We're getting married!

We were introduced to each other by mutual friends and spent our first conversation discussing how we were both ironically called "Dumbo" as children because of our big ears.

Nate woke up Julie before sunrise (barely! she is not a morning person). He told her to dress nice because a photographer from the resort was going to take "romantic photos" for their website in exchange for a free five-course meal. Julie knew that Nate hated photos, but he must have really wanted this meal if he was agreeing to go through an entire photoshoot. We arrived at the Railay Beach at sunrise when there was no tourists, and while waiting for the photographer, they stumbled upon Phra Nang Cave. The cave was a dedication to the Thai princess of fertility full of hundreds of phallic sculpture offerings (just Google it). The photographer finally arrived and spoke only Russian...He then began to direct us into cheesy, awkward poses - these images will never see the light of day, they're too cringeworthy. He then began to interview us, asking what our favorite part about Thailand was...although I had no idea he was just testing the microphone. Nate then looked at Julie and asked "Do you remember before we left, you asked what I was looking forward to the most, and I said...the unexpected..." at which point he got down on one knee with a ring and popped the question. It was the easiest YES!! .......... but that wasn't the end of it. Later that night, instead of celebrating with champagne, Julie and Nate spent 10 hours in the hotel bathroom with food poisoning...from both ends. We'll spare you the details, but let's just say it wasn't pretty. To top it off, as we laid in bed trying not to move for fear of projectile explosions, we noticed a rat crawling INSIDE our hotel room across the ceiling, grabbing food from the mini bar and bringing it to its nest. We mustered up the bit of energy to put all the food on our balcony so the rat would hopefully leave us alone. The next morning, wild monkeys ate the rest of the food off our balcony. Moral of the story: don't eat the papaya salad, but also, if you can survive that, you can survive life together.