Our Young Adult Bishop had asked Emily and her dnd (dungeons and dragons) group to invite Gabriel to play a campaign (basically a choose your own adventure book but live and with a group of people) with them to help involve him in the YSA ward more. At the dnd group's first meet up, they immediately clicked! They thought it was nothing more than a great friendship and continued to spend time in the same friend group, playing other campaigns, where the characters they created constantly flirted; but of course it was only a good rapport and friendship, right? Gabriel and Emily quickly became gym buddies and, quite by accident, started spending all their time together. They were often teased about having crushes on each other and ask if they were official yet; to which they always responded "It's only platonic! Can't we just be friends and nothing else?" One day, after going to the gym, they were resting and re-hydrating at Emily's apartment and dozing a bit, when Gabriel leans over to Emily and asks "Hey, do you remember what this specific male character in this specific TV show we both enjoy says during the zombie apocalypse to this specific female character?" Emily makes a sleepy noise of acknowledgment and Gabriel reiterates the line from the show "I think I'm in love with you..." Emily proceeds to blue screen and pretends to be actually asleep, wakes up, and feigns ignorance of the whole situation and then when he leaves, calls her best friend, Ashley (the maid of honor), in a panic and asks "Do you think he meant he was in love with me in a platonic way??" After getting some sense knocked into her by the aforementioned best friend, Emily makes a plan to talk to Gabriel about what she pretended to not hear. They meet and Gabriel immediately figures why he's there and starts panicking before Emily stops him, asks if he likes her (he says yes obviously), and tells him that she likes him too. Then they just sit there in silence for a few minutes. The silence is eventually broken with Emily asking " so..... what do we do now?" and Gabriel responding with "I have no idea!" They eventually decide that because they've basically been dating for the previous 2 months, that they were going to be exclusive and make it official!

Gabriel and Emily, along with a few of their friends, had gotten tickets to a Music Festival where part of the festival was that they were going to be lighting and releasing lanterns at the end of the night (Tangled style) months before Gabriel actually proposed. As far as Emily was aware, Gabriel was adamant that he was not going to propose then; they had both wanted the how of him proposing be a surprise (even though she knew that it was imminent) and he had Emily convinced that he was going to propose over a private dinner or on a picnic of some sort. So, the day of the Festival came and it had been raining ALL WEEK, but nonetheless they were going to go and have fun and enjoy the company of the friend that was able to make it to the event. They had both decided to get a little dressed up so they could get some cute pictures; and ONLY pictures.... Emily got her nails done and her hair all cute (shout out to future bridesmaid Celine) and Gabriel trimmed his beard and layered a flannel over his normal t-shirt (that Emily promptly stole because it was cold and wet). After a 3 hour drive and sitting in the rain for about 2 more hours while enjoying the live music, trying to stay warm, and making the best of the weather, the sun set and it stopped raining for a moment and the event director invited the crowd to decorate their lanterns with hopes and dreams or regrets or goals. Then it was finally time to release the lanterns. After a bit of trial and error, Gabriel and Emily lit their lanterns and sent them into the deep blue of the night sky. The music paused and Gabriel asked Emily to look at something for him. As she turned around, "I See the Light" [the Disney song from Tangled] softly started playing and Gabriel, on one knee, asked Emily to marry him with the ring they picked together in a box he painted himself to look like a book. She said yes and, most surprisingly, in the crowd of thousands, no one noticed (except, of course, the friend who was in on it and filming) and the newly engaged couple had the privacy to just be and relish in the fairy tale moment that every little girl dreams of.