This is not a joke.
It started out as a joke... but somehow, it happens that sometimes when I joke about things people take them seriously. This is one of those times.
We knew we were going to get engaged for some time, but Matthew decided he wanted to get the ring custom made, and designed it himself. It took FOREVER (don't get me wrong... it was definitely worth the wait!). But sometime into our "fake engagement" I made a comment, "You know, since this is taking so long, you should just propose to me eleven times... (since eleven is my favorite number) you know, so I don't have to wait SO long to get proposed to." It was a joke, but then I started getting proposed to all the time! Sometimes were silly, sometimes were more serious, and some were a form of apology (ha), but all of them were incredibly endearing. And every response was yes, yes yes.
Proposal #1: The Empire State Building
We went out to New Jersey for a week so that I could meet Matthew's family. One of the funnest weeks ever. I think I really lucked out in the in-law department... They are fun and quirky and there is never a dull moment in their house. And it is pretty cool getting to marry your best friend's brother. :)
One of the days on our trip, we spent in New York City. We went to the Manhattan Temple, 9/11 Memorial, and Empire State Building. Matthew's parents had gone up to the top of the Empire State Building once when Matthew's mom had come out to visit Matthew's dad in New Jersey, and we thought it would be pretty cool to do it at least once in our lives, and why not now? So we took the ridiculously fast elevator to the 102nd floor and took a bunch of goofy pictures. Matthew gets a text from his mom that says, "You should propose to her on top of the empire state building!" So he asked me to marry him. And I said yes.
Proposal #2: Ocean City, New Jersey
The next day we went to the beach! It was a warm, sunny day, but the water temperature was probably comparable to the night the Titanic sunk. Matthew convinced me to go out into the water with him, he attempted body surfing a little bit while I jumped waves. It took us a nearly an hour to "defrost" and get feeling back into our bodies. We took a long walk down the beach, ate frozen custard, chased off seagulls, got sunburned, and Matthew attempted to teach me how to play volleyball. And he asked me to marry him. And I said yes.
Proposal #3: Apology for throwing a yoga ball at my face
Kind of self explanatory. We were playing around at his house, I blinked, and all of a sudden I get smacked in the face with a yoga ball. Matthew apologizes profusely, saying that I was supposed to catch it, but mostly is just laughing. So I walk off because my face really hurts, I'm pretty sure my nose is about to start bleeding, and my boyfriend is laughing at me. He catches up with me, hugs me and insists that he really is sorry..... and also asks me to marry him. And I just laughed, and said yes.
Proposal #4: Where we had our first kiss & said "I Love You" for the first time (Which anti-climatically is on my living room couch... ha)
On Valentine's day, after telling Matthew that I was going to leave the next day for the weekend to go to Idaho with a group of co-workers, he sensed danger ahead and decided that now was the time that we should have our first kiss. However, the reason I wanted to go to Idaho was to get a little space to see if dating him was something I really wanted to do. So I respectfully declined (ha). When I got back, I had come to the realization that the entire time I was in Idaho, I had only been thinking about him. So a week later we had our super awkward first kiss on my living room couch, watching... some movie, I don't remember.
A month or so later we were on that same couch, just talking... I don't even remember about what. And I don't know exactly how this happened, but at some point he said, "I just like you a lot." (Pause) "Actually, I love you!" That didn't register in my mind for a good 45-60 seconds, and when I realized what he just said, I reciprocated with, "I love you too." (Pause) "Wait... "I love you?" What? Is that a real thing? Did you just say that? Are you sure? Did I just say that? Do I love you? Well.... I think I do... WHAT? WE JUST SAID I LOVE YOU? Yeah... I do love you. I think... No I'm sure. Yeah! I do! Yes! I love you Matthew Shipley!" This is another reason I love Matthew. He can deal with all of this craziness that is Elise McAllister
The day we got back to Utah from New Jersey, we were exhausted, so we just watched Parks and Recreation, one of our favorite TV shows, on my couch. And he asked me to marry him. And I said yes.
