Stephanie Ciaccio & Brian Hildebrand

In his words: I was just waiting for the ring. It was coming from Ukraine and it was the first months of a global pandemic so I knew there might be some bumps along the way. I figured, once it's in America, everything will be fine and it made it to America. I picked a day and had a nice picnic planned and just needed the ring to show up. I sat on the stoop of our house for days waiting for it to arrive and it didn't come. The picnic came and went and still no ring. We had planned a trip to a cabin the next weekend. It would be better than the picnic, spending time in Green Lake and Princeton, Wisconsin. Still no ring. It was out for shipping several times but never delivered. On the day of the trip, I called the post office thinking maybe they could help. The only option I had remaining. They had it. The ring was sitting there, a single mile away. I snagged it and we hit the road for our cabin weekend. I knew sunset was going to occur shortly after we arrived. I couldn't propose outside at night (how would we get even a single good photo?) so I had to rush. We arrived at the cabin and I started running, unloading the car, setting up chairs, grilling dinner. Stephanie was confused when I started shoveling burning hot peppers and sausage into my mouth the moment it was off the grill but I needed us to finish dinner with a little sunlight remaining. Patsy Cline was playing on a speaker. I asked what she thought of 2020 so far and I got down on one knee. I had the ring. She said yes. We even got a decent photo or two. In her words: It was smack dab in the middle of covid summer 2020 and we were getting soooo stir crazy. We decided to book a small A-Frame in Princeton, WI to get out of our house and into nature for a bit. We packed up and got to the cabin just before sunset. Brian started unpacking the car like a nut and jumped straight into dinner and proceeded to scarf down his (very hot) food at super speed. I just assumed he was really hungry? Had no idea that it was *the ring* in his pocket that was making him extra anxious! (And that he was trying to beat the sunset because he knew I'd need some cute pics - the man knows me well.) So, we finish dinner and are just walking around and chatting. He says something to the effect of, "How would you describe 2020 so far?" (Hot dumpster fire came to mind at that point, haha.) My back was turned and when I turned around to answer, he was on one knee. I remember Walking After Midnight by Patsy Cline was playing. We spent the rest of the night drinking whiskey and champagne and being in awe of the fact that we were engaged. It was lovely. And I was totally clueless to the fact it was supposed to happen the weekend before!