We love a good proposal story!! Especially when the moments are captured on camera. These two may be married now but we stumbled upon their photos trying to catch up on all our incredible blog content and just had to share!! Shout out to Chef Carnahan for the epic pictures. Let’s let Katie tell us the story of how it all happened!
“It was April, and we were quickly approaching our four year anniversary and knew we wanted to celebrate this milestone somehow. One day while Ryan and I were talking on the phone on my way home from work, like we always did, he said “You know our anniversary is coming up…We should celebrate in Tahoe this year.” We both love Tahoe and have taken many trips there together, so of course, I was all in. On one hand I thought, “Wow, how thoughtful of Ryan to plan a trip for us!” On the other hand I thought, “Wait, this isn’t like him (or most guys) to plan this far ahead, since our anniversary wasn’t until May 15th…could this be it?? Is he going to pop the question then??” We settled on a date and that was it.
A few days before we left, I confirmed with Ryan that we were still going and if he wanted to do anything in particular. He said he had something small planned for Saturday morning, but the rest of the weekend was free for us to do whatever we wanted. Again, I was slightly suspicious, but thought it would be too good to be true. Friday after work, Ryan picked me up from my house, said goodbye to my parents, and we were headed up to Tahoe. I kept trying to ask him what we were doing on Saturday but he wouldn’t spill.
The next morning, we woke up, and I still didn’t know what we were doing. We hit the road, and about 20 minutes later, we pulled into Squaw Valley. Ryan had found a Memorial Day festival that was going on in Squaw Village with live music, drinks, and little shops, so we were going to hang out there for the day. I was excited about doing something unique and proud of him for finding something different like that for us to do! Upon our arrival, we grabbed a coffee from this super cute, hipster coffee shop and then started walking through downtown. The weather had been amazing all week, but unfortunately on this Saturday, it was overcast and sprinkling. Ryan kept saying how disappointed he was that it wasn’t nice because he didn’t want it to ruin our trip. I told him I didn’t care, I was just happy to be there with him!
At about 1:30PM, Ryan told me there was another surprise…he had tickets for us to take the tram up to High Camp (aka the top of the mountain). I was very excited, as I’d never been to High Camp! We got on the tram and although the sky wasn’t clear (usually you can see all of Lake Tahoe), it was still breath-taking. We got to the top and starting to explore, taking some pictures together. It was even colder at the top of the mountain and it really felt like we were up in the clouds, or in Heaven.
After we finished our drink at the bar, we were pretty much ready to head back down to the village. Ryan said there was one spot outside that looked like a good place to take photos, and of course, being myself and being a girl, I said yassss I love photos let’s go. We started walking outside and because of the weather, there was literally no one else outside, except for our photographer, who at the time, I thought was just a professional, taking pictures of white clouds. We headed to the lookout point and I started to reach into my purse to grab my phone so we could ask “that guy” to take our picture. Before I could, Ryan grabbed my hands and said “You know how much I love you, right?” and I agreed, yes of course, totally obvious to what he was happening. Then he went on: “I’ve known I wanted to be with you for a really long time, it just took some time…” then he went down on one knee and my heart sank…I started freaking out (in a good way), saying “OMG what are you doing, what is going on”, not actually believing that this moment was here….he continued “I want you to be my wife and the mother of my kids, will you marry me?”…as he pulled out the ring box, that he had been hiding in that decoy backpack, I exclaimed…”OF COURSE!!”
I was in complete shock but have never been more happy. I had thought about that day so many times in my head, but to actually live it, seemed surreal. 10 minutes later, as we’re taking pictures, our parents and his sister walk out of the building at the top of the mountain, with a platter of champagne and absolutely shocked me. This is when I completely lost it…I was overwhelmed with love and could not believe Ryan had done all of this for me; my heart was so full. I am beyond blessed that our parents were able to share that once in a lifetime moment with us. I was so overjoyed I thought my heart would explode. We headed down on the tram, back to the Village, this time with our families, and a ring on my left ring finger. After checking into our rooms, there was one more surprise…Ryan had arranged a four-course meal at a beautiful restaurant in the village, that he treated everyone to. We had champagne and drinks and delicious food and continued the celebration throughout the night. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect proposal. It was a dream come true and I cannot wait to marry my fiancé!
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