HOW IT HAPPENED:
For about four years now, Hayden and I have had the tradition of heading to Vail for our anniversary and enjoying a relaxing weekend together – this year was no different. We decided to head up on Friday morning and leave Sunday morning so that we would have two full days in the mountains. About a month before our weekend getaway, Hayden suggested that he make plans for us on Friday, and I make plans for us on Saturday. That sounded good enough to me!
The night before we left we went to my parents house for dinner. Everything seemed perfectly normal and I wasn’t suspicious of him or my family knowing anything I didn’t. On the other hand, we have been together for seven years at this point, we have an apartment and a dog together, and we were about to leave for a romantic weekend getaway… so, I got a manicure just in case. 😉
Hayden told me that I should dress “cute and warm” for our day on Friday, so I did just that. On the drive up Hayden was acting totally normal, so if anything, I was thinking a proposal probably wasn’t going to happen! When we got to Vail Hayden saw the gondala that takes you to the top of the mountain running. He didn’t know for sure if it would be open or not, so when he saw it running he couldn’t hold back his excitement and told me “we’re taking the gondala to the top and having lunch up there!”
We got to where you buy tickets for the gondala to find out it was actually closed, and they were just running it to get ready for opening day which was a week away. “Okay, plan B” Hayden said and started to get flustered “uhhh… lets just go for a walk!” We started walking along the river and from Lionshead into Vail. We walked and walked and walked and walked. He was holding conversation like normal, but his palms got a little sweaty and he was looking around a lot, so I knew something was up.
We were walking around the town of Vail when Hayden said he wanted to walk back by the river and snap a picture of it. This was the giveaway for me. I know my boyfriend: I have to beg him to take pictures with me and he posts on Instagram about once a year… so because he wanted to “go take a picture”, I knew he was up something. When we got back to the river, there was a girl walking towards us on the path. Hayden stopped her to ask for our picture, and whispered for her to keep snapping because he was going to propose (I didn’t hear him ask her this, of course).
I don’t care who you are or if you know a proposal is coming or not, when the guy you love gets down on one knee and asks you to marry him, you go into shock! I couldn’t even remember my response because I was so excited, but Hayden said I gave him a very confident and sure-of-myself YES!
THE AFTERMATH
Thank goodness for Facetime! One thing people don’t tell you about getting engaged is how fun it is to call all your family and friends to let them know. That was one of the best parts of the day! Each persons reaction is so different but so genuine and fun to see. We are so lucky that our families already know and love each other, so getting to officially bring them together is so exciting and even more fun than I ever could imagine.
THE RING
Have I mentioned that Hayden and I have been together for seven years? If not, then now you know. Because of that, you can probably imagine that there are no secrets between us, and we have talked about rings and what I like/don’t like many, many times. I wanted Hayden to have a lot of say in the ring, so I pretty much told him my top two asks and let him do the rest. I asked for:
1) A rectangular shaped diamond. As far as I know, there are two options for this: an emerald cut (what I preferred) or an elongated radiant (also really pretty). I once showed a pic of them side by side and Hayden said he liked the elongated radiant. I decided that he could choose which cut he wanted, I just really wanted the diamond to be the shape of a rectangle (that’s just what looked best on my chubby fingers, lol)
2) I wanted the diamond to sit up really high. I have tried on rings where the diamond is practically level with the band and that just did not look good on me. Plus when it sits higher, it looks bigger!
Everything else was up to him! The coolest thing about my ring is that Hayden designed it himself (with the help of the amazing jewelers at JF Options, of course). It is 100% custom and he started the ring design process months ago so that he could get it in time for this trip, which still amazes me because I know him very well and he’s a very bad liar and yet, I had literally no idea. I know he consulted my sister and my pinterest (lol) but he could not have done a better job and there is not one thing about it I would change! I absolutely love it.
So there’s the story! I will be doing another blog post about the rest of our weekend which was a total dream and I can’t wait to share. I’m sure this blog is going to turn into a wedding planning blog from now on, so I hope you guys are ready!
I’ll leave you guys with some old pics of Hay and I <3
Until next time!
