Thank you so much for being here. We cannot wait to celebrate with you.

I guess they're right when they say French is the language of love. We met on the first day of French class our freshmen year of high school. Although it would take a year and a half for me to agree to go on a date with Michael, our friendship was immediate, and his humor and charm quickly won me over.

After the wedding weekend of a friend in Spokane, we went our separate ways for Michael to go back to Bozeman (or so I thought), and me to continue on to Flathead with my parents. Michael and Tori hung back and waited to follow far behind to my grandma's place on the lake. When my parents and I arrived, I was instructed to go with my cousin Lizzy to get a beer at the local brewery. Thinking a Sunday evening beer would be pretty casual, I changed out of the dress that Tori had persuaded me to wear earlier in the day, much to my mother's dismay. I thought it was odd that my outfit choice was getting so much attention, but continued on. In our absence, my parents, Tori, and Michael ran around setting everything up. When we arrived back at the lake, I nearly missed the sign on my way into the house to escape the rain. Lizzy pointed it out to me, then I noticed Michael's hard-to-miss shoes inside the door. It was at this point that I noticed my mom, not so sneakily hiding behind the door in the garage, with her phone pointed at me through the opening, and I knew something was happening. I looked at the first sign, which had a picture of us on the day we started dating, and the date. I continued down the walkway and around the corner to the stairs. The stairs were strung with lights and hung with pictures from throughout the last seven years. I descended the stairs, trying to take in every photo. When I reached the landing at the bottom of the first set, I looked down to the yard to see Michael, leaning casually against one of the pillars on the dock, waiting for me. I made it down the second set of the stairs to the yard, where more signs awaited me, marking special occasions and events from our time together. My dad and Tori emerged from behind trees as I walked down the lawn and met Michael at the end of the dock. Already a puddle of tears at this point, I tried to keep it together as he got down on one knee and said a lot of very sweet things that I mostly don't remember. I don't remember saying yes, but I sure am glad I did. We celebrated with a champagne toast and a cake that my family had made. Looking back, there were a lot of signals that I missed, like how my sister was annoyed that I hadn't had my nails done for the wedding, or how Michael made me text my mom to tell her he was driving in case she was sending him texts I wasn't supposed to see. I'm so grateful for everyone who made it so special for us.