Engagement: How He Asked

Before Damien departed for Kansas City to report for his rookie year of training camp, we decided to take one last vacation. We settled on Asheville, NC so I could show him where I grew up and introduce him to some of my dearest friends. We had such an incredible time together – hiking into the mountains, spending time with friends, playing on the lake. I was sad to see it coming to an end, so on our last day Damien suggested we go meet up with my friend Darien and take some pictures. Darien’s family owns a few beautiful wedding and event venues around the Asheville area and he does a lot of the in-house photography. Since I had yet to see his newest property, Darien suggested we come by so he could give us a tour and shoot some footage of us because ‘one of his brides requested something he hadn’t done before’. I didn’t think anything of it, since Darien is always using his friends as his photography media and ‘practicing’ or ‘playing’ with some new toy. We took a tour of the immaculate property and I reveled in being able to share the gorgeous sweeping mountain views with some of my favorite people. When we got to the ceremony site, Darien launched his drone and picked up his camera. He asked Damien to ‘play’ the groom and stand where the alter normally was. Once he was in place, he asked me to walk down the imaginary aisle and pause at the end with Damien so he could make sure his filming had gone smoothly. Easy enough- I started my walk.

I was beaming, playing pretend like this was so much fun. Looking at Damien, I could see my entire life in front of me. I knew these pictures were gonna be beautiful and that I was gonna be able to look back on this day and remember the amazing time we had making these last few memories before football separated us for a few weeks. I made it down to Damien and paused when I got to him (as requested by Darien). He took my hands and looked me in the eyes. I melted. I told him I loved him. He started to kneel and struggle at his pocket, what is he doing? I thought. Was this apart of the photoshoot? He pulled the ring box out of his pocket and looked up at me. “IS THIS REAL?” I squealed. “SERIOUSLY?! REALLY?” I beamed down at him. He tilted the black velvet ring box open while simultaneously saying my full name. OMG, I thought, HE USED MY FULL NAME – THIS IS REAL.

He asked me to be his forever. I said, YES!!!

After slipping my beautiful ring onto my finger, my fiancé spun me around and revealed my best friend approaching with a bouquet of fresh cut flowers. She had been standing in the distance and was there to witness the entire thing. I was absolutely overcome with emotion. It was the best moment of my life.

We went down the hill and had celebratory champagne before we took off to go see my parents and break the news to some close family. We capped off our trip watching the stars on Darien’s downtown Asheville rooftop, surrounded by friends. The amount of love I felt in that day was indescribable.

I look forward to every single day I get to love you, my fatu. You’ve always been my person.