NH Magazine BRIDE announces engagement story winner

Paul and I had recently purchased some hiking boots for me and, thinking that I should break them in, Paul suggested that we go hiking that afternoon. So we gathered our gear and drove on I-90 east. I asked him where we were going and he wouldn’t give me any specifics, but he gave me the feeling that we’d be camping outdoors that night. I can tell you that I wasn’t too fond of the idea. But about 20 minutes later, we pull into the Salish Lodge and Paul says to me. “This is my version of camping!” At that point, I thought something might be up. We checking into our room and got ready to go hike down a trail that led to the Snoqualmie Falls. It was a beautiful, cool afternoon and being in the crisp fall air with the leaves changing color was magical. We started down the trail, but soon after we found that it was blocked off for some reason, so unfortunately we turned around and went back to our room.

Paul seemed a bit dissapointed and apologized a couple times for not being able to hike through, but I was so happy relaxing in our lovely room with a view of the river. We got comfortable in those robes they have in the rooms and I laid on the bed while Paul started to make a fire. Dean Martin was playing in the background and I was so happy there.

After Paul got the fire going, he came over to the bed and sat down next to me. He then handed me this purple present and said, “This is for you, open it.” I ask him why, but he just tells me to open it. I unwrapped the gift and it was a beautiful scrapbook that Paul had been making me for the last two months. It was full of memories over the last 19 months together. The cover had a picture of us that we both adored and the first page of the scrapbook was a message from Paul telling me how much he loved me and how amazing I was, but most of all, how amazing “we” were together. I start crying those happy tears and almost on cue, he’s handing me a travel-size pack of Kleenex. As I’m going through all these pictures, theater tickets and other memories, I start to notice that every page has a theme. The first page was W for Wine, the second I for Ironing (don’t ask), and third was L for Las Vegas. Little did I know that these pages were spelling out “Will You Marry Me?”. Being the smart man that Paul is, he figured that I wouldn’t catch on and, since we love to play scrabble, he made the last page a scrabble board that spelled out “Will You Marry Me?” with a picture of my ring at the end. I started crying and I hadn’t noticed that as I turned to the last page, Paul had come over to kneel next to me by the bed and had the ring box open before me. I was speechless, to the point that he thought I might not say “Yes.” Of course after I collected myself I said “Yes!!!” After hugs and kisses we immediately called our parents and they were so happy for us! Paul opened a bottle of my favorite champagne, and we toasted our engagement and shared a dance in front of the fire place. We ate at the restaurant in the Salish, which was lovely, and then returned to our room and saw a dozen white roses above the mantel for me and rose petals around the room. He created my perfect proposal. It could not have been done better!

Susan Rowell
Seattle, Wa