The solar eclipse serves as the perfect time to get engaged, just ask these lovely couples. The total solar eclipse in North America was the perfect backdrop to ask for your love's hand in marriage, and we're giving you the scoop on who's on their way to say "I do."
Let's start with North Carolina couple Hunter Sawyers and Elaina Bullard. After growing up within the same church since they were toddlers, Sawyers prepared for a little over two months to propose to his now-fiancée. On Monday, Bullard initially thought the two were going to the park to watch the solar eclipse, much like everyone else. Sawyers distracted his now-fiancé by giving her the special glasses needed to view the eclipse, but had something else in mind. "He was behind me, and he was putting the glasses on me," Bullard told WVTR-TV. “While I was looking at it, that's when he quickly pulled it out. When I turned around, he was kneeling.”
Overall, the occasion was picture-perfect. “It's a once-in-a-lifetime happening and you’re a once in a lifetime girl,” Sawyers said of the proposal. “I said, ‘I want to grow old with you and tell our grandkids about this day.’ It was really beautiful and everything and she was distracted looking at the beautiful eclipse."
In New Jersey, Adam Goetz got down on one knee to pop the question to girlfriend Dana Russo. Goetz gathered family and close friends to watch the solar eclipse in Manasquan beach (family members were in on the engagement). “I kind of wanted to play into the whole diamond ring effect of the eclipse,” Goetz told News 12 New Jersey. “Obviously New Jersey wasn’t getting the full eclipse, so I had to wait as far as I could.”
Heading back down South, Tennessee natives James Richmond and Taylor Mchan are another newly engaged couple. As solar eclipse reached totality, Richmond pulled out a diamond ring from his backpack before asking for Mchan's hand in marriage. "Look at the eclipse. Isn't it amazing? Once-in-a-lifetime thing, and I'm only doing this once in my life," Richmond told WBIR.
There's lots to celebrate in Oregon, too. After meeting on Tinder three years ago, Idaho natives Scott Busch and Kendra Kisling were visiting family in Redmond, and thought it would be perfect to watch the eclipse from Tetherow Crossing on the Deschutes River. Little did Kisling know, she was in for a big surprise. Using the special glasses as a distraction (we're noticing a trend), Busch got down on one knee and popped the question. Kisling said yes.
"Of course the engagement was wonderful," Kisling told Oregon Live. "But it being our first solar eclipse, that minute of totality where we were, it was amazing. The view and the darkness and the coldness and the aura that was there, it was spellbinding. It was truly once in a lifetime."
In South Carolina, Ryan Hoskins and girlfriend Alix Bockus planned on watching the solar eclipse almost two years to the day. During its totality, Hoskins knew it was time. According to First Coast News, he hugged her from behind before saying, "I love you to the moon and bac." He pulled back, and asked for Bockus' to be his wife. She later took to Twitter to share a snap of her ring.
Congrats to all!
