What seemed unfortunate, turned out to be planned...

Mark & Samantha~ 8/25/12/

My fiancé Mark and I met just after high school and fell in love shortly after, now our wedding date is set for our Ten Year Anniversary! Our Engagement Story is one that I will never forget; I was supposed to be heading out of town to visit my sister and my niece for the weekend, and so my fiancé (then boyfriend) was planning on going skiing for the weekend with my brother. I was super bummed out Friday morning when my sister called to cancel our plans for the weekend because she said my niece was sick. So (what I thought was out of pity) Mark invited me to come and meet him in Banff on Saturday after his day of skiing. He said that he felt bad about my cancelled plans and decided to book us a room at the Fox Inn and Suites. Little did I know that what seemed to be a totally impromptu trip to Banff was actually a carefully orchestrated plan. Mark had actually called and asked my sister to cancel our plans because he had a room booked for that weekend a month prior, and couldn't tell me so he had to come up with a plan, and this was it.

So, I slowly made my way out there that Saturday, stopping to take some nice pictures of the Mountains, grabbing a coffee in Banff, strolling down the main strip, and then finally making my way to the hotel. Mark had met me there right after he was done skiing and then we out to Saltlik for a really nice dinner. Afterwards, we walked hand in hand under the stars back to hotel room and then headed down to the hot pool for a bit of relaxation. The hot pool in the hotel was beyond amazing, it's all done up to feel like you are in an underground in a cave, complete with a waterfall and an open air ceiling. So, we were sitting down there under the stars with a glass of wine, the snowing falling down on us from above, and talking about how happy we were to be a part of each other's lives and how amazing our future together is going to be. Then Mark turned around to grab something and when he turned back around he had an open ring box (with a stunningly beautiful ring inside), told me how much he loved me, and then asked if I would marry him. Of course, I said yes, how could I not! It was the best night of my life and I feel like the luckiest girl to have a fiancé who put so much thought into that evening to make it so special. I'm absolutely beyond excited to get to marry my best friend this August after what's been the most amazing ten years of my life!