We’re Engaged!

I asked Brianna to marry me last weekend at the top of Mount Willard, a picturesque peak in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, and she said yes!

It started with a 10-year anniversary gift (yup, 10 years) in early January. I bought Bri a long-weekend trip to the Notchland Inn, a bed and breakfast in Hart’s Location, NH (an appropriate name for the occasion) that we’ve stayed at once before. It’s an awesome, rustic, welcoming spot in the Mount Washington Valley.

We arrived last Friday afternoon, checked into our cottage, relaxed a little bit and had a great dinner at the inn. Saturday morning, over breakfast, we chatted with one of the inn’s staff members about outdoor winter-y things to do that day. We had a few options, but decided to hike to the top of Mount Willard—the same hike we did the last time we visited the area. He encouraged us to purchase some microspikes for better traction in the snow. One trip to a nearby mountain lodge and $130 later, we embarked on our snowy mountain hike.

It was perfect. The evergreen trees were coated with freshly fallen powder. The snow on the trail was packed down perfectly for hiking and the temperature was warm enough for us to work up a sweat. There were other groups of people on the trail, but it wasn’t crowded at all.

After 1.6 miles, we reached the peak and saw the familiar view.

We sat down to enjoy the scenery, ate a couple clif bars and rehydrated with some water. After a few minutes, we got up to explore the lookout more and found that the trail went a couple hundred feet further to a smaller, more secluded lookout. After a few photographs, before heading back down the mountain, I told Bri, “One more thing before we go.”

I dropped to the cold snow on one knee, told her that I love her, and that I want to spend the rest of my life with her, then I asked her to marry me.

She was completely surprised, and didn’t know what to say at first. She nervously smiled and sat in the snow directly in front of me. Then I handed her a red lock, engraved with our initials, 2 hearts and the words “Firenze 2016” on the back.

I learned a long time ago that Bri wasn’t interested in an engagement ring, so I proposed with a trip to Florence (the city where we studied abroad together), hence the “Firenze 2016,” and Barcelona (another one of our favorite cities).

She said, “Yes.”

We hugged, kissed and took some selfies — then hiked down the mountain, smiling and holding hands as fiancés.

We locked our love on Florence’s Ponte Vecchio as college juniors back in 2008. Eight years later, we’ll do it again as an engaged couple.

Because we had such limited cellphone service on the mountain, and zero service at our bed and breakfast, we decided we’d wait until the following day to announce our engagement to family and friends, and that we’d just enjoy it ourselves for the night.