Proposal #5: Kiwanis Park
I guess if me and Matthew had a significant location to our relationship, it could be Kiwanis? But not really, we just go there a lot and talk, and its always wonderful. On a Sunday, we went to Kiwanis park to talk wedding plans... which didn't really happen, we just talked about typical Elise-Matthew things like weird dreams, arguments for and against getting a dog, what we will and will not name our future children, appropriate cheesesteak condiments, social experiments, and making $1 bets on things that really don't matter. And somewhere amidst my assertion that we are not naming one of our children Lionel Messi, and him trying to convince me that having a dog is a bad idea... He asked me to marry him. And I said yes.
Proposal #6: Via Text?
Proposal #7: Via Email...
And I said (emailed) yes.
Proposal #8: Just Cuddling.
Rough day at work. Worked 13 hours straight and came home and vented to Matthew, who patiently listened, and just held me. After we talked, and cuddled, and kissed goodnight, he asked me to marry him. And I said yes.
Proposal #9: Cascade Golf Course
This proposal came on the day of our "# month anniversary" (No, I'm not telling you how many months we've dated ha). And I cannot tell you how sure I was that I was going to get for real proposed to on this day. Like 100% sure. I took a really long shower, took a long time fixing my hair and makeup so that if pictures were taken I would look decent, wore his favorite pair of pants that I own... etc. Pretty dumb. He had texted me earlier that morning asking if it was ok if we watched the US vs. Jamaica world cup qualifier game (I actually know what that means now) that night after we went mini golfing, and I said ok... secretly thinking that this was a setup to get me to THINK we were doing something... but really he was going to propose. So after we both got off work, we headed up to Cascade Golf Course to Mini Golf. It was pretty great, because we are a couple of crazies and couldn't take much seriously. This is one reason I love Matthew. He is a goofball and can always make me laugh. At the end, he totaled up the scores and we had tied! (A few hours later I re-calculated and he actually beat me by 2 strokes but whatever.) As we were walking away, one of my favorite country songs was playing over the loudspeaker. Matthew asked me, "Can I propose to you during a country song?" To which I replied, "Matthew, you hate country music." "I know, but you love it!" (This is a true fact.) And so he asked me to marry him. And I said yes.
We got into his car and I expressed that we should go grab some nice food since it was our #-month anniversary, but Matthew said he had a stomach ache and suggested eating chicken nuggets at his house. I thought this was an odd plan, because, we were DEFINITELY getting engaged that night. But I said ok, because he and I weren't super hungry and we went to his house where we DID indeed watch the soccer game and DID eat chicken nuggets. Which were good. But I still thought it was very strange that he hadn't proposed to me yet, and why this was our pre-proposal activity. When the game ended (and when I woke up... because I fell asleep during it) Matthew was like, "Well, I'm really tired. Time to get you home!" It was 10pm. On a Friday night. I said, "Matthew, its 10pm on a Friday night... our curfew is not til 1:30." He said, "I know... but I am just super tired... haven't gotten a lot of sleep this week... been working on.... "stuff" " Now I was really confused and a little annoyed because this was supposed to be the day!! I convinced him to play a game of Phase 10 with me (which I won), and then he took me home around 11pm. WHAT THE HECK?!
I got home and was frustrated with myself for building up all this anticipation, and frustrated for not being engaged and frustrated for eating chicken nuggets on our #-month aversary... So I pouted and watched "You've Got Mail" with my roommate until 2am. At around 1am Matthew texted me saying, "Get some sleep!" Which I ignored because he made me go home early because he was tired, yet was still up at 1am?!! Eventually I went to bed, figuring that maybe it wouldn't even happen this weekend, and planning on sleeping in...
Proposal #10: The Paintings (Saturday, June 8th)
At about 5:30am Saturday morning, there was a loud banging on my window. The first time it woke me up, but I didn't register that I needed to get out of my bed. The second time, I groggily pushed back the blinds to see Matthew outside my window waving and telling me to come outside. I thought, "What the heck is this....?" Got up, put on a bra, some sweats, and tried to make myself look less like a homeless person in the bathroom. I was wearing my soccer jersey from age 6 for PJ's and slipped on some flip flops. I got outside and Matthew said, "Let's go on a drive!"
"It's 5:30 in the morning."
"I know! Come on!"
We hopped into his car and he handed me a package wrapped in newspaper with instructions to not open it. We start driving, and I'm less than half awake. Sometime down the road I say, "Matthew, I'm really thirsty... can I have some water?" He looks around the jeep and says, "I don't... think I have any in here- we can stop at my house though?" I said that was fine and then half-passed out in the front seat. We got to his house and he hopped out and grabbed a water bottle for me, I drank a little and then half passed out again.
