Friday, November 23, 2012

Our Engagement Story

By Luke Bigler (he tells it best)

On November 22nd Tiffany and I drove up to Park City, Utah to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family. After a day filled with family, friends, delicious food and full stomachs (not to mention a few stubborn pots and pans) the day dwindled down and before we knew it Friday, November 23rd, had arrived.
Unknown to Tiffany I had been planning to propose to her for several weeks prior to that day. I had the engagement ring made and had my sister Stephanie and her husband armed with a camera ready to take pictures of us at Temple Square in Salt Lake City. At around 3 in the afternoon Tiffany and I headed down the hill. At the same time my sister Stephanie and her husband Seth were also heading down the hill to secretly take pictures of us. As Tiffany and I arrived I told her that whenever I walked around Temple Square I always started in a certain spot, this of course wasn't entirely true.....This was the spot I wanted to propose to her.
As we walked hand-in-hand towards the south side of the temple I was looking around for my sister. I was unable to find them and I began to panic because I thought they were late. This led me to improvise and I led Tiffany to a plaque located just a few feet away from the fountain I was going to propose in front of. As I read the plaque I stuttered, skipped entire lines and couldn't pronounce the simplest of words. This was because I was looking for Stephanie more than I was focusing on the plaque (and because I was nervous!). All of a sudden I saw Stephanie and I sailed through the rest of the reading.
As we walked over to the fountain I stopped Tiffany and told her that I loved her and that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. She told me she loved me too and started to walk away. I quickly held her arm and stopped her from taking another step. (This is the part were Tiffany says that she knew I was about to propose. She has said several times that she could feel my heart beat increase and she said to herself "oh, that’s what you’re doing") at that time I dropped to my knee and said "Tiffany Krystal Jewell will you marry me?" Now as you can see by the three photos posted above, Tiffany was really "taken back" and surprised. In fact the first thing she said to me was "really?” I then asked her again to marry me and of course she said "yes!" We then spent what seemed like the most wonderful eternity in each other’s arms kissing and hugging. Then it hit us, I hadn't put the ring on her finger yet. I then slipped the ring on her finger, which was difficult because both our hands were shaking with excitement, and we continued in our lasting embrace.
After a long hug Tiffany asked if my family knew I was proposing today and I said "yes, in fact my sister is here somewhere taking pictures of us right now". Tiffany immediately began looking around and we saw Stephanie, in disguise looking like a tourist, taking pictures of us. Tiffany then ran over to Stephanie and gave her a huge hug. Then out of nowhere, Tiffany and I looked over to the huge glass wall that enclosed the visitor’s center and it was filled with people cheering and clapping for us, it really was a special moment.
After this Tiffany and I posed for a few more pictures and then Stephanie and Seth left us and we took a walk around the rest of Temple Square. We spent the rest of the evening hand-in-hand, in love, walking around Temple Square looking at the beautiful lights and enjoying the wonderful nativity scenes of the holiday season.












Here's us very nearly forgetting to put the ring on! We were so excited!!




The crowd inside the Temple Visitor Center were cheering so loudly! :) It was so sweet!!





Here's our photographer!! Stephanie and Seth were sooo great!! 





We spent the rest of the evening walking the Temple grounds hand in hand... happy as can be!




**Picture sideways because I couldn't figure out a way to fix it to save my life! Ha ha!