Our story started off in a pretty untraditional way – Matthew was our friend Nick’s designated driver for a house party we attended to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Matthew didn’t attend the party himself so when our friends offered me the front seat in his car later that evening, I had no clue that my whole life was about to change for the better. Matthew escorted us downtown so that our little group could get French fries and sit and chat. I remember panicking as we pulled up to the restaurant because I wanted to see Matthew again. I thought I was being sneaky when I asked for his number “in case we needed him later that evening” but he saw right through me when he noticed my phone was at 7% as he added his number into my phone. Obviously, I rushed everyone as they ate their fries so I could see Matthew again that night and not even 45 minutes later asked him if he’d be willing to pick us up again. I was over the moon when he said yes, and I got to spend another 20 minutes talking to him in the car. The next day I asked if he would like to go on a coffee date sometime and we have spent almost every day together since!

From the very beginning, one of Bella and my favourite things to talk about is what our future together would look like. And although it’s nice to make plans, it doesn’t make surprise proposals very easy to execute. Long story short, Bella knew it was coming… so I had to get a little bit creative. Bella loves the zoo, and we had been hoping to go for a long time, but it didn’t work out until I purchased tickets for this Saturday. This was a special day for us so, needless to say, she was expecting me to propose during that trip. However, when we were leaving the zoo, her spirits were rather low following the realization that it wasn’t going to happen as she had thought. But her hope was renewed when she found out the day wasn’t over yet, and we were heading to our favourite hiking spot in Elora. When we arrived, I surprised her with a picnic that I had hidden in the car. So, again, Bella was convinced that I was about to propose at some point during that picnic. But like the zoo, the picnic passed and still no ring. After the picnic, I asked her to go for a little hike down into the gorge, our favourite spot to walk. Once again, Bella was certain that the question was coming, but after sitting on a rock and chatting for about 45 minutes, she was losing hope again and asked if we could leave as it was getting dark. I said that was fine but that I wanted to get a picture first. So, I set up a tripod and again Bella was getting excited thinking I was going to pretend to take a picture but instead propose to her. I knew she was thinking this, so I walked back and forth a number of times to the camera to “make adjustments” pretending to take several photos without proposing, when in reality the camera was recording video the entire time. When it became clear by her face that she had pretty much given up on the idea after a whole day of being strung along, I walked back for one more photo, took a knee, pulled the ring from my pocket, and asked my best friend to marry me.