The Best Day Ever!

Jen had known of Joe for some time before they "officially" met. Joe was playing in a local band called "The Kore" and Jen's parents used to go and watch them play. The bass player, Mike, was a friend of Jen's parents and she knew him as well. Jen would go out on Friday nights and watch them play...sometimes with her parents and sometimes on her own. On Friday, July 15th, Jen went to Squid Lips where The Kore was playing. She was supposed to meet her friend Faith there (Faith is the one who will be marrying them) but something came up and Faith couldn't come out. Jen decided to stay and enjoy the band anyway. The band finished at 11pm and Jen said her goodbyes to everyone and left. She almost made it out the door before she realized she didn't say goodbye to Mike. So she went back inside to say goodbye and when she did, Joe came off the stage and said hello. This was the first time he actually talked to Jen one on one and something about his voice and his eyes just made her all gushy inside. Jen's heart started doing this little flip thing and she was thinking "what the??" Joe asked Jen for her phone number and she gave it to him. Joe text her that same night and that was the beginning of their new beautiful life together.

Joe and Jen had been dating for 8 years. For the past 2 years, they have been renting a cabin in Brevard, N.C. This is Jen's "happy place" where she went to college. She used to go back by herself each year to get away from the world in the woods of the Pisgah Forest. Jen started inviting Joe to come with her 2 years ago. They rent a cabin for a few days and spend those days hiking in the Pisgah forest, sitting by waterfalls, and just enjoying the peace and quiet of the woods around them. The cabin they rented this time had a large stream behind it with lots of rocks and boulders to explore. They have always loved painting rocks so they found a few to paint back in the cabin. On the last night of their vacation, Joe came inside from the back porch and told Jen he found some super cool rocks that they hadn't seen yet and wanted her to come check them out. When Jen went out onto the back porch, she found Joe at the bottom of the porch stairs. As she looked down the stairs, there were 3 painted rocks...1 on each of the 1st 3 steps. One rock was painted "Jen". The next rock was painted "Will you". The final rock was painted "Marry Me". When Jen looked up, Joe was standing there with the most gorgeous ring she had ever seen in her entire life. Joe came up the stairs, bent down on one knee and asked Jen to be his wife. Joe told Jen later that he secretly painted the rocks while she was still outside playing in the stream :-)