His Version

Hannah and Sam had been friends for a few years before deciding to take the next step somewhere in the Outer Hebrides in Scotland in the summer of 2021. It took all of two months after this for Sam to realize he was totally committed and wanted to ask Hannah to be his wife.

Hannah had been back in the states for a few weeks before they were set to meet in Lisbon. Sam arrived in Lisbon airport before Han. After a few medicinal beers to gather the Dutch courage and with a complete disregard for time difference he rang Hannah’s dad at 7am US time. After startling Mr. Michael and reassuring him that the untimely call didn’t mean something was wrong, Sam proceeded to ask for his daughters’ hand in marriage. Thankfully, Mike gave his blessing…

They spent 3 days in Lisbon before traveling down the coast. On the second day, which also happened to be Sam’s birthday, he decided to propose. Sam was more nervous than a chocolate fireguard on the day and by the time dinner came around he was a wreck. The restaurant was a disaster, and too bougie, completely not us. We laughed our way through dinner, at the absurdity of the place and Sam’s plans slowly fell by the wayside. After dinner, we crossed the street bought a 3-euro bottle of red and set out for a viewpoint of the city. We sat down with our cheap bottle of wine and took in the view.

This was much more of a relaxed vibe. It was at this point that Sam felt was the moment. We had a disposable camera with us, and he asked three teenage girls sitting on a different bench if they would mind taking a picture. After she took the picture for us Sam got on one knee! Lucky one of the girls who we had asked to take a picture happened to be an aspiring James Spielberg. Unprompted, she decided to take a beautiful video of the moment. After a few seconds of hysteria and no words (which felt like a lifetime) Hannah finally said yes!

The rest is history. We traveled down the coast, stayed in a treehouse, and wondered the coast for the next week before returning home as an engaged couple and embarking on the next chapter of our fun-filled journey.

Her Version

Sam and I met up in Lisbon after a beautiful summer together. It had been about 5 or 6 weeks since I left the UK to go back to the US. It was the first time we were apart as more than friends so we were excited to see each another! We had a great time the first day but then Sam was a bit quiet on his birthday. We still had fun and explored the city, but I remember thinking he was more quiet than usual. If you know anything about Sam, he’s not the quietest person in the group. This carried over into dinner which was hilarious and totally not somewhere we would’ve picked ourselves. We finished our meals, and gave each other a look like, let’s get out of here! Thankfully there was a bodega across the street. We grabbed some wine and laughed at how much we both didn’t enjoy the restaurant as we made our way up to a beautiful viewpoint that overlooked the city.

It was gorgeous as the city lights came on to compliment the colors of the sunset. We sat down on the benches with our wine, and I gave Sam his FUNNY card, to which he replied, “Let’s get a picture” …. I was like UHH ok dude that was funny. He half-laughed and again, brings up getting a picture. “I’m going to ask these girls to take a picture for us.” I said, “Ok, fine!” … Let’s take this picture you’re so persistent about.

I turned for a spilt second to face the city as we were standing at this overlook. As I turned back around Sam was on his knee! I have absolutely no idea what he said because I was nervous laughing and completely shocked. After a minute or two of Sam saying something, the only thing I heard was, “So, is that a yes??” YES, YES, YES! A million times, yes! We spent the rest of the evening calling family to share our happy news. I was completely not surprised to find out that my family already knew because Michael can’t keep a secret to save his life!!!

The rest of the week was like a dream in the Algarve. We stayed in a treehouse, drove along the coast trying new foods and finding hidden beaches to bask in the sun <3