Samuel Lee

I don’t post too often these days, but I’ve got a pretty good story to tell you guys…
_.han and I went to France two weeks ago to celebrate our friends’ wedding. We had one day in Paris en route.

She and I have been in each other’s lives for nearly 10 years, and our relationship hasn’t been the straightest of lines, but last year after being apart for one whole pandemic, we reunited and started knitting our chaotic, winding paths back together. We found ways to be together in Phoenix, in Denver, in New Haven, and finally this July we started a new chapter back in Nashville, where our love story started.

I’d known for a while that I wanted to propose, and a day in Paris seemed like an ideal opportunity, so I laid out a PLAN…
I agonized over the perfect (& ethical) engagement ring, I exhaustively researched hotels, restaurants, and every conceivable way to make our 30 hours in Paris together the most memorable and conducive to an “omg yes!” as possible.

I arrived a day early in order to arrange the itinerary, which included a massage, a photographer, a dinner reservation, and a painter to do a “portrait” (but instead, to paint me proposing, whereupon I would pop the question).

Nothing went according to my carefully timed scheme, thanks to customs at Charles de Gaulle airport. The painter and photographer were cancelled, the massage was pushed, and I regrouped. Backup plan #1 was to ask in the clock tower of the Musee D’Orsay, which I now know is closed on Mondays. Backup plan #2 involved Trocadero square, which was under construction for fashion week. So at 3:00, while Glo mercifully got her restorative massage, I booked a last minute “couples photo shoot.” We took a walking tour along the Palais Royal to the Louvre, and finally to a secluded alley off of Trocadero where a hastily booked photog-couple awaited us. Knowing their business, they helped me time the thing so that Gloria was facing towards the Eiffel Tower for a solo shot. I walked up behind her and said with as much annoyance in my voice as I could “agh… sweetie I forgot something. Can you do me a favor?” She turned around and did me the biggest favor I could ever ask.

She said yes!