On January 16th Nick proposed to me in Klosters, Switzerland. Of course I said yes before he even asked and since then I have retold the story many times with a huge smile on my face. I love our engagement story!!
On Saturday, January 10th I left for a work trip to the UK and Switzerland. On Sunday evening Nick was here in Columbus, Ohio hanging out with his sister Cara and discussing the best way to propose. Cara encouraged his initial idea of flying to Switzerland to surprise me and on Monday, a mutual friend, Brandon, also encouraged the idea. By Tuesday night the 13th Nick had a setting for the ring, my father’s blessing, a plane ticket and a hotel. And I had absolutely no idea. Nick claims that keep the whole thing a secret from me was one of the hardest things he’s had to do!
On Thursday evening as I talked to Nick on the phone I didn’t realize that he was in the Toronto airport waiting for the flight to Zurich. He did a great job at hitting the mute button on his phone when the airline announcements came on!
On Friday I went to work and around 4 pm me and two co-workers left work in Greifensee, Switzerland and headed by train to Klosters, Switzerland for the night so we could go skiing on Saturday morning in the Swiss Alps. In case any of your are into geography, Klosters is a city right next to Davos, where the World Economic Forum is currently taking place.
Nick had already arrived in Klosters earlier in the day. He’s also been to Switzerland before for work, so he knew the train system and his way around. My train arrived in Klosters around 6:30 pm and as I walked down the main street, still decorated for Christmas, I remember thinking “Oh wow, it’s so pretty, I really wish Nick was here to see this.” I even tried to take photos so I could show him.
After a short walk I arrived at my hotel, the Hotel Walserhof where British royalty stays when they visit Klosters to ski!
Nick had asked that when I arrived at my hotel on Friday night that I take 30 minutes to talk to him on the phone. We had trouble finding time to talk all week since I was 6 hours ahead and usually sleeping by the time he was done with work. He figured that when I got to my hotel it would be evening for me and around his lunchtime. I briefly called him but said I couldn’t talk since the two co-workers were waiting on me to go to dinner. Our phone call dropped and when I got ahold of Nick again he was outside (I assumed going to lunch) and he asked where I was. By this time I was in the hotel lobby having a before-dinner drink. Nick cut the phone call short and said “Have fun”. I thought it was really odd and couldn’t tell if he was upset with me or preoccupied. In reality he was RUNNING uphill to my hotel from his hotel as he was afraid I would leave for dinner and he would miss me!
About 2 minutes after hanging up the phone with Nick, I looked up and he was standing in front of me in the lobby! I was stunned, shocked, and really confused! And according to eye-witness accounts my face was priceless. Nick sat with me on the couch and I introduced him to the one co-worker he didn’t know. For a few minutes we sat there and I proceeded to ask some really crazy questions. “How did you get here?” “Why aren’t you are work?” “Why are you here?” “Is everything okay?” Nick was really calm and answered them all very smoothly. He told my mom earlier in the week that he had about a 5 minute window from when he saw me to when I would figure out why he was there — and he was right. I still hadn’t figured it out when he asked to see my room at the hotel. My thought was that he wanted to give me a hello kiss and hug not in front of co-workers. As soon as I shut the door to my hotel room I realized why he might be there…. and he was already down on his knee proposing!! It was the sweetest, most romantic proposal and one that I will never, ever forget. Here’s a photo of us shortly after getting engaged:
Then the next morning, on Saturday, I went skiing in the Swiss Alps while Nick caught up on some sleep. I know, my life is terrible ;-)
On Sunday, we both flew back to Ohio, although on separate flights and he got stuck in Toronto overnight. The current plan to is have a wedding at the end of this summer so now we are deep into the details of planning! Eventually I’ll have to turn this story into a Heritage Makers storybook :)
Do you have a how we met or engagement story that you want to preserve? Start your Heritage Makers storybook now!
