BY: BRITTANY ROSEN
From Japan to Spain, this is the most expensive, sweetest and thoughtful proposal, likely, of all time. The proposal was the result of four years careful planning, according to Amy Linville, the soon-to-be wife of Brett Arnold, the man who proposed to her by sending her on a scavenger hunt around the world.
Master planning started eight months before Linville’s graduation from college as an instructional designer when Arnold started booking the flights and making arrangements for her.
On December 12th—the day after Linville’s graduation—Arnold surprised her with a quaint scavenger hunt around their Colorado town, leading her to the top of a mountain in the middle of a snowstorm. When she got to the top of the mountain, she was surprised to find a note reading, “You leave tomorrow @ 7:00 a.m. Pack your shit.”
A day after her graduation, Arnold surprised her with a scavenger hunt around Colorado
Although she thought it was a joke at first, upon returning home, Linville found her travel bag containing a one-way ticket to Tokyo, a Japan Rail Pass and a map to her friend’s place in Japan.
Arnold was sending her around the world on a scavenger hunt—Linville could hardly believe it.
“I STILL did not believe him,” Linville said in a Buzzfeed interview, “No way…I had work, Christmas parties, plans…what about my plans?! Later I would find out that he contacted my boss months ago to arrange it and had let everyone know that I would not be making any appearances at Christmas parties.”
Her first clue:
Arnold had made arrangements with Linville’s boss to give her time off work and told her friends that she wouldn’t be around for Christmas, making sure that his girlfriend had nothing to worry about but finding the clues.
Kassie Humphrey, a childhood friend currently living in Okinawa that Linville hadn’t seen in 8 years, had the next clue.
Humphrey’s clue led Linville to Barcelona, Spain, where she would find the proceeding clue at a bar called Casa Bar Pepe. Unfortunately, it turns out the bar was closed when she got there.
When she reached the top of the mountain there was a bag with a second clue in it:
“Brett was a little upset about this one; he had overnighted the clue to the bar owner, and the bar owner said he would definitely be open,” Linville said.
Arnold ended up emailing the clue to her, instructing Linville that the next clue would be at hotel in San Sebastian called Hotel Mercure Monte Igueldo, and it would be given to her at 3 p.m. Christmas day.
As promised, at 3 p.m. on December 25th she received her next clue, instructing her to hike across the peninsula bay and find the exact view in this picture:
She found her third clue on a fridge at their friend Mike’s apartment:
Spending Christmas alone wasn’t a happy prospect for Linville, especially when she was having trouble finding the overlook from the picture. “I knew Brett was back home celebrating with family; he had been texting me and FaceTiming me so I thought there was no way he would be joining me.” She found four views that looked exactly like the photo and started to consider giving up for the day. Just when the rain and cold were beginning to discourage her she ran into a Spanish man.
The Spanish man pointed to the spot. As she made her way up the stair set leading to the spot, she saw her boyfriend climbing down the stairs at the same time from a distance.
She travelled around Japan for 7 days and ended up in Jigokudani monkey park:
“I was completely shocked,” she said. “He had really thrown me off that day! I asked him if there was still a clue or if he was my clue … He said, ‘Actually, I have it right here…’”
Arnold took out an engagement ring, and proposed to Linville on the spot.
To celebrate, the couple took turns taking swigs out of a champagne bottle that Arnold had brought with him.
“Our love for travel runs deep, as you can tell from this engagement story!” Linville said. “He is my biggest fan, my travel partner, my compass.”
They are set to be married in Fort Lauderdale, Florida this coming October.
Her next clue led her to Barcelona where she was supposed to find her 9th clue at Casa Bar Pepe, which was closed, so Arnold emailed it to her
Linville had to hike up a peninsula to search for an overlook that looked identical to the one in the photo:
As she walked down she ran into Arnold where he proposed:
Sources: buzzfeed.com, abcnews.com
