Do you know the history of sliced bread?
Long, long ago in a chocolate restaurant far far away, Haley and Rae met over their first shared flatbread pizza, and Rae learned they had no idea what a flatbread was. This would be the first of many times Haley introduced Rae to something new and exciting, and often delicious, whether it would be a vegetable that was banned from their household growing up (brussell sprouts, which are delicious), or how to make fancy clear ice for drinks.
While Haley explained the concept of a flatbread pizza, Rae explained the riveting history of sliced bread. Yes, you read that right. This was the first and certainly not last time Haley had to wonder at how Rae’s brain worked, but apparently it did the trick.
8 Years Ago
Before Rae met Haley, they didn't drink coffee and had never heard of arugula.
Before Haley met Rae, she didn't know what a meme was, had never played Dungeons & Dragons, and hadn’t even heard of Brandi Carlile.
Haley's family didn't have a dog named Monte, and the cat named Oscar was yet to be rescued, or even born on the streets of South Carolina.
Obama was the president, and Vine still existed.
Since their best friend August (now one of their best people) introduced Haley and Rae to each other in freshman year of college, the two have shared a lot.
Here’s just a few things:
Studied, suffered, and supported through 8 finals weeks
Progressed from having their first drinks to making their own cocktail recipes, syrups, and liqueurs *
Killed at least 100 roaches in a day **
Moved each other in and out of apartments 10 times ***
Started and grew a record collection
Decorated their apartment(s) with fun art including original Trisha King photos and Mamma Marge paintings
Played a 5-year D&D game and started a few new ones
Had long, short, buzzed, medium, and short hair again. In various colors.
Drove hundreds of hours to see family and go to concerts
Invented each others’ favorite recipes (Haley makes goat cheese and arugula ravioli with homemade pasta, and Rae makes a taco soup with love and a bunch of canned beans)
Grew a plant collection
Started their first internships and “real people jobs”
Rae made Haley 6 romantic mixtapes
Haley ran 2 marathons
Rae racked up over 50 IMDb credits in the sound department
Oh, and they got engaged!
Footnotes
* Well, Haley makes them. Rae tests them out. And yes, you will get to try some of Haley’s vermouth in some delicious Negronis at the wedding!
** This was mostly Rae, actually. Haley was vey afraid. Rae saved the day.
*** One of these was the day after the Roach Incident. Some sublets really are too cheap to be true.
The Proposal
Haley’s Story
In hindsight it shouldn’t have been a surprise, but I can’t emphasize enough, on the particular weekend it was MY IDEA to go for a hike :)
Rae loved my idea for a weekend excursion and picked the trail we would hike. We woke up early, packed some snacks and headed to the trail head in Harriman State park. It was our first real hike we’d been on all year and it was a little bit too hot, and a little bit too long, and definitely too buggy for me. While Rae was staying positive, I was very excited to be done and head to our favorite brewery in the area, which I knew was our next stop.
I was cruising through the hike, and not super interested in stopping for the views (because that’s when the bugs really get you). When we got to the final lookout of the route, Rae made us stop - saying it was our last opportunity for good views and pictures before we headed back down, and also they were hungry so we had to take a break.
We were on top of Chipmunk Mountain.
When Rae took out a little travel tripod that they had bought over a year earlier to “test it,” I still wasn’t catching on. Rae took a few pictures, and made me back up a bit, then took a few more pictures, then made me back up a bit more. I probably said something incredibly annoying and obtuse like “you’ve got to be kidding me” but when Rae took out the ring and said several beautiful things including “also I was maybe wondering if you would marry me,” I finally caught on.
The bugs were still coming after us though, so after I said yes, we boogied down the hill. We finally got to go by the little brewery, where it really started to sink in that we had something to celebrate. Then we drove home and celebrated in our way by drinking Cava and eating take out Thai food over a board game.
Rae’s Story
I had had the ring for a long time. I had even made a few plans to propose to Haley. But somehow, they kept not working out.
In fact, I designed Haley’s ring on the same day that my brother Brandon designed one for his wife Eliyah. For those of you that know when that wedding was… yeah.
I knew that I wanted to propose on a hike. Harriman State Park is a special place to us because it is the first place that Haley and I ever went camping (we were with a group in college), and it became our go-to place to “get out of the city.” So when I decided on the location, I figured it wouldn’t be long until I got an opportunity to pop the question.
Boy was I wrong.
We made a few plans here and there, but it kept raining. Or snowing. Or inexplicably more people were invited to join us! Or one of us was running a marathon next week… So I waited. But it didn’t matter. I plan to spend my entire life with Haley, so what’s a few more weeks before being her fiancé?
Or months? …Or years?
Finally, the day came that we actually got up to go hiking.
I put the ring in my pocket (it zipped, but I still kept checking if it fell out), and off we went! I also packed a tiny bendy tripod that I had bought when we first got all of our camping gear with the express intent of using it for this. I thought Haley would certainly see what I was up to, but I guess she didn’t!
When the moment finally came, I basically blacked out. My heart was racing, and I was sure I had written down a few sweet things to say in my Notes app, but they did not make it into my head. At least they didn’t stay there. So when I finally finished tricking Haley into getting into frame well enough that I wouldn’t be completely cut off if I was kneeling, I walked over and we did a couple jumps (“For my one second video!”) and then I fumbled for my pocket. Head empty. And I did literally just say “Hey also, I was wondering, would you marry me?” as I took out the ring, and I knelt on a pretty high up rock as flies and gnats swarmed us.
And she said yes!
April 16, 2023
