Wedding Blog

How it all happened…

The proposal story, in all of its glory. Unabridged.

Soooo, once upon a time, Mr. Ramen and I went hiking on Camelback Mountain. We like to hike when it’s cool enough in Arizona and we actually have free time. So… uh, not a lot, but we like it. Annnyways, we were hiking, and Mr. Ramen mentioned that we should return and watch the sunset from this one rock overlooking the city.

Fast forward to Thanksgiving. we went to look at rings, since Mr. Ramen has no clue what my taste in jewelry is like. He spied this beautiful ring while he was waiting for me to be dropped off, and thought, ‘I bet she will like this one.’ And whaddaya know - I picked it out and fell in love with that exact same ring on my own. But I knew it was probably waaaaaaay out of any budget he had set up, so I tried to let it go. (Translation: I Googled the ring and bookmarked it.)

And like any good, patient girlfriend, I kept asking him when we would get engaged. To which he kept saying, “I need more time. Just be patient!”

So over Christmas, I finally gave up on the asking, since he said he needed at least 2 more month, and made it seem that he hadn’t talked to my parents yet, and hadn’t even bought the ring.

Little did I know, that sneaky boy had found a jeweler in NY who sold the ring and ordered it the week after Thanksgiving. ANNND he had asked my parents for their blessing/permission. Uhmm, LIAR! He totally lied to me, which was easy, since I was away at school.

He finally decided that with some help, he would propose to me on Camelback mountain, at sunset. He enlisted my sister and brother, and his brother to help him. But, he thought if he asked me to go hiking with him, I would be suspicious, so he wasn’t sure how to get me to go. On our drive back to Arizona, he asked me to have lunch with him on Saturday, and if we could go ring shopping, since he didn’t have a ring yet and I wanted to go to another jewelery store. I then asked if we could go hiking later, to which he happily responded, “Yes!”

So… it was a bright sunshine-y day, with no clouds in the sky… and he was late! (He was scouting out proposal sites, apparently). My sister offered to do my hair and makeup (she thought I’d be suspicious, but I wasn’t, because she always does things like that). Finally, Mr. Ramen showed up and we went to lunch at Duck and Decanter. It’s not my favorite place. But anyway, as we walked to the car to go to the jeweler’s, the sky had darkened, which made him freak out and ask weird questions like, “Do you think it’s going to rain? Did you feel that? Is it sprinkling?” And then, “Do you want to be with me forever?” All to which I responded, “No, it’s not raining. Yes, I want to be with you. You are so weird.”

So we went ring shopping, which threw me off, since I figured he didn’t have a ring. Although, he kept text messaging someone, and seemed really disinterested (I assumed the rings were too expensive).

Then we drove to Camelback. It was crowded and there was almost no parking. I suggested we just go back home, as I was tired and it was cloudy. He got realllly persistent about finding a spot, even though I was a bit cranky, so we finally parked. I mentioned that if someone else got engaged while we were watching the sunset, I would be so depressed (oh, the irony!). I had to change into my tennis shoes to hike, and I looked soooo ridiculous, like I was the crazy girlfriend that dressed up to go hiking. Ugh. So as we walked, I kept talking about how dumb I looked, and how tired I was. Meanwhile, he kept stopping to “enjoy nature” and to “look at caves”, while I wanted to hurry up and watch the sunset so I could go back home.

So, we got to this spot where the trail splits into two. To get to the sunset watching spot, you go up to the left. However, Mr. Ramen started to lead me down to the right, and I was kind of annoyed because he dragged me up the mountain to watch the sunset, and all of the sudden he didn’t even care about watching it anymore. At this point we were behind this other couple, and I saw all tehse rose petals, and I started thinking, ‘WHAT THE… someone else IS getting engaged!!!!’ (*insert pouting here*) Right then, I saw some Asian person hiding in the bushes, so I got confused, and the denial set in. Mr. Ramen was leading me up the stairs covered in rose petals. So, I said, “Don’t touch someone else’s stuff!”

Then I saw his guitar, and automatically, I thought, ‘He’s just tricking you! Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh, is this really happening? No! It’s fake! It has to be fake’

Then he handed me a long-stemmed rose. My heart has never beat so fast.

So, he had written me this super-sweet song for Christmas, and told me that there is another VERSION that he wanted to sing for me. At the end of the song, he sang, “I finally can say what I’ve wanted to tell you for so long - I love you.” To which my mind literally imploded. Literally. When we had first started dating, we said we didn’t want to say I love you unless we got engaged.

So he gets down on one knee, and my mind was freakkkking out. I then noticed that my younger brother was holding a camera behind a random ledge, so I tried to hold back my tears, and to focus on what Mr. Ramen was saying to me. Then, he busted out the ring. THE ring.

I was teary and said, “Ohhhhmygoshhhhh, ohmygosh, yes!” Then we kissed and hugged…. and then there was applause! We had a captive audience of hikers congratulating us!

I was in shock and disbelief. And the best part? The boy knows me so well, he even brought my cute shoes up the mountain so I could change into them to wear for pictures. Oh yeah. I’m marrying a keeper.

* all pictures taken by my sister