We're getting married!

It was my 22nd birthday and my friends were taking me downtown to celebrate. Zach was supposed to meet his friend's girlfriend for the first time who was going downtown to celebrate her roommate's birthday. [Hint: I was the roommate.] We ended up meeting in downtown Blacksburg at bar called Sharkeys as our groups of friends mingled. At the end of the night, Zach’s phone was dead and he somehow convinced me to put his number in my phone. The next day, Zach was apparently very worried that he would never hear from me. I texted him just as he was figuring out what to say, and we had our first date planned shortly after. The rest is history!

After dating for only 7 months, Zach graduated and the distance began. I stayed in Blacksburg through June for a job and Zach went home to Fairfax. We both worked at CTY in California for part of the summer, but Zach was in San Francisco, and I was in LA. Right after California, I moved to Binghamton, NY to start grad school and Zach visited as often as he could on weekends until he started Field Artillery BOLC at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma in September. After Ft. Sill he got stationed in Hawaii and has been living there ever since. I get to visit Hawaii about twice a year and Zach travels east when he can. We've even met up in Seattle, Las Vegas, and NYC! We have been able to see each other about four times a year, but our busy schedules make it go by faster than it sounds. We knew it wasn't going to be easy, but we've made the most of it!

I knew I wanted the proposal to be somewhere memorable but not too obvious like the beach, so I chose a lookout spot over Honolulu called Tantalus Lookout. I picked up a starving post-12-hour-flight Carrie up from the Airport and tried to act as calm as possible as we drove there, which she says I failed at. We ate some sandwiches and cheesecake while we watched the sun set over Honolulu. After we finished some dessert, I knew it was time. She was so surprised that she didn't say yes for what seemed like an eternity! Everything went smoothly, and overall it turned out great. I wouldn’t have done it any other way, especially the cheesecake.