Will you marry me?

Before I make this post, I should probably state a disclaimer: I didn't have a chance to blog before we got married, but I am awful at writing in my journal, so this is my way of documenting our dating/engagement/wedding.  So bear with me for a few more posts while I go back in time.  I promise I'll get to the present eventually.  (And they probably won't be so long winded)

Ok, so this is the story of our engagement.  Spencer took my dad out to breakfast the Saturday before my birthday to ask for his permission.  Of course, my dad said yes, but he requested Spencer wait until my parents returned home from a scout camp that upcoming week.  Unfortunately, they wouldn't return home until the day AFTER my birthday.  Poor Spencer, planned a great day for my birthday filled with tandem bike rides, a picnic lunch, and dinner at Maddox, but I was just sure we'd get engaged that day.  Right before I headed home for the night, he gave me my birthday present, which he told me I couldn't open until I got home.  I drove home (crying, because I had been so sure he was going to propose) to my sister, who made me open the present.  It was a huge collage, but one picture was missing.  My sister tried to convince me there was some secret message in this, but I thought he'd just forgotten to put a picture in.

The missing picture 

Spencer even had a hidden photographer

The next day, I got off work and went over to Spencer's.  We had plans to go out to dinner with my friends for my birthday that night, so I had zero expectations of a proposal.  The moment I walked in the door, he told me we needed to go meet his old mission companion to give him some things.  I thought it was odd, but didn't push the matter.  When we pulled up to the Logan tabernacle, he pretended to answer his phone and tell the companion where he was parked.  He asked me to get out and start unloading the trunk, but when I opened the trunk there was a bouquet of flowers, a picture of him, and a white flag that said, "I surrender."  (An inside joke, because I once told him all he needed to do was wave his surrender flag and we could get married.) My mind has never moved so slowly, I sat there trying to process what this could mean. As it all started to make sense, Spencer came around and asked if I wanted to go ring shopping.  That evening we went ring shopping.  The next morning, we had a temple date and time arranged.  And on Monday, we ordered the ring to be custom made in Salt Lake.  They said this would take a week or two, but it'd be done in no time.  Unfortunately, the ring people couldn't get it quite right.  The first time Spencer went to pick it up, (just days before our engagement pictures) it looked all wrong. 

I wore a filler ring for a couple weeks while the people tried to get it right.  Just 8 days before our wedding, he told me we had a date.  We went up Logan Canyon with Spencer's old roommate, Riley, and his wife to go on a horseback ride in the mountains.  When we got to our destination, Riley pretended to have dropped his camera, and he and his wife backtracked.  Spencer got off his horse to take a break, so I followed suit.  Then he got down on his knee and (finally) proposed for real.  It was very cute, and well planned out. 

When we got off the mountain, we went to dinner at Village Inn, where we went on our first "date".  I was so excited, I wanted to tell everyone!  But I compensated for putting a picture of my ring on Facebook right then and there.