Emily and Terry met at work on a field assignment in Revere, Massachusetts. The most notable part of that workday was Terry eating a huge sub at lunch and proceeding to wheeze in pain from fullness in her car for the remainder of the afternoon. Emily was impressed. Later that day when Terry got home, he told his roommates he met a “pretty cute girl” at work. From there they slowly began chatting more and developed a work friendship. Emily had been making plans to transfer offices and move to Raleigh, North Carolina around the time that they both realized their relationship was more than just a friendship. Around this same time Terry had also been considering changing jobs and moving down south. After Terry’s first visit to Emily in Raleigh (with a bonus spontaneous trip 4 hours west to stay in a cabin outside of Asheville), they both knew there was something here. Terry visited Emily in Raleigh another two times before accepting a job in Raleigh. They both knew they had found something special and would return to that cabin outside of Asheville many times throughout their relationship.

Emily and Terry knew they wanted to marry each other less than a year into their relationship. Terry would often joke about ways he would try to surprise Emily knowing she would want the satisfaction of having guessed the proposal before it happened. Little did Emily know, she would be the one who planned the trip to the spot where the proposal would happen. The first weekend of November 2019, they went on a hiking trip to their favorite cabin in the mountains outside of Asheville. Although the thought had crossed her mind, Emily was not expecting the proposal that weekend and made the definitive decision to remove her nail polish since she convinced herself there wasn’t going to be a ring picture. She was wrong. On Saturday November 2nd, they woke up early to hike Cold Mountain in NC’s Shining Rock Wilderness with their pups Garvey and Debbie. Terry hiked five miles to the summit with a ring box burning a hole in his pocket, worried all along the way that Emily was suspicious of his plans. Terry proposed just off the summit of Cold Mountain in front of a backdrop of beautiful fall foliage to a happily shocked Emily while the dogs impatiently watched nearby. Emily said “of course!” and they began their giddy hike down the mountain to return to the cabin where it all started.