It was a day six years in the making.
Toni Ruhl and Adrian Duer started dating during their junior year at Southeast Polk High School in Des Moines.
Then, three years after Adrian bought the custom diamond ring, and after building Toni a custom jewelry box, he decided to make his high school sweetheart his forever sweetheart.
"She's just the special one for me," said Adrian, about the proposal. "So she has to have something special for her."
But after a year of intense planning for their May 19th wedding, it won't be happening. The couple was forced to postpone their wedding due to COVID-19 safety concerns.
"It was pretty devastating," said Toni. "We had put in a lot of time and energy and money, especially, into deposits."
Toni said a week before she made the decision, she started worrying how she could safely accommodate her grandparents and her immunocompromised mother, who has Crohn's disease.
"Of course, that would be a really special moment for her to be there for," said Toni.
Their venue was flooded with change-the-date requests, and after receiving an option for a date in August, the couple jumped at it, not knowing if things would even return to normal by then.
"We can't get to be with the vendors we chose initially, so it's just the scrambling," Toni said.
Toni says, they might not be able to reprint all new invites with the right date.
"Just because actually invitations actually end up being pretty expensive," she said.
But the scramble, she said, is worth it.
"It was almost a no-brainer to me because I don't want to put anybody at risk, that I love or that is important to me," Toni said.
The message Adrian put inside Toni's jewelry box is needed now more than ever:
"But you know happiness can be found even in the darkest times if one only remembers to turn on the light" -- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
It's a light that will always be shining as long as they're together.
"It doesn't matter what day it is, you know, just being with you, it's going to be great," Toni said.