Anywhere You Are

In 2019 I was a second semester freshman studying at Colorado State University. I decided to take a geology class, and little did I know at the time, but that decision would change my life forever. I sat next to Adaline in geology every day and on February 28th, 2019, we had our first kiss. It was probably the most awkward kiss one could imagine. We were watching Netflix in her dorm, and I closed the laptop. She opened it and I closed it again. She opened it and said something like “what are you doing,” and I responded, “I am not very good at this.”

This proposal was a culmination of chaos, planning, and deception. Adaline was out of town for a 2-week trip and that is when I decided to plan everything. First was the ring. I knew what Adaline wanted because she would always send me pictures of what she liked, so I just needed her ring size and a Jeweler.  I went to the local Kay with a ring she wears on her ring finger to get her size.  Then, I did a bunch of research and decided to go with a Jeweler I found from a YouTube video, a bit risky, but I did due diligence. They told me the ring would be done in 4-5 weeks so right away I knew the perfect place to do it.  In about 6 weeks we were going on a trip to the southern hemisphere to visit Australia and New Zealand. Deep in Fiordland National Park lies the Milford Sound, an incredible fiord with deep blue water, huge waterfalls and enormous mountains.  Milford Sound would be the place. 

Adaline always told me how important the details had to be for her proposal.  She always joked about requiring the following criteria for a proposal.

1. It had to be in an epic location.
2. She had to be dressed up cute.
3. She had to have her hair and make-up done.
4. She had to have her nails done.
5. There needed to be a photographer, and videographer.
6. She wanted family and friends to celebrate with us after the fact.

While these requirements may seem like a lot to us men, I knew I was up for the challenge.  I knew there was no way to have our family and friends join us on the other side of the world, but I knew she would be okay with that as long as I met the other criteria, and we had an engagement party after the fact.  Little did I know how difficult it would be....

I knew Adaline wanted to do a flight and a cruise excursion in the Milford sound, the only issue is that those excursions wouldn't allow for any free time for the proposal.  I tried to convince Adaline we should do something else so we have more time at the Milford Sound, but she would not give it up.   After much discussion I decided to make up a lie saying, "You never let me surprise you I had plans to take you to a fine dining restaurant."  She was apologetic and obliged, more willing to work with me, but not giving up the excursion.  The next day, I called the excursion company and after some discussion and a bit extra money, I was able to book a later flight back to Queenstown, for May 26th, giving us 4 hours of free time after the cruise.  I was so stoked; everything was going smoothly, and I had already checked off criteria 1-3, as she would obviously dress up nice for a fine dining experience! 

After this was booked, I needed to complete criteria 4 and 5, get Adaline's nails done.  One would think this is the easiest of them all.  If you know Adaline, you know she loves to have her nails done, especially on trips.  A few weeks before our trip our friend Maddy was in town visiting us.  Maddy was in wedding mode as she just had her sister's wedding, so she jokingly asked when I was going to propose.  Little did she know I already had it planned out.  I told her the date and enlisted her help. 

After Maddy had left, I told her to send Adaline a $50 gift card to her favorite nail salon as a "thank you" for letting her stay at our place. The salon didn't do online gift cards, so I had to go to the store and pick up the gift card.  I had Maddy write a letter which I then printed out, traced, put into an envelope, used a post card she had sent to trace her handwriting of our address on to the envelope, put a stamp on it, print the USPS Facing Identification Mark and Maddy's return address onto the envelope, and put it into our mailbox. Adaline got the gift card and had no suspicions.  She was so excited to get her nails done, but to my demise she decided to get a pedicure.  In one final ditch effort before her appointment, during Mother's Day, I gave her $150 for being a good dog mom and told her to have a spa day and go get her nails done. Adaline took the $150 and got a massage...  At this point I had given up hope that I would be able to achieve criteria 4.

After having lost hope in criteria 4 I moved onto criteria 5.  I knew I could handle the video portion; I just needed a photographer.  I thought of enlisting my friends such as Ben and Dylan, avid photographers, but it was too difficult to get them there.  I looked all over and reached out to Airbnb photographer guides, and local shops, but no one was local making their prices extremely out of budget.   After a ton of research, I finally found a local photographer who had a great price.  Her work in the area was not exactly Adaline's style so I asked her if she could send me the RAW files, because I knew we could make it work.  I explained the plan to her, and she was onboard.  Criteria 5 completed.

