A day forecasted for storms and clouds, turned into a beautiful summer day with a sunset and proposal on a cliffside.
The story begins months before. My very good friend, Cadence, and I were talking about going to Devil's Lake for a fun date night with our sweeties. Her and I set up a date, which we coordinated around our hectic schedules, and told Russel and Max to not make any plans for the 22nd of July; we had a date day in the books! Finally the day came; it was July 22nd, 2018. Max and I were driving up to one of our favorite places, Devil's Lake, to meet up with our friends for an evening of hiking.
We arrived to Devil's Lake about two hours before sunset. I was very nervous because it was a Sunday and Max had to work very early in the morning on Monday. I figured he was going to be all upset that we weren't even starting to hike until almost 7:00pm, but to my surprise, he didn't say a word about it. We met up with Cadence and her husband, Russell, to do some hiking around the lake. Since they had never been there before, we took it upon ourselves to "show them the ropes". We explored the trails for about an hour, stopping at many pretty outlooks, before we found ourselves at a gorgeous overlook by a formation called "Balanced Rock". Cadence asked me to take a photo of her and Russell, and then Cadence said that Max and I should get a photo taken. Cadence clicked away at her camera, then said "okay just one more". Just then Max knelt down and asked me to marry him.
Because I was in complete shock and in utter disbelief that this was happening after nearly seven years together, I forgot to say "YES". About five minutes later, as our friends congratulated us, Max grinned at me and said "so you never answered me...". My hands were still shaking as I starred down at my gorgeous engagement ring that he picked up. I must have thought the "yes" was implied, haha.
As we continued our hike, I found out all the little details I had been kept out of the loop with over the last three months. In fact, Max had been the one to set up this whole day. Cadence and him were in cahoots the entire time, and they only made it seem like Cadence and I were the ones who planned our date day. Max didn't know where exactly he wanted to propose, so apparently during our whole hike he was giving hand signs to Cadence about which spot he liked and if he wanted to keep looking for a better spot. Needless to say, he ended up finding the perfect place!
* These amazing photographs are taken by my incredibly talented friend, Cadence McCarrel with McCarrel Photography. Thank you for capturing this extraordinary moment for us! <3
