"It's always been you."

We first met on Joel's 15th birthday, our freshman year of high school. I was close friends with the girl who's locker was right next to Joel's and she told me it was his birthday. I thought it was comical, because it was 4/20 so I decided to wish him a happy birthday. He had no idea who I was, he totally thought I was a weirdo.

After our awkward encounter on his birthday, I thought it'd be a good idea to reach out to him. That summer, in August, I messaged him on facebook and after being ignored the first time, I thought i'd try again, and his response was "hi?" I totally felt like an idiot, but somehow got him to give me his phone number and we started talking. On August 28th, 2011, we went to Chicago, because I had to go look for new pointe shoes, and he asked me to be his girlfriend while we were sitting on a bench together, it was perfect!

The most perfect day. I had just returned from a photography trip to Portland + Boise, and Joel was getting ready to head of to Salt Lake City for training two days after I got back. We had less than 24 hours together. It was the 28th, which marked 8 years since he first asked me out, and we had plans to go to dinner to spend our last night together before he left for 8 weeks. He knew that if we did anything out of the ordinary, I would suspect something and the one thing he has always wanted with our engagement was to surprise me. Well, he totally did. We were getting ready to head to dinner and we were walking down the stairs to the car and right when I opened the door, I saw a sign, my mom with flowers, and a photographer. By the time I turned around, he was down on one knee. I immediately burst into tears, it was absolutely perfect.