Isaac and I are getting dolled up for our Gordon Ramsay's dinner reservations for our last night in Vegas. I finish my hair and make-up and walk out of the bathroom, to see Isaac immediately throw himself down in the chair. He’s up to something! I walk over to see what’s going on, and I see a bright red, shiny box half-way thrown under the bed. A ring box! Then it hit me… he's doing it now. He's proposing now, in our hotel room, surrounded by mounds of dirty laundry and empty left-over containers. “Isaac, please don't propose to be in the hotel room!” He tells me that we need to head out for our reservations and that we have a wonderful night ahead of us. We arrive and enjoyed a wonderfully romantic dinner. (When Isaac and I were friends, back in 2019, I would try to fill every moment of our time together with talking, because it was so intimidating to just sit in that awkward silence with someone. A big realization connected with me that night. Awkward silence does not exist when you are with your best friend, the person you know you will spend the rest of your life with. There were moments where we were quiet. I was looking into his eyes. I was rubbing my thumb across his knuckle. I was listening to the sounds of the bustling casino behind me. We were soaking in the moment together, and it clicked that this shared silence, the ability to connect with someone through just glances or touching hands, is the most beautiful thing in the world.) We then cross the street to the Venetian Hotel to buy the tickets for our gondola ride. Quick-side note about me: I am a bit of a penny-pincher, so you can imagine when the concierge asks if we would prefer a private, or a shared gondola, I immediately jumped at the chance for the shared. We had a wonderful ride, with another lovely couple sitting right across from us! (Later, I had found out that Isaac was originally planning a romantic - private - gondola proposal...oops!) We begin to make our way back to the hotel, with periodic late-night souvenir grabbing. The walk back to the hotel is a moment that I will forever hold onto. I remember feeling so safe, so happy, and simply so in-love right beside him. Walking through the strip, immersed in the chaos of Vegas, it honestly felt like it was only him and I. When he chooses to turn left instead of right (toward our hotel), bells start ringing. 1. The Ring Box: Check! 2. Couple Get-Away: Check! 3.Romantic dinner (W/ complimentary champagne): Check! 4.Gondola Ride: Check! 5.Nervous behavior, and sweaty palms: Check! As we walk towards a secluded overpass bridge, Isaac begins nervously rambling. At this point we both knew what was happening, and we couldn't help but smile, laugh, and banter! Through the laughs, I begin to say "Do it Isaac!". He grabs my hand tighter and through a toothy grin, says "Do what?" This goes back and forth until we are at the center of the bridge. The kindest, loveliest words were exchanged, he got down on one knee, and asked me if I would marry him. He was holding my hands before he pulled out the box. I could see the glittering silver ring already on my left-handed ring finger. The promise ring that he gave me back in April of 2022. The promise was that when we are ready, we will take the next step and propose. We are there now, and that was enough to leave me speechless. Since the moment that the promise ring was given, we had experienced loss, change, stress, and various challenges. I had never felt more proud of us, than knowing, in that moment, we have truly grown, accepted, and loved each other wholeheartedly, and there is nothing I want more than to have that for the rest of my life. I took the snap shot in my mind of him on his knee, with my hands in his hands to hold onto forever. He took the promise ring off of my finger, and slid the engagement ring on. We walked back to the hotel, enjoying the way "Fiancé" sounds.

As I remember this day it's one of the few times I can recall rather clearly. The story, for me, truly starts on the second to last day of our trip to Las Vegas. First a little back story. For the length of our relationship we had watched all of Gordon Ramsey's TV shows and it was somewhat of a dream for Disa to eat at one of his restaurants. We had also seen gondola rides being advertised our entire trip. Little did I know the perfect night, May 29th, was slowly being planned albeit a little obvious I'd say. We get to the following night and we are both getting ready. I ended up finishing just a bit faster than her as I had some preparations I had to make. Mostly hiding a diamond ring in a place that it was not so obvious. As I grab the ring out of the box and place it in this tiny side pocket I had in my jeans Disa walks out. I have the bright red box in my hand. Quickly I hide the box behind the bed sheets. It is the only thing between Disa and I. I drop the box to the floor and kick it off to the side of where my pillow lies just a few feet above. I didn't hide it very well as Disa began to catch on letting me know I was being weird. She begins to walk over to me and I'm stunned I know there is no way I can hide the box without drawing her attention. She notices, and with wide eyes, asks "Are you proposing here?" I found my cover was completely blown. After a short period of me stumbling over my words trying not to give myself away more than I already had, we left the hotel. We head to Gordon's Pub and Grill. The entire trip we were playing a game of what can you see. We would take turns describing our viewpoints at restaurants, and this time she had the "better" seat. She described to me the various barrels and the bar. Objects in her direct eyesight behind me. I however had an all black host stand to look at with a few families scattered around and the bright casino game lights behind them. However, I find myself rather lucky. With little distractions around me I truly had nothing to focus on other than her. Her dark red polkadot dress, her dark brown curled hair, her unpainted nails, and the tiny amount of makeup she threw on before we left. It's an interesting feeling we had 100's of dates over the 5 years of us being together, but this time was different. This time I was staring into the eyes of forever. My future wife, mother of my kids, The person I want to grow old with. It only made it more concrete in my mind when she swindled free champagne and dessert from the restaurant! We finish our lovely dinner, and headed over to the Venetian. We find our way to the Gondola ticket station and I really press for a private boat for obvious reasons. I could not get her to go along as sharing a boat with another couple was economically savvier. We head to the outside Gondolas and stand in line. We go on our rather short ride with the gondolier being friendly, and singing almost the entire time. "I can't help falling in love with you." A romantic ride for sure, but not what I had planned. Afterwards, we began to head back to our hotel. I'm thinking I missed it. Nothing lies ahead but packed streets filled with people. Luckily we found a bridge on the way back that was not too crowded and with the city lights behind us I asked if she wanted to take a detour. We head up to this bridge with few people around and I Awkwardly mutter "I think this is a good place." I hold her hands in mine and we are just looking at each other in excitement after waiting years all she can say is "Do it." So I get down on one knee and give a small speech. After I finish she stays not saying a word for a minute. I believe taking a video in her mind. Before eventually she says yes. We take pictures with the help from strangers right where we stand so we'll always have that place to go back to.