Despite not being able to complete criteria 4 I moved on and just was waiting for the arrival of the ring.  One day while I was on a call for work Adaline comes over to my desk to check my phone to see if our Airbnb host had messaged us. Unfortunately, my most recent Airbnb conversation was with a photographer from Queenstown specifically asking about an engagement shoot. At the time Airbnb would not let you delete or archive messages. As she grabbed my phone and opened the app, I quickly realized this and snagged it from her before she could see or do anything. This was one close call of many.  I had to constantly delete messages and photos to friends and family in order to maintain the sanctity of the surprise.

A few weeks before we left for our trip, I got a call from the Jeweler that the emerald was delayed, and they wouldn't be getting it until May 8th; we were supposed to leave May 18th. I started to get worried.  I kept asking for progress photos which they never sent, and now the ring was delayed.  They told me it was no concern, but I was stressed.  Weeks went by and the emerald ended up arriving to the Jeweler earlier than expected, but it did not fit in the setting they had already made. They had to refabricate the ring and somehow, they were able to expedite the shipment from Kentucky to Hawaii getting it to me on May 14th.  It was too close for comfort, but I got it. 

The ring was beautiful, I called her family and let them in on the secret, and I stored the box in Mariah's dresser (Adaline's sister).  While packing for the trip, for some reason Adaline had decided that she didn't have enough clothes.  She decided to open her sister's dresser to look for some extra socks, only to find that the ring was not there.  Adaline had opened the dresser above the one the ring was in. 

We left for our trip, and we headed to Australia first.  I had to stress about carrying the most expensive thing I had ever purchased around for a week and a half before the big day.  During our Australia portion of the trip, we went scuba diving in the great barrier reef.  The salt water thankfully happened to ruin Adaline's nails, so she finally decided to get her nails done. I told her that she should get matte black or French (she knows matte black is my favorite and I know if she knew she was getting engaged she would want French.) She decided to get blue, but at least her nails were done, and I had finally accomplished criteria 4.

The day before we left Australia for New Zealand we were checking in for our flight and we had to get our NZ visas.  Adaline got hers, but mine would not go through.  It was $30 to submit for the visa and we needed them to get into the country.  I tried calling, emailing, everything, but had no luck.  I decided to spend $30 extra to reapply and it luckily instantly got approved with only a few hours to spare before our flight.

We got to New Zealand and the night before the flight I showed Adaline what I was going to wear for the excursion and the "fancy dinner."  She said that she was not going to dress up because it was "too cold" and that she wanted to be comfortable.  She had decided she was going to wear leggings.  I tried to convince her otherwise but couldn't change her mind.  With criteria 2 out of the window, I said, "well dress comfortable, but at least do your hair and makeup since the restaurant is super nice fine dining." 

The next morning, I had to leave early, before Adaline woke up, to pick up our camper van.  Unbeknown to me she decided to not only do her makeup but also to wear some jeans!  I picked up the camper van and called the excursion to do a weather check to make sure we were still flying.  It was a beautiful day so I knew it would be going, but you have to call anyway.  When I called, they told me that they had cancelled our flight.  Instead of being devastated about the news, I quickly picked Adaline up and we drove 4.5 hours to the Milford Sound.

Adaline still needed to do the cruise, so she booked one on the way to the Milford Sound which added to the stress because I needed to have enough time with the photographer and to do the proposal.  I whipped the camper van as fast as I could down these gnarly mountain roads and happened to make it there 1.5 hours before the cruise.  This gave us plenty of time for the photo shoot and proposal. I took Adaline on the Milford Sound Foreshore Walk and we got to the lookout with the photographer already there and ready to go. I set my camera up and told Adaline that I had a good shot setup and wanted to get a photo of us.  She said, "hurry up, I want to take photos by this swing," being difficult all the way up to the wire.

Finally, I start recording.  I walked over to her and got down on one knee and referenced the time we had our first kiss all those years ago saying, "I used to not be very good at this, but will you marry me." While this proposal was a culmination of much chaos, planning, and deception, all that matters is she said yes. It was such a beautiful proposal that we will remember forever.  I somehow was able to achieve all the criteria and even throw an engagement party once we got back to the states.

Thank you to everyone that helped me plan and execute this proposal and thank you Adaline for being the best life and travel partner in the world.  I am so happy to get married and continue my life journey with Adaline.  This video is a visual manifestation of our relationship through the years as well as our recent engagement trip to Australia and New Zealand.