I knew Chris was going to propose, but I had no idea when or how, and when it finally happened, it was a complete, wonderful surprise.
Chris had the ring for a couple months before we got engaged, and we’d been talking about marriage for months. I tried to guess when he would propose, and I teased him occasionally that I was missing an important piece of jewelry, pointing at where he had it locked up. But I also told him that I would wait for as long as it took for him to find the right moment.
In late May 2017, we left for a trip to Germany. The first few days of the trip were amazing–we started in Frankfurt, drove through Bavaria to Munich, and then continued on to the Alps. About halfway through the trip, we spent a day in the village of Hohenschwangau visiting two fairy tale castles. While we were waiting for our scheduled tour time, we walked along the shore of a small lake in the village. It was beautiful, with views of the Alps, calm water, and even a swan. Part of me wondered if he might propose there, but there were lots of other people around and we had the time pressure of getting to the tour on time, so I wasn’t surprised when he didn’t. Later, at one of the castle gift shops, Chris convinced me to buy a jeweled box shaped like an egg that caught my eye, saying “You have a nice sparkly ring at home, and you’ll need a place to keep it!”
After touring the castles, we had planned to take the tram up a mountain in Austria called the Zugspitze to go for a hike, but by the time our tours were over it had started raining and was pretty late in the afternoon. Instead, we headed to the town of Garmisch and had apple strudel and coffee and tried to stay warm and dry while shopping. Afterwards, while we were driving back to our hotel, Chris asked if I would be willing to wake up early the next morning to go back to the castles and take some pictures. Chris loves taking pictures of us, and throughout the first few days of the trip he was constantly asking me to pose as he set up the perfect shot using the new tripod and remote clicker for his cell phone. So it didn’t seem like a strange request at all coming from him and I happily agreed to do it.
The next morning we got up early, showered, and got dressed. I wore clothes I felt good in and put on some makeup, and we headed out. We first hiked up the road to Neuschwanstein castle and took some photos from the bridge near the castle. It was a quiet, peaceful walk with no crowds like the previous day, and I was happy and relaxed. Then we headed down and walked out along the lake again. We walked out for a bit, then stopped for Chris to set up a shot with his tripod. While he worked on getting the camera angled just right, I gazed out at the lake and mountains. As Chris walked over to me, I noticed that his hand was clenched into a fist. Thinking it was just the clicker in his hand, I grabbed at it, telling him it looked awkward. He quickly jerked his hand away, but then reached back out and took my hands and our eyes met. I don’t remember much of what he said, but I remember pure joy and happiness. When he knelt down to actually ask the question, I barely let him get the words out before bending down to kiss him. I didn’t even look at the ring, just at him. After a few moments he put the ring on my finger, and everything felt perfect.
Then, being the perfectionist photographer he is, Chris asked if I would pose and let him actually ask the full question and put the ring on my finger the right way. So we rearranged ourselves and he did the proposal a second time for the camera, then we picked up and headed out.