absolutely ashley: featured: {love story} by Stacy

today's lovely feature is

Hi Everyone! My name is Stacylyn. I’m your typical college student juggling fulltime work, school, and family. I’m a health major at UVU. I adore Panda Express, water aerobics {true story}, Fun Dips, Gilmore Girls, thick socks, red peppers, and Jack Bower. I think that pretty much covers it. I wanted to share my story, because I was “one of those girls” not looking to get married-ok let’s be honest- I was completely ANTI. I believed in love, but felt I would never find someone. Don’t you love how we make ourselves the exception to every rule? Haha. Anywho- I met the man of my dreams and fell head over heels. So I guess this is my peptalk that it can AND will happen. I hope you enjoy our Love Story

Zach proposed Saturday, Feb 20^th. What a great day!! I figured it was coming, because we had gone ring shopping a week earlier- on Valentine's Day!!!! Zach spent the week throwing me off by pretending to propose. He planned fun/romantic dates every night so I would never know when it was coming. He even psyched me out by giving me diamond earrings in a jewelry box one night. Punk! I was sorta bugged at the time, but it was actually really fun. I spent the week on my toes. Over-analyzed everything. I was starting to get anxious for it by the time Saturday came around. This is how the night went down.

Sign #1-Zach randomly decided to pick me up for our date without warning.

Sign #2- My sister Criss seemed overly convinced that tonight was not “the night”. I could see right through her. Sisters can read each others’ faces.

Sign #3 Once in the car I asked what we were going to do, and he said he was planning to take me to dinner, but his friend called and asked him to “help move a fridge”. I knew something was up, because Zach was struggling to talk. His sentences were choppy and he seemed a bit uncomfortable. Very unusual for calm, cool, and collective Zach.

Sign #4 His friend lived in Spanish Fork so we started driving down there. In my mind I knew he was taking me to the Salem Pond{ where we had our first kiss}. I was sure of it. Moving a fridge? Lame lie Zach. Can't you come up with something better than that?

To my surprise, we actually stopped by his friend’s house to help move a fridge. (I later found out that they pretended to move the fridge and the whole thing was staged. HAHA) It worked. It threw me off. After moving the fridge we went out for ice cream joint. At this point I the night feltpretty average and I was confident nothing would happen. After ice cream Zach started driving around SF. I started getting suspiciousagain. What was he doing?

Sign #5- We got lost for a while and every time we found a main road that would take us back to the freeway, we wouldn't take it, but would continue driving toward Salem.

Sign #6- He kept checking his text messages, which is uncommon for Zach. Who was he frantically texting? Was someone waiting at the pond? I could tell something was up. I was on to him! :)

We took the back roads to the pond. I was right!! But is this real or another decoy? I wasn’t sure. We started walking toward the pond, and I could see candles floating in the water. OH MY GOODNESS. This was it.

The moment every girl dreams about. My stomach immediately dropped. I grabbed Zach's arm tightly and pressed my head into his shoulder for support as we walked down to the shore. Once we approached the shore, I saw a little rowboat decked out in candles and rose petals. AHHHHH!!. So romantic. Oh my. Here we go. So he helped me into the boat and started to paddle as I opened the card with my name on it. The note welcomed us to the adventure for the evening and explained our first mission to accomplish.

At this point I knew it would be a super fun night. I'm so happy he dragged it out and made it special for a longer period of time. I soaked it all in. So we spent the next hour (it felt like 10 mins) on a scavenger hunt. Each location had rose pedals and candles marking the spot. At one spot we had to paddle under the bridge where a basket was hanging from a rope over the water. It had a candle and rose petals and the next card. Clever. It was soooo sweet. The second to last card sent us to the top of the bridge where we had our first kiss. I knew exactly what was coming. It was the weirdest feeling that I can't describe. I kept thinking "I can't believe this is finally it. The moment every little girl dreams of for years."

We went over the bridge and in the middle we found a bouquet of roses and another note. It read, "Congratulations for completing your mission. Although tonight's mission is over, your adventure will never end. The next location for your life-long adventure will be at the Mount Timpanogos Temple on June 12 2010..." At this point I looked up from my card at Zach. Deep breath. Deep breath. He then said sweet things that I’ll just keep between the two of us, got down on a knee, pulled out the ring, and asked me to marry him. AHHH!!! I said yes. It was the perfect love story.