The story of Mitch and Emily is one that starts out of forbidden love. After finishing college, Mitch and Emily both move to Atlanta, GA to start their careers. Call it fate, luck, or just a coincidence but both took jobs at the same company - and even more so, in the same internal group. Then to make it even more fateful, they were staffed on the same job during the dreadful "busy season". But it doesn't stop there... they had to share a small table barely big enough for both of their laptops. Normally busy season is not an exciting time, but given their newfound table buddies, Mitch and Emily had a surprisingly pleasant time. Such a good time that they began having dinner or dessert dates after long days of work. But this is where the forbidden part comes in.... their company was not a fan of coworkers dating while on the same team. So all of these dinners and dates had to be done in secret or at remote parts of town where they wouldn't run into co-workers. The couple kept these secret dates going on for about three months meanwhile attempting to act like nothing was going on when at work, leading to several close calls.
Eventually people started to catch on that Mitch and Emily might have been more than just coworkers and they were ready to stop living double lives. So out of the shadows they emerged and into a formal and official relationship.
bum bum bum - then covid shocked the world Emily and Mitch are confined to working from their apartments and are not allowed out in the world. They go stir crazy and take up hobbies: brewing beer, painting abstracts, running, baking - but during this time Mitch also begin scheming to propose. Part of this scheme involved Mitch and Emily planning their first big trip together. Other than that Mitch and Emily took advantage of the newfound "work from home" freedom and turned it into "work from anywhere" and used this time to work from Kentucky and Florida - allowing them to get to know each other's families quicker than in a non-covid world.
Emily and Mitch's trip was planned to be a few days in Bryce Canyon, a few days in Zion National Park, and then a day and a half of rest and relaxation in Vegas (Lol). Worried that if he tried to make a moment perfect that something unexpected would happen, Mitch did not have a firm plan of how to ask - instead he went into the week focused on finding the perfect moment, rather than forcing it. The first day of the trip was a long one, "no way it'll happen today" he thought to himself, but nonetheless he kept the hidden ring near his reach at all times during that day. After a 3 hour flight, a 4 hour drive, and a sunset hike the couple sat on the rim of Bryce Canyon watching the sun set and the moon rise. "Wait a minute... is this the moment?" Mitch thought to himself. Everything seemed right. It had been a great day for both them. They were dressed reasonably well and would look good enough for a nice picture afterwards. They were sipping boxed wine looking at a wonderful view. Mitch starts to sweat. His throat swells up. "This is it," he thinks to himself. Then it happens..... "LIKE OMG! MY BESTIE LIVES IN L.A.!!" the girl that had snuck onto a bench about 30 yards away behind Mitch and Emily, yelled to her "new friends." Mitch and Emily can hear every valley girl esque word that came from her mouth and the conversation doesn't stop. Mitch quickly realizes that he can't propose in this current environment and slyly pushes the ring deeper into his backpack. They look at each other after about 10 more minutes of blabbing and unanimously agree its time to go get dinner.
The next day our favorite couple gets up early for sunrise at the aptly named "sunrise point." They go on to have a great day exploring Bryce Canyon while Mitch continues to strategize when and how to ask. Fast forward to that night. Barely 24 hours since the last near attempt, Mitch and Emily find themselves in a similar situation. An incredible view and sunset after a great day, "this could be it" - Mitch thinks to himself and begins the prepwork of slyly digging in his backpack to get the ring at the ready. Next to Mitch, and thankfully, Emily is very distracted trying to fix her hair from blowing in the wind with the elastic part of a surgical mask (covid life) and by the fast rising moon. Both of which were much better distractions than the valley girl from the night before. "Look at the moon! Do you see how fast its rising?!" Emily exclaims while looking to her left, away from Mitch. Mitch was too busy to look at the moon in the sky as he was shifting down onto his knee while focusing on not dropping the ring over the edge of the cliff. Emily looks back from the moon to see Mitch down on a knee in front of her. Now both Mitch and Emily claim to not remember what was said next between the two but I think we all know it was eloquent, heartfelt, and romantic. Whatever it was, it worked. Emily said "yes".
We are so happy and excited to celebrate with everyone! Looking forward to it all!