The Proposal

This is my favorite part of our wedding website story!! The Hawaiian proposal!

Love does funny things. It makes us become more responsible or makes us wildly unpredictable. Love makes us want to shout above the mountains or silently contemplate. Love makes us want to spend every good, bad, happy, sad, beautiful, ugly moment together. Love begins before the marriage or the proposal and only gets stronger with time.

Before Stephen proposed, there were signs of that love. Stephen didn’t feel like a single moment made him fall in love or make him want to marry Angel. It was a culmination of spending time with her, talking, laughing, and learning together. He wrote about Angel in his journal. He thought about her when they were apart. He began thinking about marriage after meeting her parents. He started looking forward to what the rest of his life with Angel could be like. He didn’t know everything about her, but he knew enough.

Angel knew. She just knew this was the one. All her plans went flying out the window. She wanted to date for a year before ever thinking of marriage. But then Stephen came into the picture. All of it didn’t matter. She didn’t know everything about him, but she knew enough.

Angel also knew when Stephen had bought a ring. With a holiday weekend coming up they planned to go on a road trip together. This had to be the time he would propose. But then their road trip suddenly turned into a flight to Hawaii when Stephen’s parents generously invited them to go on a trip together to Oahu. This definitely had to be it!

They flew into Hawaii and got to their AirBnb after dark. The time difference was exhausting and they went to sleep fairly early. The next morning, they were up before sunrise. They decided to go out to watch the sunrise and walk along the beach.

They enjoyed the fresh morning light and walked in the sand. It was a start to a wonderful vacation to see the sun spreading out over the water and earth. But Stephen seemed to be on some sort of mission. He strolled along, stopping here and there, looking for a private spot. Angel walked along with him. He abruptly stopped when a group of people appeared and doubled back. Angel tried not to laugh. His nerves were showing.

As they turned, another group of people sauntered by. Stephen waited hoping they would walk a bit faster. As the group finally left, Stephen turned to Angel. The moment was here! But just as quickly as it came, it was interrupted by a person jogging up the beach. The jogger stopped right next to Stephen and Angel and started putting on goggles. Angel and Stephen looked at him. Of all the beachfront he could use, he had to stop right here. He hopped into the water and splashed around. He wasn’t swimming away or going in deeper, just splashing in the waves. Stephen waited. Angel, again, tried not to laugh. Finally, after a tense few minutes, the jogger/interrupter finished his splashing and jogged away.

At last, Angel and Stephen found themselves alone on the beach in Hawaii at sunrise. A beautiful, romantic place on a pristine, empty beach. Stephen turned to Angel. Angel looked at Stephen, her heart pounding in her ears. Stephen hadn’t formerly prepared what to say in this moment but he spoke from his heart and proposed using Angel’s full name (which is tricky since Angel’s middle name is a Tahitian name). And, guess what, she said yes!