We Got ENGAGED! ♥️ Grand Haven, Michigan & Grand Rapids ArtPrize
- Becca & Andrew
- Nov 13, 2025
- 5 min read
We took a trip up to Grand Haven, Michigan to camp on the beach on Lake Michigan, visit ArtPrize in Grand Rapids and spend some time with Becca's family. What she didn't know is I had a HUGE surprise waiting for her! It didn't go exactly as planned but ended up being the best weekend of both our lives! Please, read on for the deets!
The Ring
I knew I wanted a special ring for Becca. I didn't want something I just picked out of a case or off the shelf. I ended up having a ring custom made. I got to choose the stone and the setting. The setting needed to be customized to fit the shape of the stone I chose. The jewelers estimated the ring would be complete a full month before our trip to Michigan. As we got closer and closer to the trip... I started to sweat! Week after week went by and no ring! Finally, just a week before the trip, the jeweler notified me the ring was ready! PHEW! I got the ring and it was absolutely stunning and gorgeous, just like Becca! 😉
The Situation
We had this camping trip planned for months in advance and knowing the beaches of Lake Michigan are some of Becca's favorite places, I knew it's where I wanted to propose! The plan started off simple enough... We had reservations to camp at Grand Haven State Park Thursday through Sunday. We had talked about numerous restaurants in the area we wanted to visit. My plan was to take Becca out to a nice dinner, coax her into a walk on the beach afterwards and propose either on the beach or at the beautiful lighthouse. That plan kept getting derailed... let me explain...
Becca has a family friend who lives in Grand Haven. She also has cousins who live near by and it just so happened that her aunt was going to be in town the same week. Because of her aunt's visit, Becca's parents also decided to make the trip up. We would all be in the area for the weekend. On Thursday night the whole family met up for dinner at The Paisley Pig. We hung out and caught up for a while before heading back to our campsite (can't do my proposal plan this night). On Friday we spent most of the day at another park with Becca's friend, met the family at the beach in the afternoon and drove to her cousin's house for pizza and hanging out for the rest of the evening (proposal idea is not going to work this night either). By now I was getting worried. Two nights in the books, no proposal, and we had plans on Saturday to spend the entire day in Grand Rapids at ArtPrize. When was I going to propose?! I was out of nights?! AAARRRGGG!!! Please don't get me wrong, I loved every second of hanging out with Becca's family! They didn't know what my exact plans were and just wanted time with us. And of course, Becca and I wanted time with them too! I, however, was running out of time... I started thinking... Would a nice dinner and a night-walk on the beach be the perfectly romantic proposal I was going for? Sure, but a little cliche! Was it "us" though? Was it something that incorporated "us" into it? No, it did not. Then it hit me... What is something Becca and I do every single morning, whether we're at home or camping? Coffee! We had been getting up every morning and carrying our camping chairs down to the beach to have our morning coffee, chat and TikTok watching session. We make it a point to do this routine every morning for some "us" time. I knew we would be doing just that the next morning. I decided this would be the perfect time to propose!
The Proposal
Saturday morning we got up, climbed out of our truck tent, made coffee and headed to the beach, just like the previous mornings. The weather was beautiful and there wasn't another living soul (except lake gulls) on the beach. The water was calm and the air was still and quiet. It was PERFECT! After a bit of our morning routine I turned to Becca and said, "Hey babe, I brought my camera down here because I wanted a shot of us holding hands and walking on the beach." She bought it! I set up my GoPro in the sand (in video mode, of course) and we walked down to the water line. We held hands and looked around. I told her, "Baby, I love you so much. You make me so happy and I know I'm a better person when I'm around you. There's a problem though... I don't want to go to ArtPrize today with my girlfriend." Becca looked at me awkwardly and I said, "I want to go with my fiance!" I got down on one knee and asked her to be my wife. You can't hear anything I said in the video below, but you can defenitely hear Becca's reaction!
She said YES! and we proceeded to text and call family to give them the good news! We spent the rest of the morning glowing and walking in the clouds. We got ready for the day and headed into Grand Rapids
ArtPrize
We both were still on cloud 9 as we parked in downtown Grand Rapids to meet Becca's folks and see ArtPrize. This event takes over downtown Grand Rapids as artists display their works both outside and inside of businesses. Check out the photos below of some of the amazing art we saw!
The Poem
One of the artists was EndlessWill. His art was creating a poem on the fly using one word (chosen by us) and an old fashioned typewriter. He greeted us and we gave him the word "promise" without any explanation as to who we were or that we got engaged just hours before . He quickly began typing for a few minutes and then read us the poem he created. We were both near tears! Below is the poem he created for us!
After he gave us our poem, we explained to him we had just gotten engaged that morning! He seemed moved as well and said, "Thank you for sharing that with me." This was an experience neither of us will soon forget. Please check out his website, linked below.
This trip was amazing for numerous reasons! Proposing to the love of my life takes first place but getting to meet more of Becca's family and exploring such a beautiful area was such a blessing. I can't wait for many more adventures together!
Links to the fun things we did!
