I hold you in my heart, for we have shared together God’s blessings.

Let's start by saying that I know keeping this proposal a secret from me was no easy task for Harrison! I am very impressed by his planning abilities and all the hard work he put into making this day so special for me! So here's what happened... I came home from school on Thursday to a note left on my doorstep from Harrison telling me that I wouldn't be going to work the following day because we were going on a surprise trip. He told me to pack my bags and to be ready to leave at 8AM the next morning! I couldn't believe that Harrison had managed to get everything sorted out with a substitute at school for me the next day and that I didn't have to worry about any of it! On Friday morning, he picked me up and we went to breakfast before heading off on our road trip. He wouldn't tell me where we were going until we were more than half way there because I wouldn't stop asking! We were on our way to Fredericksburg and I was so excited! Harrison and I had been to Fredericksburg a couple years earlier so it holds a special place in our hearts. When we arrived, we spent the day walking around and exploring the city before we had a nice dinner together. On Saturday, we were battling with some pretty crazy weather so we spent most of the day on the front porch of the cabin, just hanging out together. Looking back I can see that Harrison was probably in a panic about the weather the whole day! Around 4:00, we headed to the wineries for a tasting reservation at William Chris Winery. Funny enough, the reservation wasn't showing up on the computer so Harrison just had to wing it and we ordered a bottle of wine and sat on the patio instead. After about an hour, he asked me if I wanted to go for a walk, so we went down into the vineyards (away from all the people, thank goodness!) and as we were walking I saw a pile of rose petals. Harrison led me to this spot where he got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife! It was the perfect day.

It was the week of the proposal and Brooke had no clue what was coming. It was the week that her students were finishing their STAAR testing and so I had planned a surprise celebration getaway for the two of us. Leading up to the trip, I had to plan where I wanted to take her and how I was going to do it. When going through my short list of cities, Fredericksburg stuck out because it was one of the first places we traveled to when we started dating and it would also provide the perfect engagement weekend. When Thursday came around, I left a note at her house telling her that she would not be teaching that next day and to pack her bags because we were going on a road trip. We arrived Friday afternoon to the cabin and we had a few hours to spare so we walked up and down the main street before our dinner reservations that night. At dinner, I was eyeing the weather forecast for Saturday on my phone and let’s just say, 100% thunderstorms was not what I was looking for. I knew I was going to make it work one way or another but Saturday was bound to be memorable. Saturday morning we got up and headed downtown for a nice breakfast. I had originally planned for us to do winery tours all day leading up to the proposal at the final place, William Chris Winery, but had to account for the weather. Instead we went back to the cabin and hung out on the porch swing for a few hours. After a while, I knew it was time to make some moves so I told her I had a reservation at the winery and that we needed to get in the car and head that way. When we showed up to the place, our reservation had mysteriously disappeared so we opted to go have a glass on wine of the deck instead. Luckily for us, the weather decided to hold up for about forty-five minutes and I was not going to miss that window. Finally, I took her by the hand and led her out to the spot where I dropped to one knee and asked Brooke to be my wife. Fortunate for me, she said yes.