Eli and I met at a party through mutual friends where he approached me and told me he was a pilot. I quickly realized he was not actually a pilot and was trying to impress me in fear that he would bore me talking about his actual finance job. Later in our relationship, I found out he was scared of flying so he could never be a pilot. I was over the silly conversation so my friends and I left to go to a bar. Once we decided we needed late night pizza, we started to leave the bar when a man stopped me as he was entering the bar. He said “Is it really that bad in there Danielle?” At first, I was so confused with who this person was, then realized it was the guy from the party, Eli. Coincidentally we both ended up at the same bar hours after we initially met. He convinced me to come back inside and give him a second chance. Eli took this opportunity to tell me about his actual life and of course showed me pictures of his Golden Retrievers. This time when I was leaving with my friends, he asked for my number. He is still shocked that I gave him my real phone number. Our first date was the following Wednesday, and we have been inseparable ever since!
I could not have dreamed of a more perfect proposal. We were in Telluride, Colorado with both of our parents staying at my family’s home for the holidays. That being said, there were some obstacles throughout the day. I made everyone breakfast only to find out everyone was not hungry, when really everyone had pre-proposal jitters. After no one ate my beautiful breakfast spread, they all told me to do my hair and put makeup on to walk around town. Although I did not listen to them, our moms snuck into our room and picked out some nice clothes and makeup that I would be very thankful for later in the day. We spent the rest of the day walking around town and had plans to meet both of our parents at a restaurant on top of the mountain for drinks. When we got off the gondola to meet our families, Eli convinced me to walk out onto the mountain to take a picture. There was caution tape blocking off the mountain, but Eli confidently pulled me right under it to take our picture. As we were walking out onto the mountain Eli brought up the first night we met, jumping on his couch with excitement when he asked me on our first date over text, and buying an expensive jacket just to impress me with his style. Before I knew it he was standing on one knee, in the snow, asking me to marry him. We cried, hugged and kissed for a good 5 minutes before he even had the chance to put the ring on my finger. We were so overwhelmed with happiness in the moment I even forgot to say yes. Little did I know, we had walked right past our amazing photographer, Lisa, who captured this whole moment. Lisa helped Eli plan the proposal, down to reminding him to bring makeup wipes and my makeup anticipating there would be lots of happy tears. Our parents were waiting inside, as planned, with a bottle of champagne. We spent the rest of the week in Telluride celebrating with our families and beginning to plan our big day!
