Love Story: The Proposal

As most of you already know Drew proposed this past weekend while we were on a quick weekend trip to Utah. Since this is kind of a big deal, I figured it was appropriate to write my first post in over a year sharing our proposal story.

Before we left for Utah to visit some of our friends, Drew told me that he had a buddy that was getting married in a few weeks and so he was planning on getting together with a group of his friends to have a last, single hoorah. I told him he was more than welcome to go by himself so he could have some guy time and I'd spend the time with some of my friends but he insisted that I go with him.

So being the good sport that I usually try to be. I went with him to Thanksgiving point in Utah to meet up with his friends.

Us right after we got to Thanksgiving Point

Upon arriving I started asking him where and when we were going to meet his friends. We were on a tight schedule that day and I was a little impatient with his casual "I don't know somewhere and sometime" attitude. We just kept walking around the area until finally one of his friends called. Of course they were talking in Spanish the whole time so I had no idea what they were saying. When he was done with his phone call I asked if we were going to go meet up with his buddies and he told me not for a few more minutes.

So we continued to walk around and eventually got to a garden type area. The trees and flowers were just starting to bloom and it was really pretty despite the cold overcast day. Over by some flower beds that we were walking by there was a guy painting. When we noticed the guy Drew asked me what I thought about people doing art things in public. The conversation went something like this:

Drew: Isn't it weird when people are just out in public painting and doing art things?
Me: I think it's kinda cool especially since there's the gardens here and it just kinda creates a unique atmosphere.
Drew: I guess I can see that.

He then proceeds to walk right up to the guy painting. That conversation went a little like this:

Drew: Hey man, can you paint pictures of people?
Guy (after a long hesitation and awkward silence): Ummmm yeah I can...
Drew: Awesome! Well will you paint a picture of the two of us?
Guy (after another long pause): Ummm I guess I could...
Drew: Well where do you want us to stand?
Me: Don't we have to meet up with your friends any minute now? I don't think we have time to stand here and have him paint a picture of us.
Drew: Sure we do!
Guy: It will only take like 15 to 20 minutes.
Me (inside my head): This is ridiculous, I do not want to haul around a wet painting for the rest of the day. And does he have cash to pay this guy for the painting? You can't just ask for a painting from a random guy and not at least offer to pay. What has gotten in to him...?
Guy: Hey! What if I just paint a picture of you two holding hands and it will just show your hands so it won't take as long.
Drew: Okay, sounds good.

And so there we were, holding hands in the middle of the sidewalk while some random guy painted a picture of our hands. I was pretty sure my boyfriend was going crazy. After Drew and this random painter guy chit chatted up a storm for a few minutes, the guy told us to take a look at what he'd painted and tell him what we thought. I turned around to look and this is what I saw.

Not only was the painting totally dry but the hand that was mine had a ring painted on the finger. I realized that I was being set up and may or may not have started crying. I turned back to face Drew and he was down on one knee. To make a long story short, He asked and I said yes!

The painter was one of his friends from the mission.  They did a great job of pretending to be complete strangers.

Not only do I have a wonderful fiancé and feel like the luckiest girl ever, but we now have a beautiful, one of a kind painting to hang in all of our future homes to remind us of our love story.

Andrew and Katie engaged April 13, 2013

Wedding Date August 10, 2013