Nick & Aspen
NickSteinhofer
&AspenMyer
September272024
Moorhead, MN
Our Story
How We Met
It was the 1st of September 2018. Sophomore year of college had just started and my dorm was having a welcome party. I, Aspen, was making a friendship bracelet when a random guy, let's call him Nick, walks up to me and asks if I could show him how to make one of his own. Of course, after hearing such a question, I do what any sane girl would do if a cute boy wanted to do crafts with her and begin teaching him. We start talking while I show him how to weave and tie the string; he was goofy and made me laugh. Later that day, Campus Events sponsored a trip to Thunder Road; a fun park in Fargo, ND. I was mini golfing with my friend and she ends up putting her ball in the stream. While trying to figure out how to retrieve the ball, I hear someone yell, "I finished it!" and an ankle flies into my view. The cute boy from earlier was on the other path right next to us with finished friendship bracelet tied around his ankle. I complement him on his good work, and he, and his golf group, notice my friend's predicament. The boy has one of his friends hold him by the ankles while he dangles off the side of the bridge and retrieves the golf ball. He hands us the ball as if what had just happened is an everyday occurrence, we thank them, and we then each continue with our separate nights. The next day, I find out that he lives just around the corner from me, and he always keeps his door open for people to stop by. I visited there every day to do homework, chat, and watch him play videos games. This continued for about a month until I worked up the courage to ask him on a date to a coffee shop. 5 years and 4 days from that first date, he asked me to marry him.
The Proposal
On Black Friday of 2022, I (Nick) had decided to start ring shopping. I had everything planned out for that day as to not draw suspicion from Aspen. Two of our friends came up to visit; one took Aspen out of the house, while the other went with me to check out some bling. We headed to Wimmer’s Diamonds in Fargo and met up with my contact at the store whom I had been talking to prior. We checked out many rings which matched a style I knew Aspen would like (I had been doing reconnaissance ahead of time and forwarded it all to Wimmer’s). After about an hour and a half or so we narrowed it down to one ring that I liked over all the others. I asked them to wait to order it until early spring and then my friend and I left and headed to Suite Shots in Fargo so that we had a rock solid alibi when we met back up with Aspen. A few months later I ordered the ring and began paying it off over time. I fully obtained it towards mid to late summer and began putting my proposal plan into motion. I chose the date of October 7th because I wanted to do it at the Country Blossom Orchard just outside of Alexandria (Aspen has very happy memories tied to Orchards). We had talked about going there with friends the year prior and I thought that they would help take suspicion off what I was going to do. Just to make it extra secure; I told no one of my plans, and started putting a lot of emphasis, time, and focus into plans we had for the weekend after with her parents. The day of the 7th arrives; we visit the orchard as planned, and I patiently wait for us to go on the nature walk within the property. The nature walk continually gets pushed back on the list of activities we had for the day and I wander around awkwardly trying to come up with ideas to keep Aspen away from my left side (as the ring is in that pocket). Eventually, I convince everyone to go on the nature walk as we prepare to head back up to the car and leave. About halfway through there is a little opening where people take pictures and we ask a nice gent if he’d take a group photo for us. After the photo, we proceed down the path and now all is quiet. I see that our group is the only one around, I pull Aspen aside, and I get down on one knee and ask her to marry me. Which one might think is super cute and adorable, but the answer I received to my question was not a simple yes or no. I was instead greeted with more of a psychiatric statement in regards to my sanity (she called me crazy). No matter, my confidence could not be wavered! I stood up, grabbed her hand, asked if that meant yes, and slid the ring on her finger.