Ashley & Shawn Bowen's Wedding Website

Shawn and Ashley

Bride's Proposal Story

At the time, Shawn and I had been dating for 8 months. He was up visiting me at mom and dads house for the weekend. This weekend which was over Mother’s Day weekend he had a great idea to go canoeing and hiking at Mohican State Park on Sunday afternoon. I was really excited that we were going to go out and spend time together. I had no idea what the day had in store for me.

Shawn and I first went canoeing down a river, and that was a lot of fun for us. We were one of the first ones of the season to go canoeing down this river. So on our way down stream we had a few surprises like trees down in the river, which a couple men came down and had to chainsaw us through part of it. Unknowingly the whole time Shawn had a ring in his pocket. Thank goodness he didn’t loose it. After the canoeing we headed to the dam where there was hiking to do. It was absolutely beautiful near the dam with all the trees. So we started up the hill and up near the top Shawn just stopped and started to hug me. Unknowing at the time he was waiting for the people to pass on by. He then took me over near a tree and asked me if I would love him forever and of course I said yes. Then he got down on his knee, and I just looked down at him and wondered why he was down there. I had no clue. He pulled out this beautiful ring and asked me if I would marry him. I was in complete shock and I was so happy all I could do was shake and I leaned in and gave him a huge hug and said yes. I about knocked us both over the cliff with all my shaking so we got up and moved back down the hill. We got into our vehicle and was on the way home to tell everyone.

Groom's Proposal Story

At the time of our proposal I was spending much time thinking about Ashley. I knew I wanted to spend my life with her so I started looking for a ring. I went to Diamond Cellar in Columbus and found the perfect Engagement Ring it has 8 Diamonds but it did not have the center stone and Diamond Cellar is way high on Diamond Prices

so I went looking for the best stone I could buy. I ended up on the net as i usually do when looking for things and found a great website www.diamondregistry.com as featured on CNN. I emailed the guy and got Quotes on a 1 carrot VS1 D Color Hearts And Arrows Round Brilliant Stone. Now where was I going to find that kind of money? I ended up taking out a maximum 401 k loan you might think that is silly but she is worth every penny, and loan pays better than stocks right now :). I sent the ring Fed-Ex to New York 5th Ave. and had Diamond and ring mounted then sent back to me the Saturday before Mothers Day 2004. The next day was Mothers Day and I showed her parents previously the band and talked to them about everything and they seemed happy. So I decided secretly I was going to take Ashley out and propose she had no idea. First we went to Mohican in Loudonville, Ohio we drove around on such a beautiful day with the with my Chrysler convertible. I had decided lets go canoeing and she was all happy and unknowing. If She only knew the whole time I had ring in my pocket she would of flipped.. Well we almost flipped the canoe over I could just imagine losing the ring down the river but we did not flip the canoe but we did have troubles with the whole stream being blocked by trees, but you will have to ask us about that. When we were done canoeing I decided to Drive up to Charles Mill Dam Near Mohican State Park and go on a hiking trail above the dam. We started walking up above the dam this whole time I had the ring now in my hand trying to figure out how to give it to her. And waiting for people to go by so we would be alone finally on a hill just over the river and behind the dam Ashley goes "Ouch something bit my leg" and I got down on my knee and looked at her leg and I was so happy because it gave me the best way to surprise her. I just looked up at her and had the ring in both of my hands and put my hands up towards her so she could see the ring and I started to cry and ask her to marry me. All I know is she got weak in the knees and I stood up she grabbed me and we fell backwards because she was so happy. Don't mind the 300 foot drop behind me. We landed against a tree and she was crying and told me yes. :)