We're Getting Married!

“So how did you guys meet?” Is my FAVORITE question to tackle. I don’t think I’ve ever told the story the same way twice, but here’s how it goes. It started out as just your classic Thursday night. Chi-O date party was on the books and I was super excited to dress up as an old man, dive headfirst into a stack of IHOP pancakes, and see if I could knock a few pins over at the bowling alley. Knowing the agenda for the night, I honestly predicted it was going to be the best night of my life. Before I really get going on this story, there’s a little necessary background information: A few friends of mine had gone on a mission trip to Greece the summer right before this date party. A mission trip that Lora happened to be on as well. My friends came back talking all about how awesome this Lora Blackstone girl was and this really piqued my interest. After a quick facebook search.. I saw that this Lora Blackstone girl was not only seeking to live missionally, but she was also a hottie. I was sold right then and there. What more could I ask for??? I was pumped. I had to meet this girl but had no clue how I could possibly make it happen.

ENTER IHOP – My date and I walk into IHOP to join the group for the beginning of the date party festivities and bam, the first person I see sitting at the table...none other than Lora Blackstone. So, just like any man would do, I avoided eye contact and did everything in my power to dodge an interaction. I was stunned. I had zero clue she was going to be in our group and I was panicking. Unfortunately, their table was pretty full so my date and I joined another group for dinner a few tables away. Finally able to breathe again, I gained a little perspective on what needed to happen that night: I had to introduce myself to Lora no matter what, and if I could pull that off, I’d give myself a pat on the back and call it a win. With my newfound confidence and goals for the night, we get up to walk out the door and I notice that Lora and I are going to hit the exit door at the same time. So, like any man would do, I juked left and made a run to the restroom narrowly avoiding an interaction with Lora. Not truly needing to use the restroom, I stood at the sink for a few seconds just looking in the mirror ashamed at the wimp I was. Strike two. Luckily, the night was far from over. Surely I could muster up the courage once we got to my home turf – the bowling alley.

We make our way to Grand Station, get fitted for shoes, and head to our assigned lane. Yet again, another miracle. Lora was in the lane right next to ours. I knew I would get my chance all I had to do was wait for the right timing and hope to heaven on high that I would have the courage to seize the moment. But first things first, it was bowling time. I proceeded to bowl THE BEST I have ever bowled in my life. Still to this day I have never rolled like I was rolling that night. Strike after strike after strike, it was like the Lord was directing my ball to help build my confidence- and it was working. I was getting cocky. I truly believed Lora was watching my every bowl and was quickly falling madly in love with me. I was ready. I turned to scan Lora’s lane and she was maybe ten feet away from me standing alone watching her friend bowl. It was now or never, I had to do it. I muster up the courage for a second or two and make the short walk over. I introduced myself, stuck my hand out, and shook my future wife’s hand for the very first time. _______________

Like most proposal stories, we need to start a couple weeks before I actually hit one knee to really get the point across. I apologize in advance for the length of this story, I just haven’t found a way to trim it down! It all began to take shape one night in College Station while I was talking to a close friend of mine, Bradley Fleming. I was telling Bradley that I was planning on proposing soon but was still working out the when's and hows. He asked if I had a weekend in mind yet and I told him that the May 18th weekend jumped out at me as a good weekend to give this thing a whirl. Bradley, being the excellent secret keeper that he is, spills the beans that Lora was planning a surprise birthday party for me that weekend and that I would need to come up with a plan fast if I was going to pull that off. Surprised to hear this, I was a little disappointed as it looked like that weekend wasn’t going to work. As this began to sink in I was starting to realize how perfect this actually might be. How perfect things could work out if Lora was being distracted by her own attempts at sneakiness, she would never notice my sneakiness! I grew increasingly convinced that this was the best plan ever and I didn’t know how yet, but it was going to work perfectly. Fast forward a couple weeks and we are about two weeks away from the proposal date. Everything was going swimmingly – everyone was in the loop, the ring was just a day or two away from being ready, and the proposal city was chosen(New Braunfels). There were only a few things left to figure out. But not going to lie, these last few things were easily the most stressful. Where the heck was I going to propose in New Braunfels? How was I going to get Lora to New Braunfels and then to the proposal location all while she’s thinking she’s surprising me with a birthday party? This was make or break it type of stuff.

We’ll start with the where: Mrs. Blackstone did me a huge favor by stealthily pulling Lora up to Dallas so that I could break off to New Braunfels and find the perfect spot. On this journey, I was accompanied by two great friends – Tanner Button and Walker Ligon who offered up some solid support and a few big laughs. As we drove into town, we began to realize that it might actually be really hard to find a good spot. I really wanted to propose somewhere close to the Guadalupe River but everywhere we went was surrounded by overweight people drinking beer and smoking cigarettes. Nothing about it was screaming “Marry Me?” I was losing hope, this trip was my only shot to find a good spot and we were striking out left and right. I was advised to just take a drive down River Road and surely I would find a good spot eventually. So off we go down River Road and it was a beautiful drive, but same story. Natural Lights, Marlboro Reds, and RVs were setting the tone and that just wasn’t what I had pictured the perfect proposal being. I mean, it wasn’t even close to what I pictured. Disheartened, but we kept driving further and further down River Road. The further we went, the environment began to change from public areas to picturesque ranches with rolling hills and grand entrances.

