August! In celebration of the recent events, here the story. However, we wanted to get both sides. Everything in bold is Lauren's writing. Everything else is me. Now, Lauren and I have dated twice...once back in 2012-2013 for a few months before she left on a full-time mission and now. We went on our "first date" in February of this year and had such a great time. I felt as though we hadn't skipped a beat since the last time we had been out. So, come the beginning of May, I was head over heels for her already. We had already been to my sister's wedding together and we were doing pretty much everything together. Thus, the engagement was not a foreign concept.
After dating only three short months - this time around - Dale and I both knew we wanted to get married. I knew an engagement was coming, but I didn't know when, how, or with what! Because Dale and I never went ring shopping together, I was very curious as to what the ring looked like or if he was even looking at them! Thanks to the probing of a good friend I found out Sunday, June 12 that he had indeed ordered a ring, yet it was still not in his possession. I was pretty excited yet a little nervous at the same time. Getting engaged is kind of a big deal. Needless to say, however, that week I definitely did my homework of how long ring sizing generally took (for the record the answer is FOREVER) and paid special attention to the size of his pockets. I wasn't really expecting anything that week though.
Ah-ha! Thanks, Leah, for the probing that gave away my secrets. Anyway, I got the ring on June 14th. It was burning a hole in my pocket for several days. It was a really busy week, so it was extremely difficult to find a time that would seem inconspicuous but be free at the same time. We were both working a lot and she had just been called to the relief society presidency in her ward. The pressure was on, though, because I wanted to have a ring on her finger before getting major wedding prep done. So I decided to enlist some help. We'll tell you about that in a minute.
Finally, Friday rolled around and Dale invited me to go on a hike with him the next day. Following a bridal shower in the morning, I called Dale and told him I was on my way home. He was grateful as he had been "shopping for his dad" at the mall and wanted to be home when I got there. I told him I was about thirty minutes out. Of course it ended up taking me an hour to get to his apartment after changing and being intercepted by a roommate.
I was DYING! Little did Lauren know that I had gone that morning to pick up the second part of proposal idea and I had gone up the canyon to hide the ring and the package. I was hoping to head up to Stewart Falls since we had talked about going hiking up there, but there was some kind of event at Aspen Grove that made it difficult. I decided that we would just go to Rock Canyon instead. I ran up the mountain and straight up to the cave that I had in mind. We had been up there before to watch the sunset once, so I knew she wouldn't be too suspecting of going to explore it if I suggested it. After 20 minutes of finding a good place to hide the ring, I put the package at the entrance of the cave and waited...and waited...Lauren was at the Bridal Shower still. I wasn't leaving that mountain until she called. She finally did.
When I finally arrived at his apartment he was casually lying on the couch. When he got up to leave, I faithfully checked his pocket for an abnormal bulges. Not to my surprise, there were none, and I concluded that we would simply enjoy a nice hike through Rock Canyon. Upon arrival Dale suggested we head up to a certain cave. I was super interested in going as we had been there before and wanted to explore, but decided to just let him make the decisions. He booked it up the trail. At the time, I had no idea why - maybe it was because I was telling him about the great sale I had found on lingerie for my friend, and he just wasn't interested - but that was soon explained.
Correction: I did not "book it up the trail." I was walking completely normal, although I was really confused why she was telling me about lingerie sales...apparently the day before Father's day is a really good time to buy it. Who knew?
We arrived at the cave only a mile or less from the trail head. In the cave I found a bunch of left over Top Ramen wrappers and a brown paper bag. I promptly started complaining about how ridiculous I thought it was that people couldn't just take their trash with them. The brown paper bag had a note on it asking people to leave it there with the flowers. I didn't see any flowers, so I assumed that they had already been taken and the people just didn't take the bag with them. Dale told me, "maybe somebody meant to leave them." Yeah whatev.......
In retrospect, I should have cleaned out the cave. My bad.
I then looked back at the bag and recognized the handwriting as his own. By the time I turned around Dale was kneeling on the ground in a ring and box in hand and asked me to marry him. I of course said "yes!" - since I'm writing this. To be honest, I was so surprised that I didn't really pay a lot of attention to what he said, but I'm sure it was great, and he was smart to keep it short. ;)
She had no idea what I said. As soon as she saw the ring she just said yes. I don't mind though. That's exactly what I was hoping for. :)
Now a few unexplained details. The brown paper bag contained an adorable book that we wrote together, well kind of - he wrote most of it. The book is a fairy tale version of our relationship from the very beginning three and a half years ago including pictures. At the end of the book Dale included comments from close friends and some family. Now where did he get the ring? Well he hid it along the side of the trail and picked it up as we went without me noticing! I'd be bookin' it up the mountain too if I had done that. In fact, I wouldn't be leaving the mountain at all, but it all worked out perfectly. I couldn't have asked for a better engagement to a better man!
Again, I was not "booking it." The booklet was not mostly written by me, that is one detail we disagree on. We had written a lot of long text messages back and forth to each other and I simply copy and pasted in some missing details. As I mentioned earlier, this was the second part of the proposal that I asked for help on. Her family and friends were so accommodating to write some things so quickly about Lauren and all of them describe her perfectly. They all gave me great summaries on all of Lauren's positive attributes and her general amazing-ness. They all adore her and it is easy to see why.
Anyway, there is the story of how we got engaged officially. We are both looking forward to starting a life together, even though it could be argued that we have been in each other's lives for almost 4 years already. Thanks to all of you for helping us out. We love you all.
Comments
Post a Comment