This is my fourth “Engaged man” post, but until now I haven’t given a hint on how we actually became engaged.

So, I gathered some back issues of Utah Bride & Groom and flipped to the “Before the Wedding” section of each Real Weddings article for some inspiration on how to report the story. Pick up the new issue of Utah Bride & Groom for your inspiration, too.

Occupations: Elise will start working again when she’s back on her feet…literally. Not long ago, she underwent reconstructive foot surgery on both feet. She will also be going to school to become an esthetician. Jaime writes for Salt Lake magazine and has called dibs on Utah Bride & Groom and StellaPosy’s Val Rasmussen to do flowers at the wedding.

How the couple met: Elise and Jaime met at a Utah Grizzlies hockey game four years ago. She was on a date with his friend, and he was on a date with her friend. Elise wasn’t into her date, and it wasn’t working out between Jaime and his date. So Elise asked her friend to invite Jaime to a movie, where they met again and Jaime asked her out for the First Night celebration in SLC.

The moment they knew they found the one: A couple months after they started dating, Elise’s uncle passed away and Jaime was super supportive. But he was also a student and couldn’t afford to go out of state with her for the funeral, and realized how much he missed her.

How he proposed: Jaime proposed Rocky Balboa-style, at the zoo. Well, it wasn’t exactly like that. Over the years, Elise and Jaime made it a tradition to go to the last night of ZooLights at Utah’s Hogle Zoo on New Year’s Eve. He disguised the ring by putting it in a large rectangle box, found a quiet spot with twinkling lights and gave it to her. As she started opening it, he dropped to his knee.

Here are some shots from just after the proposal:

Can you guess which New Year’s resolution is ours?

And on second thought, maybe Rocky did have a little to do with the location. Here’s the clip.

Posted: Monday, January 23rd, 2012 @ 8:38 pm
Categories: Engagements.