We drove past one particularly captivating ranch and we all commented on how awesome it would be to be able to propose on that piece of land. About this time, we notice the rancher standing alone by the river bank. We passed the ranch a dreamed up the idea of the rancher letting me propose on his land. It didn’t take long before I swung a U-turn, pulled up to that gate, and began waving down the rancher. He slowly saunters over as I try to come up with any possible way to convince him that this is a good idea. He gets to the gate and I have no plan ready so I just jump in and start telling him where I’m from, what I’m doing, that I’d like to propose on his property, and oh by the way my name is Nathan Strutton as I stuck my hand out. He grabs my hand and flips it over, which kind of freaked me out but I was rolling with it. He points at my ring and asks if it’s an Aggie Ring, seemingly ignoring every word I had just said. I say Yessir and a big smile spread across his face. He say’s “well I’m an Aggie too and you absolutely can propose on my property!” I was dumbfounded by his generosity. I ran back to the truck to find Tanner and Walker in complete disbelief as the rancher opened up the gate and waves us in.

We get to talking to the rancher and I finally ask him where he would propose if he were going to propose on this ranch. And those were the magic words. We all piled into his truck and he droves us about fifteen minutes to the middle of his 3,000 acre ranch. He parks at the base of a trail that goes about fifty yards up a shallow incline and he walks us up to the top of the hill. When we get to the top, we’re met with the view of a lifetime. I could see for miles and miles of nothing but the most beautiful hill country you have ever seen. We were about 200’ up on the edge of a cliff and could still see fish swimming in the crystal clear creek below us. It was absolutely breathtaking. I’m standing there noticeably blown away as the rancher looks over and says with his thick Texas accent, “Well boy, you think you could drop to one knee right here?” I couldn’t help but let out a laugh as I said yessir and thank you. I was just in complete awe at how the day had turned in the blink of an eye. In that moment, I quickly realized how true it was that the Lord had gone before us in this and this was the path He has laid for us. This was the perfect spot for Lora’s proposal and He knew it long before I did. He was revealing to me how deeply He loves Lora in some very unique and characterizing ways and I couldn’t help but get choked up on the drive home thinking about how perfect this would be.

All that was left was to figure out how to get her there and keep my surprise up my sleeve till the last moment. Believe it or not, this was by far the easiest part. Lora is extremely overconfident in her ability to be sneaky and also a good bit gullible. Another close friend of mine, Tyler Killion had been in cahoots with Lora about my surprise birthday party. He was doing an incredible job of keeping her distracted while guiding her planning and decisions to fall right in my trap. Tyler orchestrated the weekend to where Lora thought it was her idea to go to New Braunfels and stay at the house that I had booked for the weekend. It was amazing, the route from Houston to the house I booked would take us right by the proposal ranch and she thought it was her plan!! It was perfect. The day comes and I wake up feeling pretty nervous. This is a big day with a lot of different ways the plan could fall through! I try to get a few things done at work, but it was pointless. My mind was racing with the day ahead of me. Finally, the time has arrived to go pick Lora up and make the trip out to New Braunfels. There was no turning back and I had never felt a weirder mix of confidence, excitement, and crippling nerves all at once. Our 3 hour drive to New Braunfels was riddled with my attempts to ‘act natural’ and Lora’s excitement about how she’s finally ‘pulled off’ a surprise on me. It was a difficult drive for Ol Nathan. It’s really really hard to play it cool for a 3 hour drive headed straight to the proposal spot. I had nowhere to hide and catch a breather and no one I could talk to. There were a few speed bumps in the plan that all revolved around Lora wanting to take different routes or go by some cool place she’s heard about, but somehow I was able to talk her down and get the plan back on track. Other than that, the plan went flawlessly.

The rancher and I had made previous arrangements to arrive at a certain time and he would be waiting in the field again just like the first time. Lora and I passed up the ranch and I made a comment about how awesome it would be if the rancher we saw standing in the field would let us do a quick loop around his beautiful property. Lora was pumped about this idea- she's always down for an adventure, so I knew she would take the bait. I looped back around and waved the rancher down. We went through our act and he, of course, let us in the gate. Thankfully, she never really thought about how weird that was...Lora was excited just to be along for the ride. We take the winding road back through the property going in and out of trees and across rolling fields and Lora is loving it. She's all about the beauty of the great outdoors and was completely occupied by it. Thankfully she was occupied because I was no longer playing it cool. Acting natural was not happening. I was not using words any longer, only replying with noises and for some reason, I began breathing out of my mouth. Finally, we arrive at the spot and I ask if she’d like to take a peek at what’s at the end of that trail and she excitedly hops out of the truck. As I get out of the truck I sneak the ring into my back pocket and we walk hand in hand up the hill.

We get to the top and Lora is blown away by the view. She is jumping around and making hilarious comments while I stood back and soaked in this moment. But I couldn’t wait much longer, it was time!! Lora was still completely clueless at this point, she had no idea she was about to get asked for her hand in marriage. So I tell her I need to talk to her about something and I grab her hands. I go through my whole proposal speech that I had been working on for the entire week, thinking she surely knew what was going on at this point. She was still clueless. It wasn’t until I grab the ring out of my back pocket and drop down on one knee that she figures it out. I ask her to marry me and she answers with, “What? YES!” This was the greatest answer I have ever heard. I can’t even express how excited I am to marry this girl! _______________