Jordan & Shayna

HOW WE MET

We coincidentally met through mutual friends one night out on the town. A group of 6 or 7 of us all met at a Mexican cantina. Shayna ended up arriving late and luckily sat across from me at the table. Unbeknownst to her, the cantina used old eclectic tequila bottles to serve water. When she arrived I told her she needed to catch up on drinks, so I grabbed the water and poured her a “shot” from the water bottle that looked like tequila. Our friend group encouraged her on while she prepared with salt and lime. Shayna exhaled a deep breath and went for it. Her face was priceless when she realized it wasn’t tequila. We laughed and ended up talking the entire night. She gave me her number that night and I took her out on a few dates the following weeks, and the rest is history!

THE PROPOSAL

This ended up being the most stressful, craziest, most “2020” engagement I can think of. Living in FL, we grew tired of hot Christmases and wanted to celebrate Christmas in the snow this year. So we saved up and booked a secluded cabin romantic getaway in the Smoky Mountains. Little did Shayna know I was planning on proposing this trip. Between the ring, proposal destination, and photographers, I must have put in a full 40-hour week of research. With everything in place, we were set for our dreamy Christmas vacation.

Right before bed the night before the flight (and the day of the proposal), my phone buzzes. My photographer has to cancel due to a covid scare, and is frantically trying to find a replacement. Hours go by and I also was Googling and calling every photographer in the area to no avail. Less than 24 hours before I propose and I didn’t have a photographer. Finally, I get the call that my photographer found somebody. Fast forward to the next day – after settling into the cabin and with one foot out the door to go catch sunset (where I will be proposing), my new photographer texts me that the overlook we chose to meet at JUST closed off because some kids graffitied it. We’re in the mountains with limited service and sunset is in 45 mins, so this just became a critical situation. Luckily, my photographer was able to quickly think on her feet and found another beautiful overlook to meet at. We arrive and watch the sunset together. When I heard the photographer get out of her car, I took Shayna’s hand and got down on one knee; she said YES! We went to an amazing dinner in town that night and then went back to our cabin.

I wish this were the end of the story and wish I could tell you we had a wonderful Christmas weekend in our little cabin. Unfortunately, things quickly took a turn for the worse. It was forecasted that we would be receiving 1-2 inches of snow and we will most likely have a white Christmas. As a Floridian, I was so excited. It rained for most of the day, then the snow started to fall, accumulate, and continue to accumulate. Half a foot was on the ground at this point and because of the rain, everything under the snow was turning to ice. 1-2 inches quickly turned into a winter storm without warning. We had just finished eating an early Christmas Eve dinner and were taking a hot shower (as we were playing in the snow earlier). That’s when the lights started to flicker and the power shut off. I rinse off and my fiancée goes in. Not 3 minutes later the water also shuts off. She still had body soap all over, shampoo in her hair and could not get it out. We later realized the cabin water is on a well, which is powered by electricity. Bummed out we couldn’t watch Christmas movies that night as planned, we didn’t think much of it and decided to go to bed shortly after, as tomorrow morning was Christmas. Sunrise comes around and we are shocked to find out that we are still without power or water on Christmas morning. Instead of baking cookies and watching movies, we spent the day gathering firewood to build a fire so we could attempt to cook some pasta. We were pretty upset that Christmas day was spent in the cold and dark.

Nightfall comes around and we are starting to get worried as the temperature inside the cabin was (close to) freezing and the low that night was going to be 8 degrees. We had to wear layers of jackets, socks, gloves, earmuffs, and every blanket in the cabin just to survive the night temperatures. To say it was a brutal and uncomfortable night is an understatement. We were freezing. Saturday arrives and it’s a carbon copy of the prior day. At this point, we and other stranded cabin renters have gotten together to share supplies (firewood, food, matches, water, etc.). The only street down the steep mountain was still iced over and downed trees blocked the roads. We suffer through another ice-cold night in the cabin. Our food supply was reduced to snacks at this point. Now it’s Sunday; it has been 4 days and 3 nights without power, water, or heat, and still no way out. We couldn’t shower, we couldn’t wash our hands, we couldn’t even flush the toilets.

We were wearing the same thing since Thursday as we needed to preserve our body heat. The weather forecast called for a sunny 48-degree day on Sunday, so we and the community of other cabin rentals were hopeful some of the ice and snow would melt off the roads so we could get out of this nightmare. Finally, a beacon of hope – we were informed that the trees were now cleared from the bottom of the road out and we all started shoveling and picking at the ice on the steep parts. A family with a FWD truck with snow tires and tons of steel in their truck bed was the first to attempt to go down. We all anxiously awaited their text that they made it. Close to 30 minutes go by before we receive it – they made it down the mountain! The drive was no stroll through the park though, most parts were still iced-over and tree branches scattered the roads.

We told each other “I love you” and decided this was our only shot. On our way down, even at 2-3mph, our vehicle lost control multiple times. We never skid off the road, thankfully, as it was a tight one-way road on a side of a mountain. We made it down the steepest hill on the drive and we both breathe a ginormous sigh of relief. One final hill separated us from escaping. There was a tree laying on top of a powerline that was falling into the road, but it provided just enough room to drive under. I get halfway up the icy hill and my rental truck stalls, then starts rolling backwards.

Scared, I was able to gain control and reverse back down safely before trying again. We give it more gas this time and FINALLY make it out. The main road was right on the other side. We survived. Safe at last, we checked ourselves into a hotel in town and took the best (hot) shower of our lives. We had already missed our flight home because we were stuck on the mountain, so we decided to make the most of the last night in town and go to a well-deserved dinner and drinks. It was not until we got home to Florida that we were able to fully process what had happened. We are both so grateful to have our health and realized if we can survive a situation like that together, we can overcome anything together. In a way, it brought us closer together and made us appreciate the things we take for granted every day. While it was nowhere near a “dream vacation” (or any sort of resemblance to a vacation for that matter) to celebrate our engagement and Christmas, we hope to have a “redo” soon where we can properly celebrate such a meaningful milestone together.

Local news reached out to us about it. News story here.