We're getting married!

From Victoria: I knew the proposal was near because we had previously talked about being engaged before buying a home. With our apartment lease being up in February 2021, we started to look at houses in September and prepared to start putting offers in in October/November. However, I knew it was coming *really* soon because he started acting a little suspicious (phone calls with my mom, was gone for 3 hours one day, went and got his first hair cut in 10 months) in the weeks leading up. I was so convinced it was happening that I prepared for it to happen two weeks before it did! When that weekend came and went without a ring, I decided not to get my hopes up again and just let things happen (something I am not great at). A few weeks before, he asked me to make a reservation for the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum to see the fall colors. We went and took tons of pictures, just like we did last year, and just generally had a ton of fun. Typically we stay for 2-2.5 hours, and that’s what I had planned for in my shoe choice and in what I ate before we went. When he suggested we go for a 3-mile walk after we’d already done 4.5 miles in 2 hours, I was annoyed (hangry and my feet were tired). However, I reluctantly agreed because he kept saying, “Oh, I really want to go to the Chinese Garden. I heard there are great colors there.” As we approached the garden, he said, “I want to take a couple of pictures of you looking out over the water.” So I was facing that way, and when he had me turn around, he was holding the box and asked me to marry him. I didn’t realize that the people in the gazebo across the pond were my family there to watch and celebrate with us!