"Matthew, where are we going?"
"I don't know."
"Ok but really, where are we going?"
"Haha, I really have no idea..."
We got to a T in the road, Matthew stopped and asked, "Left or Right?" I didn't have enough energy to question or think about why he was asking me this, and just said, "I don't know?" He said, "Let's go left!" And we went left, and then took a road "Closed to thru traffic" going down the mountain towards the entrance to Provo Canyon. Somewhere along the way, he took a right and came to the Indian Road Trail head, a trail that neither of us had ever heard of or been to. He parked and said, "This looks like a nice place!" We got out, and just started hiking up this trail... At 5:30 in the morning...in my pajamas and flip flops... with two cuts on the bottom of my feet from playing around at my apartment 3 hours earlier. Don't get me wrong, It was a great view of the valley, tall grasses on either side of the trail. But I was half-asleep and thinking to myself, "What the heck is this....? Matthew knows I hate hiking haha" We just hiked for about 10 or so minutes before I was tired enough to ask how much further we were going. He pointed to a small hill in the distance and once we got there, we meandered into the tall grass and found a couple of rocks to sit on.
He handed me the package and said I could open it. In it were two paintings. When I saw what they were, the first thought that popped in my mind was, "These must have taken forever!" If you don't know Matthew, you won't know that he is a HUGE perfectionist. Everything he does requires time, effort, draft after draft, and has to be oh-so-detailed. I knew that these had taken him several hours, at the least. The first painting was of Matthew, down on one knee with a speech bubble that said, "Will you marry me?" It was all in shades of blue (his favorite color- and one of our wedding colors).
The second painting was of me, with a blank speech bubble, with an orange colored pencil taped to the bottom. It was in shades of orange (my favorite color, and the other of our wedding colors). (I later asked him why there were a bunch of ducks in the background, and he said, "They're not ducks, they're birds!" (Same thing, babe, haha.))
I took off the colored pencil and wrote in my answer. (I said yes.) At that point, I knew that we had come up so that I could get proposed to, but as he was only on number 10 when we started this little adventure, I wasn't sure if this was the only proposal I would be getting on this random hiking trail at 5:30 in the morning. That is, until he said, "Are you ready for number eleven?"
Proposal #11: The real one (Saturday, June 8th, 6:00 AM)
"I should probably kneel for this one, huh?"
"Yeah, probably."
Matthew got down on one knee, and I think I started like having a mini-anxiety attack. You always like... can picture these things happening, but when it actually happens, you kind of freak out, you know? No big deal, only the biggest decision of your life right here. But I knew it was right, as I always had, despite the ups and downs and crazy things we had experienced together and despite the doubts I'd had in the past and the fears that I experienced. All the good things infinitely outweigh the moments of disagreement and miscommunications, and making those hard moments into good ones is one of the greatest, most rewarding feelings ever. He said sweet, loving words, that I would have probably gotten emotional at had I not been ridiculously exhausted, he pulled the ring out of his pocket, and then he asked me to marry him. And I said yes, yes, yes, yes, yes....
Afterward, we hugged and kissed, and called our parents, who were still half-asleep (Just like us). We took a bunch of PDA pictures and climbed back down the mountain, only to realize that the fleet of runners from the Utah Valley Marathon had surrounded the street we were on (Remember how the road we went down was closed to thru traffic??). It took us a good while to get home, after convincing a police officer to move the cones out of the way so that we could get back onto the main road, and convincing another police officer to let us turn left, going across the main running route ("I was just on the mountain proposing to my girlfriend, and we got stuck! I need to get back to my house!"). We took a nap for like an hour, and then Matthew had 2 intramural games, and a bachelor's party. And THEN he took me to a nice dinner at Texas Roadhouse :) It was way better than chicken nuggets.
I later found out that Matthew hadn't slept at all that night, and that around 4:45 in the morning, he was about to go to bed, but then thought to himself, "I'm just going to do it now!" So he did. He figured that since I already knew it was coming it was the only way to really surprise me. And it worked. It was wonderful. The point is... We are engaged. I love Matthew Shipley. He is the greatest, funniest, sweetest, most patient and perfect guy I know. He is mine, and I am his, and eternity is looking pretty great right now :)
