I wanted to do a short series of posts called “For Brides” to help people during the wedding planning process. During the planning of your wedding, I’m sure you will have questions and want some advice. I have been there and I know it can be the most exciting season of your life, as well as the most overwhelming! Enjoy and feel free to ask me questions. 🙂
Other Posts from the “For Brides” series: 

1.  Wedding Day Details
2.  Should you hire a videographer?
3.  Should you hire a wedding planner?
4.  Who to invite to your wedding
5.  What to wear for your engagement session
6.  First Look vs. Traditional Aisle Reveal
7.  Should you invest in bridal portraits

In case you haven’t been keeping up with the blog for the past several weeks, Katie has been doing a “For Brides” series. I decided that it’s a little unfair to exclude grooms from the blog (I mean, we are kinda involved in the wedding as well). After I opened my big mouth, Katie suggested I do something about it.

I decided to share our proposal story. Not only will this give you a glimpse into our lives, but it can also give you guys a few ideas on what NOT to do.

Katie and I met the third day of freshman year at Anderson University, during “Welcome Week.” They had a special FCA service and pizza after for the freshmen. I skipped the FCA service but wasn’t going to miss the pizza. That’s when I saw her, carrying her flimsy plate of Little Caesar’s pizza.

To say it was “love at first sight” would be a complete lie. A mutual friend introduced us, and I smoothly said “wow, you’re really short” – needless to say, she hated me.

Fast forward a couple of months, and I got her to agree to come watch a movie with me. We watched “How to Train a Dragon,” and the rest is history.

Fast-forward four years after that, the day before our college graduation. Katie’s one rule was that she didn’t want to be engaged while we were in college. She said that it was too stressful and would be crazy trying to take classes while planning a wedding. Of course, that meant that I had to propose one day BEFORE graduation, just to prove her wrong.

After making the phone call to her dad, which included a lot of tears on my part (I tried to ask him in person, but Katie would never go away long enough), I had it all planned out. I had been storing my grandma’s engagement ring in a sock in the side pocket of my golf bag for about four months. It was a really great hiding spot. It was finally time to break it out and put it to good use.

The day before graduation is typically used for packing up your dorm and starting to move out, but there wasn’t anything further from my mind. We had graduation practice and then Katie had an interview for her Haven of Rest position, which meant that she was gone the majority of the morning. I spend the whole day hanging out with her roommates, trying to stay distracted. They knew what was coming so they were more than happy to entertain me for the day.

After a long day of watching The Great Gatsby (I give it 4/5 stars), it was finally time to start getting ready for the baccalaureate service, and after that, family pictures. After sitting through the service, and not paying attention to a word that was said, I hopped in my car and drove back to Anderson’s campus. The ring box felt like it weighed 100 lbs. in my jacket pocket.

I lured Katie back to campus under the impression that we were going to take pictures with our family members and friends, which we did. After we had got all of the family pictures done, I asked her for a picture just by ourselves, and I’ve never been more nervous in my life for a single picture.

We stood under the Anderson University archway, and I looked at her and said, “you know I love you, right?” and she responded, “yep.”

I looked at her and told her, “you know our whole relationship has been here on this campus,” and with barely looking at me, she said, “yes, take the picture.” As you can tell, she was more concerned with getting a good picture than paying attention to me (she’s a genuine photographer at heart). After that, I got down on one knee and finally had the privilege of proposing to the woman that would become my wife one year and one week later. It’s been a wild ride ever since.