Jim and I were introduced over breakfast on the first day of classes my sophomore year and his junior year of college by our mutual friend, Rachael, who also happened to be my roommate at the time. Neither one of us were presently looking for a relationship, but the more time we spent together, the closer we became and our special bond was inevitable. Long story short, a little over a year later, after many not-so-subtle hints from our friends and family, we finally admitted that what we had was so much more than a friendship. It was love.

Well, to be blunt, the process of Jim’s proposal to me was full of deception and lies. I honestly don’t know how long he had been planning it or how he pulled it all off, but he did. And it was the best day of my life. It started off as a normal Sunday. We went to Dunkin’, church, the mall, so on and so forth. Then, we proceeded on with what I thought were our plans to check out some nearby places that we could take engagement pictures at and end the day with our make-up Valentine’s date. Silly, oblivious girl. The first place we went to was Holy Hill, a Basilica in Hartford, WI. Driving up to this incredible castle-like building took my breath away. Upon entering the main entrance, Jim stops me and says he has something to tell me but that it’ll have to wait. (Me: Haha okay…wait, what?) I then turn to see my parents standing in the doorway with our friend, T, behind them with a video camera. Cue crying in 3…2…1. As Jim runs up the stairs, I hug my parents and say through the tears: I’m getting engaged today! As if they didn’t already know. My parents lead me up the stairs to the second level. That’s where I see his parents standing there. More tears. They then ask me to be their daughter. I said yes. We continue to the third level where I find his brother, Daniel, and his sister-in-law, Hannah. Let’s just assume from this point on that the tears have not and will not stop. They ask me to be their sister. I said yes. Fourth level: I find his sister, Jojo, niece, Zoe, and brother, Nathan. Zoe asks me to be her Auntie. I said yes. At long last, we make it to the top. I immediately see Jim and all of me wants to run to him, but out of the corner of my eye I see my beautiful best friend, Peyton, standing there on the balcony. Ugly crying is now at maximum overdrive. I start walking over to Jim. My whole body is shaking. He gets down on one knee and says all those perfectly sweet things that every girl dreams of. My favorite was: will you marry me? I said yes.