Courtney Samway and Jimmy Bowman—Engaged!

Engaged on 

Christmas Morning

2012

Frenchman's Hot Springs

There are some couples you can tell, just by looking at them, that the stars were aligned when they met. Sun Valley locals Courtney Samway and Jimmy Bowman are two of those special people. Here is the story of their snowy engagement, told in their own words, of how Jimmy aimed an arrow straight at Courtney's ring finger.

HOW DID JIMMY PREPARE FOR THE PROPOSAL? 

At some point, I (Jimmy) decided that there was a good chance I was going to ask Courtney to marry me. The next obvious thing to do was to figure out what I was going to do for an engagement ring. This is not the simplest of tasks when dealing with a rare gem like Courtney. She doesn't like gold, diamonds or popular traditions. It then occurred to me that I'm overly ambitious at times, and Courtney loves all things handmade. Time to order up some lumber, and pick up a lot of sandpaper. Many hours and failed attempts later, I had completed a Birdseye Maple and African Rosewood ring with a Turquoise inlay. 

Now for the task of figuring out how I was going to actually propose to her. It didn't take long for me to come up with the plan of taking Courtney to the hot springs early on Christmas morning to pop the big question. I thought I was going to puke on the drive out there from the absurd amount of anxiety I was dealing with.

After we finally arrived, it came to my attention that the water was about 1,235 degrees. So there we were, standing around in bathrobes in -10 degree weather. Any logical person would have just gotten to work, moving rocks to let some cold creek water into the hot springs, but I was not any logical person… I was a man about to propose to the most incredible woman in the known universe. 

When my brain finally decided to function again, I proceeded to work on the rock wall, and a few minutes later, we were sipping good beer in a beautiful and appropriately heated creekside hot spring. It was then I worked up the courage to pull the trigger on this thing. I mumbled through some terrible speech and let the ring slide out of my hand, down an arrow, and onto Courtney's finger.  

HOW SURPRISED WERE YOU? 

I (Courtney) actually wasn’t very surprised, but don’t mention that part to Jimmy… 😉 He had been acting secretive the entire time he was making the ring, and kept dropping hints. 

WHAT DID YOU DO AFTER THE PROPOSAL? HOW DID YOU CELEBRATE?

We drank Trappiste beer while soaking in the hot springs together. It was a magical morning in the snowy landscape, and we had the springs all to ourselves. The temp was so cold that our eyelashes were freezing as we sat in the springs… The warm water felt incredible against the cold bite of winter air. Later we celebrated with our family over Christmas dinner.

As soon as we got back into cell service, Courtney had received heaps of messages from her girlfriends, all dying to know if Jimmy had pulled the trigger. We decided together that we would wait and tell everyone at once, so we made an online announcement later that day.

WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO GO ON YOUR HONEYMOON?

A warm island paradise, like Tahiti, Bali or Madagascar. We are dying to go someplace beautiful where the ocean meets the land. We decided to make our wedding registry into a Honeymoon fund to help us get there this winter!

THE RING: 

Jimmy made a beautiful ring by boiling Birdseye Maple and Rosewood, then wrapping them into a spiral and inlaying a color gradient from pounded pieces of turquoise beads. He's a pretty amazing man, and the ring is a one of kind handmade work of art.

Courtney and Jimmy will be married at Silver Creek Meadow at the base of the Boulder Mountains on July 13th, 2013.