One year ago today, our true forever began. Matt proposed on December 1, 2018 at sunset in the Everglades National Park. We kind of have a thing for National Parks and though this wasn’t our first trip there, it now holds a special place in our hearts. A couple years prior, when we made our first visit to the park and left saying we needed to spend more time exploring this park in the future. Fast forward to last December, we decided to start our Florida Keys trip with a full day in the park. We spent the day unplugged, canoeing, watching manatees swim, and just enjoying the time together in the warm weather. On the way out of the park, we were busy figuring a dinner plan and scheduling our morning scuba diving trip. Much to my surprise (and honestly hangry attitude), Matt wanted to stop and visit the last visitor center before exiting the park. The sunset was absolutely incredible so I didn’t complain and eagerly agreed to make the stop. After walking on the boardwalks and looking at the crocodiles, Matt and I walked out to a quiet pier overlooking a lily pad. As I was taking in the view, Matt had his own plans. We weren’t at that spot for more than a minute before he was on one knee asking me if I would marry him. It was obviously an easy, “Yes!”. We spent the first week of our engagement beaming with excitement, scuba diving as much as possible, and watching every sunset.
Now your next thoughts are probably HOW and WHY did you keep your engagement a secret? Well, it was actually fairly easy to keep it off social media. I always hid my ring/left hand in photos and was very careful to examine any photos before I allowed anyone to tag me! Matt and I had talked a lot about when the time did happen that we would keep it a secret and just run off and elope quickly after the proposal. Our wedding plans did change (I will do another blog post about that another time) but we did want to keep things very small and knew keeping it quiet was one way to achieve that goal. With social media, we also felt it took the excitement out of sharing this moment with the ones who are closest to us. There is absolutely nothing like seeing someone’s face when you tell them in person you’re getting married. The thrill of announcing it in person became so special to us. To keep things under wraps, we also asked our close family and friends to keep our wedding plans secret as we wanted to keep things very small and intimate. 
In February 2019, we met up with our close friends (my childhood BFF), Darryl Ann and Joe of Salt and Pine Photography. When they visited us during Christmas 2018, we decided to meet up in San Francisco to do a couples’ trip and to take our engagement photos. Well, there are some things you just can’t plan for and for us that was the terrible weather the Bay Area was experiencing. It rained 90% of the trip with hurricane winds. Knowing that we wouldn’t see them again until possibly our wedding day, we decided to tough it out and have our engagement photos taken. Despite the weather and bone chilling wind, we love our photos from this trip. We started our engagement photos in Muir Woods and seriously, this place is absolutely incredible! Being covered by the towering trees made a nice rain cover. During sunset, we headed to Marin Headlands where the wind was even more wild but the view was nothing short of amazing. 
On our last full day in San Francisco, we decided to visit Baker Beach. Since the beach and the ocean are so special to us, we couldn’t have our engagement photos not be on a beach somewhere! When we first arrived, the weather was insane. The waves were so bad the coast guard was out saving a small craft and the fire trucks arrived 20 seconds after we parked. As we were getting ready in the car, we could see a storm moving into the area. We decided to give it a shot and after 5 minutes and some hail, we ran back to the car until it cleared. After about 10 minutes, the hail and storm passed and this gorgeous, glowing sun came out full force. It was still cold but absolutely gorgeous. 
Our trip was definitely interesting but looking back, it wasn’t so bad. We spent time in a new city, made memories with our friends, visited wine country, and have incredible photos for us to enjoy for the rest of our lives. Our engagement was one of my favorite timeframes in my life and in our relationship. We spent year 10 of our relationship engaged and it was perfect. 
