Well…when you get engaged, the first thing that EVERYONE wants to know is exactly how the proposal happened!

Today, AJ and I are celebrating our fifth dating anniversary. I hope our dating anniversary is a day we will continue to celebrate even after we have a wedding anniversary!

So, here it goes… I’m spilling all the details! 😉

As freshmen at Appalachian, we were both living in Cone Hall on different floors. During the first weekend in February of 2014, The Fiddler’s Convention was hosted by Appalachian. This is a gathering of all kinds of Bluegrass and Old Time Musicians from all over our region!

That weekend, there was a square dance hosted by Appalachian and students were invited to attend. I attended with my roommate Anna (now my bridesmaid), who had to attend for a music class credit. AJ was attending with a girl I knew – don’t worry, it wasn’t a date! 😉 A huge group of people were in attendance for the dance. We all had a great time! Close to the end of the dance, AJ asked me to dance when they played a waltz! We had so much fun despite his dancing skills! 😉

A few weeks after that, we had a lunch date and started ‘officially’ dating shortly after that. We are both so glad that we got to spend most of college together! A lot of our closest friends are from Appalachian and we have so many fun memories.

On November 10, 2018, we were in Boone enjoying the mountains for the weekend. On Saturday morning, we had a leisurely breakfast at one of our favorite local restaurants, the Water Wheel Cafe. After some blueberry pancakes and coffee, I felt like AJ was a little more hurried than his usual self… he had an elaborate story about how we needed to get something from his sister, who is a student at Appalachian.

He had to get me out of the car once we got to campus (it was a FREEZING cold day as you can tell in the photos) which was a feat in itself. He took me to one of our favorite spots on campus. Needless to say, the proposal wasn’t very much of a surprise (haha) but was so sweet and fun!!! My dear friend Heather was bundled up in her big coat nearby taking pictures for us, and I didn’t even notice her until afterward (props to you, Heather)! It was the sweetest proposal (even though the ring box was upside down – hahaha!) and we are so happy to be getting married!!!

Thank you HYP Images for our beautiful proposal photos! We can’t wait to get married at Ritchie Hill this fall!