Our Proposal Story
This September marks 3 years since Chisam proposed at the Austin 360 Overlook near Pennybacker Bridge! Every year, I love reminiscing on this day and how he managed to completely surprise me!
Ironically, Chisam’s proposal did not go as originally planned. His original intentions were to propose on the beach in Galveston during Labor Day Weekend. Every Labor Day his family hosts a family reunion and it was the perfect opportunity for all of our family to be in one place! Unfortunately, September 2017 is when Hurricane Harvey hit Texas and destroyed much of Galveston and Houston. The Family Reunion was obviously cancelled, and his proposal plan was ruined just days before he got down on one knee – back to the drawing board! At the time, we were doing long distance and I was living in New York City, and Chisam in Houston. Luckily for Chisam, I was still determined to get to Texas that weekend as my cousin was getting married and I was in the wedding party!
So I rerouted my flight to Austin, and we stayed at an AirBnB with Chisam’s immediate family to celebrate our own little “Family Reunion”. I got in early Friday and Chisam sent me off to get my nails done. Honestly, the trip to the nail salon should have given the proposal away, but the whole weekend he kept surprising me with “early birthday presents” because my birthday was just a few days away. Plus he knew I had to get my nails done for my cousin’s wedding, I was completely clueless!
Friday night Chisam talked about getting up early to go watch the sunrise at The 360 Overlook the next morning. This was one of our favorite spots in Austin while we were in college and we spent many date nights watching the sunset here! He told me if I got up early, he’d give me my early birthday present at the top! I have never been a morning person, and like most people I would have probably rolled out of bed in a t-shirt to watch the sunrise. Luckily Chisam knew me so well, he told me I had to get ready because we were meeting his family at brunch afterwards. Hilariously enough, I practically begged him the night before to just let me sleep in, but he was persistent!
As we drove out to the 360 Bridge the next morning, he played cheesy love songs on the radio, I’m not a very sentimental person so I kept trying to change the music lol. We hiked up to the top and Chisam was holding a bag and a letter. Chisam being the sweet guy that he is often wrote me letters so I didn’t think too much about it. It wasn’t until I noticed him acting a little nervous that I realized something was up. I peeked over at the letter and saw the words “will you marry me?” at the bottom and suddenly realized what was happening. Honestly from that moment on everything was a blur. Chisam proposed on one knee and it was absolutely perfect! He even had one of my favorite photographers Kayla Snell hiding in the bushes capturing the entire thing!
Afterwards we took some photos with Kayla, and then sat at The 360 Overlook admiring the sunrise. I was shocked he managed to pull off such a surprise, and began questioning him on who all knew this was going to happen (to my surprise, many of my family members and friends knew!) Afterwards we drove to our favorite coffee shop in East Austin, Revival Coffee, and enjoyed our favorite drink, Iced Lavender Lattes. After chatting for a bit we went to meet Chisam’s family at brunch near the Seaholm District. Yet again, Chisam pulled off an amazing surprise as all of my family and close friends were there to surprise me at brunch! It was so wonderful getting to celebrate this special day with so many close loved ones!
