Alana Hawley & Ryan Ball

Family style meal catered by Green Mill, with vegetarian and gluten free options. Kids’ meals are available! You can request them with your RSVP.

- Bacon wrapped dates, GF

- Caprese skewers, GF, VEG

- Impossible burger meatball skewers, GF

- Baked prie phyllo bites, VEG

- Spinach Tortelloni, VEG

- Maple Dijon Chicken, GF

- Roasted vegetables, GF, VEG

- White cheddar and garlic mashed potatoes, GF, VEG,

- Alana
In 2025, the sun began throwing off crazy radiation that meant a year of bright Aurora Borealis. I became obsessed, and because Ryan is always down for an adventure, we booked a trip to Fairbanks, Alaska in February. We stomped off the plane in boots rated to -40, both wearing multiple parkas, and began the hunt.

   First night: no lights. In fact, it was snowing consistently, which we hadn't thought possible at -20 degrees.  While this made daytime in Fairbanks a snowglobe wonderland, every subsequent night, the sky was obscured. Ryan became increasingly agitated as the nights ticked by with no Aurora visible, which was even more mystifying to me. I had thought the Northern Lights were primarily MY desire; how could they be bending this normally sanguine hunk so out of shape?
    On a day trip to the Chena Hot Springs, we stopped for a hike deep in the forest. The sky was bright blue, and we stomped through knee-deep snow to a trail packed down by dogsleds. Black bluffs cheese-gratered through the wall of white on one side, and the Chena river burbled where it escaped its thick ice on the other. Ravens gulped caws like water falling into buckets. Crunching through the snow under the white webs of birch branches that ceilinged the trail, I was beside myself. What could be better than to be skipping through a winter wonderland at the top of the world, with this gentle, lovely, eminently competent man?
    We followed the dogsled trail onto the river, and walked along the ice under the blue sky.
    "Should we head back?” Ryan asked.

    “Sure, this is a good halfway point.”
    “Alright. Let’s take a picture first.” Ryan whipped out his travel tripod, set up his camera, and directed me to the best spot in frame.
He came to join me, and then crouched down. I crouched too, thinking he’d had an inspiration for a wacky pose.
    “No, YOU stand up!”
    ”?? OH!”
    Ryan produced a ring, and asked me to marry him. I agreed immediately, and swapped a mitten for a ring, and we kissed with runny noses and red cheeks.

    The hike back, he told me about his original plan to propose under the Northern Lights, and how anxious he'd been when they'd stayed hidden. He'd frantically put together a new plan on the fly-- catching me by complete surprise, in the most magical, perfect moment I could imagine. 
I was walking on air. I wanted some birchbark as a souvenir, and we paused for another picture in the forest. I took off my mitten and arranged my hand against the birch sheets, to make my ring stand out better in the photo.

    That’s the story of why I am proudly displaying a hoagie in the Alaskan forest in our engagement pictures.