Love is in the air at Roloff farms! And in Iceland. And basically wherever the former Roloff family black sheep and his lady love are.
Because Jacob Roloff and Isabel Rock are engaged!
And now Izzy is telling fans all about how that beautiful proposal in Iceland went down. These details are amazing, and the twists really kept us hooked.
In a How He Asked post for The Knot, Isabel Rock describes exactly how Jacob Roloff proposed to her on their Iceland vacation. Get ready to believe in love again.
“Jacob and I met in 2011, on the school bus when he was a freshman and I was a sophomore in high school.”
The two were practically neighbors in Helvetia.
“He had gone to private school his whole life up until high school, so we never met until then. I thought he was so incredibly cute.”
There’s no crush like an adolescent crush.
“And so, being the naturally outgoing person I am, I’d always sit next to him on the bus and strike up a conversation.”
Most of us have been there on at least one bus route or another growing up.
“Being the naturally quiet person he is, he would always hesitantly pull out his headphones and say ‘Hi’ shyly.”
Most of us have formed plenty of friendships simply by befriending the most attractive classmate or fellow bus-rider. (Or is that just me being shallow?)
“As time went on, more small chat on the bus lead to us becoming really good friends. We talked almost every day throughout the years.”
Their bus ride friendship turned into one of those more voluntary friendships where they both made an effort to hang out, which happened more and more after Izzy graduated.
“Jacob and I started hanging out more often. What was a simple friendship turned into a best friend-ship really quickly. He and I spent almost every single day together that summer.”
And yes, there was more to her friendship with Jacob than his cuteness at this point.
“He was incredibly easy to talk to, so sweet to me and every time we would hang out, it felt like such an adventure.”
And now, of course, they’re in a relationship.
“Jacob and I have been together three years now. Easily the best three years of my life and on August 1st, our three year anniversary, I had no idea it was about to get even better. Jacob surprised me with something special: Plane tickets to Iceland!”
They had always talked about visiting famously beautiful Iceland. And, in December, they went.
“Iceland is an incredible place, and it is super romantic. We explored as much of the country as we could in eight days, and spent a lot of our time in the city of Reykjavik, which is Iceland’s [capitol], and the most amazing city I have seriously ever been to.”
She actually mentions that Reykjavik is Iceland’s capitol more than once, which we’d hope that most people know. But it’s nice of her to make that clear in case anyone’s confused.
“Something I found interesting about the trip was the butterflies I kept getting at various times throughout. On Christmas Day, though, the butterflies wouldn’t quit and I just knew something amazing was going to happen!”
Sometimes, when a couple is really in sync with each other, it’s almost like they can read each other’s thoughts.
She says that they parted ways to get each other different gifts, and though she already knew what she wanted to get him, that nagging feeling of excitement wouldn’t go away.
So, just in case, in an artistic card, she wrote a message:
“Jacob went out to buy my gift and while I waited at the hotel, I wrote in the card, ‘I can’t wait to spend forever with you, fiancé’, because I just had a hunch what was about to happen.”
This is actually a classic magician’s trick — keep a card hidden on your person in case it comes up, and then pull it out to give the appearance of certainty when really you were just guessing. This is a very romantic application of that technique, though.
“I figured if I ended up being wrong, I would just keep the card in my pocket and he’d never have to know!”
As it turned out, they went outside and took in the beautiful scenery for their exchange of gifts. You don’t have to have those “butterflies” to know that Jacob had something more for her than a neat new phone case or whatever.
“My heart started beating so fast. He handed me my gift; a tiny black box, inside of it a tiny bag, with a stunning turquoise ring.”
Turquoise is gorgeous.
“I slowly pulled it out, and to my complete surprise, it was a ring we had seen earlier that day — a handmade Icelandic ring that was my favorite color.”
All sorts of rings can be engagement rings, but she could tell immediately that this was not.
“But it was definitely not an engagement ring! Tripping over my words I said, ‘Oh.. it’s.. it’s beautiful’, because it was, but I will admit I was completely thrown off!”
Sneaky, sneaky Jacob wasn’t done, though.
“Within seconds, he started smiling mischievously, obviously catching my confusion. Right then, Jacob spun me around and said, ‘Alright, one more gift…"”
It sounds like he gave her the first ring in a surprise box to gauge her reaction. If she’d seemed terrified by the ring and relieved to see it was turquoise, he could have kept the engagement ring hidden away.
“And that is the moment he got down on one knee and asked the question I’d been longing to hear, ‘Will you marry me?’ He asked with a ring box he had hand built out of real wood and my dream ring.”
She didn’t exactly have to agonize over the decision.
“I said ‘YES!’ and leapt into his arms to hug him and we both cried.”
Remember that card that she wrote earlier, calling him her fiance?
“I snuck the card I’d written him out of my pocket, which he read right there, and then exclaimed, ‘You knew?!’ Which just made us both cry more.”
He hid the ring and she hid the card — it sounds like these two are a perfect match!
“He told me that he had been wanting to do it the entire trip, but he was simply waiting for the right moment to do it. Jacob had apparently had the ring in his coat pocket for five days as we traveled around Iceland!”
Hey, if you’re gonna hide a ring in your pocket, it might as well be winter in a country so cold that it has “ice” in the name.