SHE SAID
After eight great years together, it was no surprise that I said ‘yes’ when Jared proposed, however the day was still full of surprises.
Since we started dating, I had been bugging him to take to me to the Twelve Apostles (or the eight remaining Apostles which is more accurate!). So, when he said he had a surprise for me and we would be driving near the coast, I kind of guessed the secret but managed to keep my mouth shut because I didn’t want to ruin it for him!
Little did I know what was actually coming up!
It was the day after Australia Day, 2012 and it was an amazingly beautiful, sunny day to visit the Apostles. Unfortunately a zillion tourists thought the same thing, so after being overwhelmed and intimidated by the thought of proposing in front of such a large audience, Jared decided to abort Plan A (as I found out later) and go with Plan B. Lucky for me he even had a Plan B!
Jared had found this secret beach called ‘Wreck Beach’ just off the Great Ocean Road.
I call it ‘secret’ as it was quite difficult to locate and even the roads disappeared on Google Maps!
After traveling ‘off road’ for a while, the road started to get thinner and thinner to the point where only 1 car could drive along it. In fact, on one side of the road was a wall of rock and on the other a steep fall down a cliff face. Ok, so that may be a slight exaggeration, but I can tell you that is how it felt at the time.
So, naturally I completely freaked out and told Jared to stop the car because I didn’t want to go any further. Of course, Jared reacted by freaking out himself because he knew that stopping meant all his plans would be ruined.
Eventually another car came along, a little Toyota, and Jared reassured me that, “if that car can make it, we can too.” I was convinced and after a moment to calm my nerves, we got back to it. Little did I know that I’d freaked out just 50 metres from the car park where we were to stop! We had a good chuckle about that later.
We trekked down to the beach and I was standing on the shore when Jared came up behind me, gave me a hug and put something in my hand.
My reply was “what’s this?” and then I turned around to see Jared on one knee. You can guess the rest…
HE SAID
It is fairly ridiculous that it took so long for me to propose to Jess. I could have popped the question to her very early on as I was always sure of “us”.
Call it society pressures, but I felt it would be frowned upon to jump in, so I waited, and so did Jess – not knowing when it was supposed to seem right, because it was always right to me.
With an overseas trip to Europe on the horizon, it seemed everyone was sure that I was planning something in any one of the very romantic locations we were visiting. So, I happily used that as a decoy to my real plan.
I asked permission from Jess’ mother and father on the Wednesday before Australia Day, 2011 and am happy to report they approved.
I had told Jess I had a secret day organised and convinced her that we should both take the Friday off work. We woke to a lovely morning and headed along the beautiful Great Ocean Road, all the way to the Twelve Apostles.
Jess had never been, so this only further threw her off the scent of what I was really up to.
On the way back we stopped at a very secluded beach located about 15 mins from Port Campbell.
It’s absolutely stunning and, incredibly, even had incredible shipwreck ruins, so it was a gem of a find.
The journey down to the shore proved eventful and there were a couple of decent hiccups. For a moment my plan was on the ropes but by the time we got down to the water’s edge and saw those amazing views, I knew that this was it.
I bit the bullet and when I went down on one knee, I saw her beautiful smile and it was all worth it.
She said yes.
