We’re Engaged! Here’s the Story…

July 30, 2018 ! My new favourite day. The day my best friend asked me to marry him.

Each year we plan a trip to Niagara on the Lake.

When we first started dating (2011), we met over Christmas and I quickly learned that this amazing guy was going to make life really interesting for me.

He explained his military career takes him all over the world and right now Edmonton was home.

Long story short; our long-distance, around-the-globe relationship has experienced many tough “goodbyes” but more importantly many loving and cheerful “welcome homes”.

Each year no matter where his career deployments take him, we fit in a trip to Niagara on the Lake. Sometimes we are there with snow across the vineyards and others we are riding bikes in the hot summer sun.

This year we enjoyed a 20 km bike ride with 6 winery stops and many great tastings! This trip is something I look forward to every single year and 2018’s adventure has made me the happiest girl in the world.

We ended up back at our hotel the Olde Angel Inn ( love staying here above the pub) and as we were freshening up for a fancy dinner I said to Dan, “I’m so happy we do this every year, I hope we always do this.”

He said, “I’d like to do this forever”.

And then my head started spinning with excitement and happiness as he got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife.

We are such a team, I totally set him up for that epic line!

The tears kept coming. I knew in that moment everything was right and all the effort we have put into a long distance military relationship was worth every second.

If you know us, you know this moment was precious. Not just because it’s been 7 years in the making ( haha ) but because we both have truly worked so hard to make this relationship happen.

We both always looked for reasons to stay. To keep working through the distance and focus on the love we continue to grow.

We wiped the happy tears away and called my parents, friends, in laws – all in excitement!

Dan had then planned an amazing dinner at Zees. I wanted to freshen up and throw on my favourite dress. I quickly threw some water on my hair and planned to blow dry it out ( girls you know what I’m doing here, quick make shift blow-dry).

Thats when I discovered our hotel blow dryer didn’t work. Wet hair was not the look I was going for here. And if you know me, bad hair = bad day ! Haha

Dan truly stepped up to his first fiancé task running through the hotel trying to find me a blow dryer that worked.

Mission accomplished after a sever who lives next to the Inn grabbed it from her house- I knew in that moment my hair would look nice and Dan was truly the one for me! Team “Rach and Dan” as we like to say.

Our dinner was gorgeous, I couldn’t stop telling everyone, “we just got engaged!” They brought out champagne and our server got us out of our seats and snapped some awesome photos for us.

They made us feel so happy and special.

Niagara on the Lake has always meant a lot to me. And after this summer it means even more.

Let the wedding planning begin !