Our Proposal Story

Kyle Cook and I got engaged on October 31, 2020 in Hot Springs, Arkansas. This post is the story of our proposal day. We kept the engagement a secret for a few days, telling only friends and family. Now the announcement is out in the world and I perfected telling this story!

This post describes all the wonderful details of the day. This blog is a living scrapbook of my life. Thus, I added lots of detail what I was thinking and feeling. Maybe my life becomes a movie one day. If anything, I’m capturing it for posterity’s sake.

tldr: Kyle proposed and we’re so freaking stoked to be together!! For the detailed version… keep reading 🙂

The Scene: Hot Springs, Arkansas

Over the last few weeks with COVID, I have been going seriously stir crazy. I kept bugging Kyle to go on a trip with me to go see fall leaves. We determined that Hot Springs, Arkansas was the perfect destination for a weekend trip that wasn’t too far away. (It’s a 7 hour drive from Houston). I booked a darling A-frame cabin in the woods. We packed a cooler and prepared to disconnect from the world to play in the autumn leaves for a three-day weekend.

Here’s a recap of our full weekend in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Before this weekend, I knew that Kyle was in the process of procuring a ring. He would always be deleting things when I went to look at his phone. And a few times, he had left the house abruptly for “errands” during the work day that didn’t quite add up. (Turns out many of the times he was out “playing golf” he was actually meeting with the jeweler).

I wasn’t expecting anything to happen this weekend. I figured as soon as Kyle got the ring he would start acting weird or straight up tell me. (Example A: He literally told me what he was getting me for my birthday today instead of waiting 4 days for the surprise… haha). Kyle and I have a trip planned to Big Bend in December, and I had thought he might propose then. Thus, I had zero expectations going into this weekend.

Hiking in Arkansas & Garvan Woodland Gardens

On Saturday morning of our trip, Kyle and I went on a long hike around Lake Ouachita. It was stunning with super vibrant autumn leaves and views of the lake and hillsides. Kyle had packed the ring in one of the side pockets of the backpack just in case the perfect moment presented itself. The trail only had a few other couples on it, but every time we went to take a self-timed picture, it seemed like one of them popped up. Eventually, Kyle decided that I wouldn’t want a picture of him in sweats and kept his plan to propose later in the afternoon.

(Disclaimer: I wouldn’t have cared what he was wearing!!!)

Later in the day, we switched into nicer clothes to explore the town of Hot Springs. We concluded with a walk around Garvan Woodland Gardens. I had picked out this spot to visit because I wanted to take pictures with the Anthony Chapel–I’m obsessed with the architecture. Unbeknownst to me, Kyle had also picked out the botanical gardens as a spot to propose.

Upon arriving, I joked about a wedding in the chapel. I always like to find opportunities to put a little heat on Kyle, since discussing engagements. Around the same time, this suuuuper annoying woman saw us and started commenting, saying things like “are you married?”, “are you engaged?”, “are you even dating?” and other personal questions.

I brushed off the comments, while Kyle begins to sweat because the actual ring is burning a hole in his pocket! The woman offers to take our pictures and is a total ham, having us kiss and twirl in front of the chapel. She would have taken some fine proposal pictures, but by now a small crowd was gathering around her as she was kinda causing a scene.

Kyle decided that wasn’t the time for a proposal, so we bought tickets to go inside the gardens and explore. Along the trails, Kyle kept offering to take pictures and commenting on how many people there were. The pictures comment was weird. (Kyle rarely wants to take pictures). I figured he was just feeding off my excitement to see fall leaves. I wanted to capitalize on his good mood to get some shots. The crowds comment I figured had to do with COVID and our desire to avoid humans and stay super socially distant.

Looking back these were proposal red flags, but I didn’t notice them at the time. A few weeks earlier, I had sprained my hip flexor in a rowing class, so lifting my knee to go up hills was really tough. This walk was towards the end of the day after we had walked 6 miles already and I was hurting. Naturally, Kyle picked out the scenic overlooks located at the very end of the park. And I was struggling to make it there.

The first overlook we made it to had a bunch of people in it. Kyle tried to convince me to walk on this side path with flowers. But I just wanted to sit for moment. I sat on the bench and Kyle went to sit next to me. He folded his leg under him so awkwardly; he perched on the bench like a squatting flamingo. Lucky for him, I was in a bit of pain otherwise I would have def called him out on that weird sitting stance. Looking back it was because he didn’t want to crush the ring!

The next empty trail was shaping up to be a perfect secluded spot. But when we reached the end, a bunch of people were sitting and watching the sunset. I was starting to limp a little going up the inclines at this point and just wanted to make it home.

The Proposal

We ultimately left the park and went back to Anthony Chapel (I wanted to get more pictures with less crowds). On the way there, Kyle pulled me to the side where this little waterfall was. In true 2020 fashion, he grabs my hand, takes off his mask, takes off my mask, shoves both masks into my dress and starts to make out with me. V romantic. This motion served as a distraction for him to grab the ring out of his pocket and get down on one knee.

Needless to say, I couldn’t speak due to shock. He had to ask twice and I cried and of course said YESSSSS. He tried to put the ring on my right hand (because it was closest?), and I ultimately regained motor skills and helped him find the correct one. I had thrown out my waterproof mascara earlier in the week, so naturally my black mascara is running all over my face. We then had to sit on a bench so I could process everything for like 20 minutes.

It was darling, sweet, perfectly awkward and so ideal for the moment. We took some more pictures with the chapel and then spent the rest of the weekend keeping the news to ourselves so that we could tell both of our parents and close family members in person the following week.

I was posting on social media throughout the weekend. I was always conscientious of what hand I was showing on screen. Good thing, because Kyle’s sister was actively overanalyzing every post! It was so much pressure to keep it a secret!! It felt so good to finally announce to the world.

A few days later, a random woman messaged me on Instagram. She said she cheered with her friend when they saw Kyle get down on one knee. She sent me pictures of the proposal — which was so sweet and incredible that she found me!

The Ring

For me, it was never about the ring. I always joked that I wanted something sparkly and fit for a princess, but the selection of the ring was totally up to Kyle. I had sent him a picture of something similar back in January, and then he worked with the jeweler to source the stones and design the ring. Kyle worked with Lindsey Leigh Jewelry to design my ring. It’s a yellow canary diamond flanked by two half moon diamonds.

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What next?

We are currently relishing in the moment and our new status of being engaged. We are holding off on wedding planning until after my birthday (just a few more days!). Then will consider starting the process. Be prepared for more wedding updates on the blog and unconventional bride energy.