We are getting married!!

When we began thinking about how to kick off the next chapter of our lives together, we knew we wanted to two things - an intimate moment and to be in nature. From the start we pictured being in Yosemite National Park with the backdrop of Half Dome and El Capitan and all of the beautiful greenery surrounding us. The first time we visited the park, it was an experience neither one of us would ever forget and we knew that there was something special about this place. Although, our friends and family will be in our hearts we have decided to head to our happy place and have an intimate ceremony with just the two of us. We are incredibly grateful for the love and support from all of our people. We can't wait to share the incredible moment with you all in pictures and stories!

We met in the fall of 2018 when I, Cordell, was at my friend Brayden and Abby's (his wife) house out in Southern California. Brayden invited me over and so I of course came over to hangout with my great friend, little did I know Maddie was over at their house before I arrived, in which Abby and her are great friends with one another. I didn't think anything about dating Maddie or know almost a year later we would be getting married, but we all continued to hangout through the night. Then that one single time hanging out turned into me coming over and hanging out every single day afterwork. Our first actual date was September 29th we talked about meeting up and talking about life and for me to show her how to surf! We went to the OG breakfast spot, Bagel Shack, aka Shagel Back! We were absolutely comfortable with each other from day one there wasn't anything weird how every other relationship starts off. Thats how I knew you were so special to me, the feeling of knowing you my entire life. We tried to go surfing but the ocean wanted us to stay on land it was a terrible day for you to learn how to surf! September 30th I stayed late to help pick up at the wedding I was at and my ride had left me. So I received a ride to where you were staying and I called you when I was outside waking you up and asking for a ride all the way to the Barracks. So of course you said yes and gave me a ride home, we sat in your car for many hours talking and I being the worlds greatest free style rapper free-styled to Lofi album on Spotify. It was super amazing sitting there and talking for so many hours joking around, I personally never wanted the morning to come and was hoping you wished for the same. Oct. 5th 2018 we went to the movies and saw A Simple Favor, it was a really good movie but the best part about it was you. then Oct. 14th we went SkyDiving.... We decided a week prior that we were just going to go skydiving and so of course we did. This is just the beginning of our story!

We decided to go to Zion and go camping and I decided that it would be the absolute perfect place to propose so we went about our business camping and hiking around Zion National Park site seeing. We met with my parents who brought my great grandmothers rings so I could propose with them, Maddie had no idea why they were coming I told her they wanted to see us since we were in Utah. So my parents had brought us lunch and some drinks to our campsite we got to talk and walk around the area we were camping in. That afternoon we decided we were just going to hike up Angels Landing I told Maddie that I wanted to take pictures of us at sunset since I surprised her with a tripod for her camera hours prior. So we hiked up super fast caught the last parts of the sunset and were able to take pictures. The hike was pretty rough and very steep, at points you scale the rocks holding onto chains that are drilled into the rock. Maddie was getting pretty worried about the heights and pushed through to make it to the top. I set up the camera on the tripod and had her stand in front so the back drop was just perfect. I acted like I put the camera on the timer mode so we had a couple seconds to pose before the shot was taken. I actually started video recording it and boom dropped down on one knee and asked her to marry me. Fortunately she said yes and her we are getting ready for the wedding! After proposing we had to hike back down so we made it down in the dark which probably wasn't the smartest idea but I did come prepared with a headlamp just incase this problem did occur the very unfortunate thing was the fact that the buses in Zion shut down as we were hiking down the mountain and we watched the last bus leave the canyon. We ended up walking another 3 miles back to the car after finishing the hike. We walked a total of 14 miles that day with adventuring in the morning and all the walking post proposal. It was an amazing day!