Let me paint this scene for you:

For our 3 year anniversary, Jake and I decided to take a long weekend to Gatlinburg, TN. We left in the wee hours of the morning, which put us there at around 10am. By that time, we had been awake for hours and hungry.. but it felt like dinner time! haha. We looked at the clock and realized it was no where near dinner, so we decided to do some exploring... AKA: Moonshine Tasting. By 3 pm, we were feeling pretty good, if you know what I mean! *insert hand-over-face emoji here*. We figured we should probably try and sober up a little bit, so we went shopping, naturally. I have no idea how, but we did not buy a thing!

Around 5, we were finally able to check into our hotel. It looked like we stepped into a time capsule from 1990; Dark green carpet on the floor AND the walls, pink tiled fireplace, rose colored jacuzzi bath IN THE LIVING ROOM, gaudy flowered bed comforter, wood panneling EVERYWHERE, TV with a VCR, long narrow bathroom with yellow tile floor and yellow counter tops.... luckily there was a mini fridge! Needless to say, we knew this was a trip of "alrighty then, lets just go with it". 

During our trip, we wanted to experience all of Gatlinburg. We immediately fell in love with the town. We felt like this was where we belonged. If we could have moved somewhere right then and there, it would have been Gatlinburg.

Over the next two days, we went to the Cars and Stars Museum, went back to the moonshine distilleries to buy some to take home...and maybe have some more samples lol, walked the entire town 2 or 3 times, went in all of the old shops, tried some of the local cuisine, listen to some awesome local bands, and just enjoyed life. We knew that we wanted to do something big before we left, it was our 3 year anniversary, after all!

We found this awesome Zip Lining place, and dedcided that this was our big adventure for this trip! We scheduled our last day in our new favorite place.. Breakfast, hike, shopping, Zip Line, Texas Roadhouse for our anniversary dinner (we do this every year), and then walk around Gatlinburg one last time before we leave. 

Zip Lining was AMAZING. We had such a blast zipping through the mountains. Such Beautiful views! Now, we are getting to the good part... time for dinner!

We had a great dinner at Roadhouse. I ate so much that I felt so sick. Jake suggested that we head downtown and start walking so I could "make some room for all that food I just ate" lol. So we did. We walked until we ran out of places to walk. I still didn't feel good, so Jake found this nature preserve and we continued walking.

Not too far into this preserve, we came across this BEAUTIFUL stream that runs down off of the mountain. It was surrounded by all this beautiful greenery, and purple flowers. There was a thin layer of fog sitting on top of the water and it was just so peaceful. I told Jake that this was my favorite spot in Gatlinburg and that I wanted a picture in front of it, but there was no one around.

We started to walk down the path when Jake noticed an older couple walking toward us. He said "hey do you want to ask them to take our picture by the stream?" (Keep in mind that he HATES pictures and on a normal day, he would not have even considered making this suggestion) So I jumped at this chance thinking "Hell yeah! He's not gonna fight me on taking a picture! Let's do it!" 

I asked the man if he would take our picture and the woman looked so mad that I asked him to do such a thing. Now, in my mind, I'm thinking lets just hurry up and get this over with so this lady doesn't kill us! I sat my purse by a nearby tree and went to stand by Jake in front of the stream. Jake instructed the man to "hold down the center button". At this point, I'm thinking, "WHY would you tell him to hold down the button?! We are going to have 5 million of the same damn picture. Jesus!", but I kept my mouth shut in fear of drawing out this process and making the lady more mad. THEN, Jake says "Hey Babe.." and I look at him like "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! THIS LADY IS SO PISSED ALREADY!"..... 

And then I see it. The ring. 

It is the most beautiful, simple, *sparkly*, perfect thing I have ever seen. Immediate tears and "Oh My God"'s. 

Jake dropped to one knee on the muddy river bank and asked me the single most important quesiton I will ever answer. "Babe, will you marry me?". 

"YES! Are you sure?! YES!" 

Side note - We now have, not one... but 467 photos of his proposal. 

He did good.

Afterwards, we walked back toward Downtown Gatlinburg to the car because he had a card he wanted to give me and OBVIOUSLY I wanted to call my mom... LIKE NOW lol. In this card, he revealed that he had the ring in our house without my knowledge for a solid 6 months. He asked my brother first, as they were going on a beer run one night, in Kyle's truck, where he is comfortable. He asked my mom next, while she was in the kitchen doing the dishes. Where she is comfortable. Finally, he asked my dad. In my dad's garage, where he is comfortable. It meant so much to me that he thought to ask my entire family, and not just my dad's permission. Keep in mind, he asked my family in February and he proposed in April. I AM SO IMPRESSED WITH MY FAMILY. I can't believe I didn't know! 

We called both of our families and everyone was SO excited!

We decided that we needed a souvenier from this very moment in time. We stopped in Sugarlands Moonshine Distillery and bought a bottle of Peach Shine and a magnet for our fridge. The magnet is so we can look at it and always be reminded of the most magical day of our lives, so far. The Peach Shine, we bought for the wedding. We have it sitting in our kitchen with a note that says "Do not open until 8-18-18". So, if you see a jar of Shine floating around the wedding, this is why!! 

Thank you for taking the time to read our own personal fairytale!