As we made our way up the mountain, coffee in hand, we wasted no time recapping the last few years of their relationship… which also happened to begin with coffee.
During her first year of graduate school, Heidi made her way into the local coffee shop, but that particular day, she saw an old friend from high school sitting next to his friend, Cody.
“To this day, I don’t know if he looked familiar because I had seen him before or if I imagined it in my head.”
Soon after, the three became study buddies, and three became two. Little did she know that Cody sometimes would come to the coffee shop just to be with her even though he had little to no homework to do. Six months into the friend zone, Cody admitted his feelings to Heidi which were met with an underwhelming response. Silence. As fate usually plays out, they decided to give dating a chance. They laughed together, got to know each other’s families, hopes, dreams, passions. They shared a thirst for adventure and an appreciation for the outdoors.
Cody proposed in Zion National Park at the top of Angels Landing. Originally, he was supposed to propose at a different hike but a rushing river in the middle of the trail kept them from finishing. He improvised & the next best thing was to take her on one of the most dangerous hikes in the world! He proposed at the top after he took a picture of Heidi facing the view with the ring in his hand. He let her scroll through the pictures to see it as they sat on the edge. That night, in a natural fashion, Heidi said to him,
“I still think it’s crazy we saw a California Condor.” … and Cody responded: “Um isn’t it crazy we got engaged?”
I want to thank them for their hospitality, generosity, and light-heartedness. It’s my job to make people feel comfortable and feel themselves, but that’s what meeting Heidi & Cody was like for me. It’s rare that I get to work with people who are just as weird as I am: who will scream and yell with me, make silly faces, dance and squat and run. We started our day by grabbing coffee, beer & pretzels just to wait for the sun to get a little bit softer. We stopped at a thrift shop so Cody could buy a trinket, and afterwards drove into the night towards civilization, only to scope tables out at The Back Abbey, ending the night off with burgers and wine.
