The proposal

(Liz’s side of the story)

I was completely caught by surprise when Matt proposed. In the days leading up to our engagement, Matt started dropping subtle hints about him “not feeling any rush to propose” and how much he enjoyed “just dating.” I on the other hand knew we wanted to get married in the spring and felt the clock quickly winding down on an adequate engagement period.

A week before he proposed, Matt told me to plan on a networking dinner in Georgetown. Hours before I was supposed to meet Matt, I called my sister to have a pity party about not yet being engaged–feeling a little frustrated that I was ready and Matt *apparently* wasn’t. My sister was a great cheerleader for me, but I eventually had to get off the phone so I could go meet Matt.

That night I met Matt in Georgetown and he told me we weren’t going to a dinner. I was a little confused until he started walking me towards a bridge that we had gone to on one of our first dates. As we walked to the bridge, Matt used a pocket remote control to make the whole thing light up and our song to start playing out of the sky—I swear the whole thing was actually out of a movie. Little did I know he had already talked to my dad, had the ring for weeks, and his subtle hints about marriage were strictly made to throw me off. It was easily the happiest night of my life.

(Matt’s side of the story)

On our second date we went out for dessert in Georgetown and after overeating (naturally) we decided to walk around.

We stopped on this bridge (pictured above) over the canal and ended up just talking for hours, and it was nice and easy and comfortable. I decided that night that one day I would find a way to put lights on the bridge, bring her here have our song playing, and propose. So I did. I lured her to the bridge with the enticing (fake) invitation to dinner with a former (real) coworker, took her on the bridge and proposed. After spending the last few weeks laying the groundwork for the surprise (by telling her I was afraid of getting engaged which is probably believable about a 30 year old Mormon —when I actually had the ring a month ago) she fortunately agreed but was certainly surprised.