We're getting married!

Although he was living in Los Angeles and I was living in Boston… Jason and I met in Berlin, Germany. The company I was working for had hired Jason to be our guest speaker for our Global Leadership Conference and I was assigned to be Jason’s liaison during the conference. From the very beginning, Jason and I found ourselves lost in conversation talking for hours on end about everything in the world, from our lives to our experiences. I even remember texting my mother one morning, “I think I am in love with Jason.” My parents both laughed at me… However, I was there for work and so I never told Jason that till months later. We spent the entire week of the conference working and problem-solving together on last-minute changes, and in our spare time, we found ourselves laughing and exploring Berlin. When the conference was over, we returned to our opposite sides of the globe and thought it would be fun to stay in touch, even by an occasional phone call or two. Hours of phone calls later, countless conversations and texts, Jason convinced me to fly to LA to go on a date… We knew that first date in LA, even though Jason says he knew that first night in Berlin, that this was our story. We started a long distance from the very beginning…but that only made our communication stronger. After about 8 months, I made the big move to move to LA. And well the rest is history. We’ve been inseparable ever since. Its been a little over a year and a half now and we are still getting lost in conversations, laughing and exploring the world together.

Jason had our helicopter land on a private spot on a ridgeline overlooking Oahu’s gorgeous mountains, valley, and coast. Yeah, he went over the top! It was STUNNING! Jason and I are avid travelers, but ever since we met all of our travel has been tagged on as extensions to work trips. Knowing that Jason used his birthday (a great decoy) as a reason to visit, his favorite place on Earth, Hawaii. This would be our first real vacation. Jason booked our first few nights in Oahu at Turtle Bay resort where we would decompress, celebrate his birthday and take a helicopter tour of the island the following morning. I had never been to Hawaii nor in a helicopter so I was very excited and rationalized it as, “Of course, we should treat ourselves on our first real vacation.” We arrived in Hawaii on Jason’s actual birthday so we spent the evening taking it easy after a day of traveling and decided to get up early the following morning for our tour. We wake up, decide to walk the beach (Jason secretly contemplates the biggest life decision he’s ever made…while I unknowingly captured this pensive walk of him on video.) and then after breakfast head over to the helicopter pad. Being that I’m a bit of an adrenaline junkie, I was so Jason had mentioned to me the night before that he knew that he might be able to get the pilot to land for us during the tour to take pictures “in” a beautiful valley. I was so excited to be in the front seat with the doors off that I never questioned it. I thought, “That sounds normal.” We go about the tour and see some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. Excited for my first doors-off helicopter tour that I really wasn’t thinking about any grand master plan that could be happening in the background. Little did I know, everyone from the tour guide, pilot, hotel concierges, and people throughout the island had all been planning this epic “Engagement-moon” that was about to begin. #everyonebutMeganknew

The pilot then tells us that he is going to land but it wasn’t “in” the valley at all… it was over the valley on a private patch of grass on the ridgeline overlooking the beautiful coast of Oahu. I walk around this small patch of grass taking in the gorgeous view. The pilot offers to take a picture of us and at that moment Jason gets on his knee and says “Megan, I love you. Will you marry me?” I say, “yes!” Kiss him immediately! And in all the excitement, I grabbed the ring from the box and put my own ring on (oops) And kiss him again, ecstatic and in shock, just trying to take at the moment. The pilot then laughs saying that’s the fastest “yes” he’s ever heard. Jason then pulls out his drone (which I found out later he bought to capture our engagement months earlier and had been practicing with for this moment). Jason takes the most amazing pictures and videos of us. Of course, I was completely overwhelmed with happiness and love and utter shock. I am still on cloud-nine and full of love! The videos and pictures are gorgeous but I don’t think it truly captures how stunning that view was in all directions. We proceed to spend the next week in paradise, completely over-the-moon in love and exploring the island by way of hikes, boats, and dives with local friends showing us how to do Oahu right. Truly the engagement I never asked for, but one only seen in fairy tales.