I had been single for awhile and was toying with the idea of putting myself back out there again on the dating apps. I even had a photographer friend take some new photos for my profile when I visited her in Nashville (shoutout to Annie Elizabeth Photography). I vividly remember sitting on the couch in her and her husband's house and her telling me, "I know that dating is kind of the worst right now, but you can't give up hope. There ARE good men out there." A little less than two weeks later, I matched with Judah on Hinge. All of his photos revolved around musicals and his cat, so naturally, I felt like we'd hit it off. After talking for awhile, I discovered we had mutual friends. I was hesitant to move forward... what if it we didn't work out and it was awkward? I remember explaining this to one of our aforementioned mutual friends who promptly told me, "Amelia, that is the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life. Talk to him." So I did, and now the rest is history (thanks, Kira!)

Prior to my first trip to New Hampshire, Amelia's mom jokingly told her that she wouldn't mind if I proposed up in New Hampshire because they wouldn't be able to be apart of our lives as much being that far away from us. I took that to heart and decided it would be really special to propose where Amelia could be with the people she loved. So operation proposal was underway! Step one: Throw Amelia off the trail. I would say things like "How could I even propose in New Hampshire?" or "I'm just along for the ride on that trip." Step two: Get help. When I would ask how I could propose in New Hampshire I was serious. I would need help; and a lot of it. Miranda Oyewole was my first helper. She helped me figure out what Amelia would want in a proposal and to make sure her nails were photo ready for a ring photoshoot. Next, I would need help from someone in New Hampshire to help me plan where the best place was to propose (Flume Gorge) and to make sure we had someone to capture the proposal in pictures and video. So I boldly sent a letter to Amelia's parents (who I hadn't met yet) to let them know my plan and ask for their help. Lucky for me they said yes! Eileen texted me back to start planning (unfortunately that text came while I was showing Amelia something on my phone... so much for step one lol). Step three: Make it special. A ring is nice but I wanted this to be specialized to us so I made a wood burning that I would use to try and surprise her on the day. Step four: Execute the plan. The proposal day was finally here! The ring was acquired, the plan was in place, and we were anxious but ready to take the hike to Flume Gorge. The weather unfortunately had other plans... Step five: Try again the next day. This time the weather was gorgeous and we got ready to take the trip to Flume Gorge. I put on the outfit from our first date and highly encouraged Amelia to also wear the outfit she wore on our first date. (This also didn't help with step one haha). We started the hike and I started trying to sneakily take pictures of the ring with Amelia (See below)! We made it to the waterfall, I asked Eileen to take a picture of Amelia and I, snuck my wood burning on the rail behind her, got her to turn to look at it, and then went down on one knee!