How My Husband Proposed

Jan 12, 20213 min read

Updated: Jan 16, 2021

I'm a romantic at heart, so it's no surprise that I love a good proposal story. Today, I'm going to be sharing the story of how my husband proposed to me back in 2015. (Lots of photos!)

Let's go back a few short years to February 28, 2015. Nathan and I had just celebrated our two-year dating anniversary earlier that month, and I suspected a proposal was coming very soon. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't fully expecting it on our actual anniversary, but I'm glad that Nathan had other plans.

On the 27th, I stayed the night with my childhood best friend, Katie, as we planned to have a long-needed girls weekend. Katie had suggested a trip down to Laguna to my favorite beach, which made me suspicious since she's not a beach person, but she threw me off the scent by adding wedding dress shopping to our list of things to do.

I was still secretly a little suspicious....

Katie was already engaged to her high school sweetheart, and we were excited to find her the perfect dress. When we got there, she insisted on me trying on dresses, too, and handed me a fake engagement ring she brought along for the trip. Ironically, this led me to find, and try on, what would be my future wedding dress just hours before getting engaged! But that's another story.

Anyhow, after dress shopping, we continued driving down the coast to one of my favorite little spots: Moss Cove.

At this particular beach, there is a very long and steep stairway that leads you from street level to the sand. Anticipation filled my heart again as I secretly hoped I would spot Nathan at the bottom of those stairs. Sadly, he was not there. At that moment I realized the proposal really wasn't happening that evening.

Boy was I wrong!

As we made our way along the empty beach, I spotted a HUGE conch shell that was completely out of place. I turned around to point it out to Katie, but she disappeared! When I looked back, I saw Nathan running across the sand straight towards me!

My heart leaped! My mind started racing as I put the pieces together.

Nathan ran up and hugged me. He quickly handed me a basket and said I was going on a hunt for 13 seashells that had notes inside with reasons why he loved me.

Each shell marked the way to the spot where he would propose. This is where it gets interesting... He planned to propose on top of a rather large rock in the middle of the water.

This rock to be precise...

No, not the little ones we are standing on in the picture... the big one.

Thanks to a bathroom break I needed on the drive down the coast, my 10 minute detour was enough to mess with Nathan's perfectly planned out timing, hence having to walk through water instead of along smaller rocks.

In hindsight, we were crazy. But back then we called it madly in love.

Here's a few more pictures showing our trek to the proposal spot...

Now, to all of you reading this asking, "Why didn't he just improvise and propose somewhere a bit easier?"

Well, he could have, buuuuut, he left the ring in a seashell at the top of the rock.

You read that right.

To this day he still wonders why he thought that was a brilliant idea.

But, back to the story! Once we got to the top of the rock, my earlier bathroom break proved to be worth it as we got to watch the sun set as he got down on one knee.

And we got gorgeous silhouette shots to remember it by...

With a total of three Go-Pro cameras, an iPod recording audio in his pocket, and Nathan's sister and brother-in-law hiding with cameras on the cliffside, we were able to preserve one of our greatest and happiest moments as a couple.

Eight months later, we tied the knot at a beautiful church in Laguna Hills, reminding us of the place we first committed to love each other forever.