New Year’s Day was definitely one for the history books for 2015 Emmaus High School graduate sweethearts Brianna Kahler and Dylon Kelly.

After dating for two and a half years, Kelly thought it was time to ask for her hand in marriage. And like most proposals, there are always elements of planning and surprise, but this proposal involved much more strategy to make it happen.

Kahler was working New Year’s Day at Pink at the Lehigh Valley Mall and thought this particular shift would be just like any other, until Kelly, an airman with the U.S. Navy, marched into the store in military uniform, red roses in hand and with an entire entourage of family and friends, he got down on one knee and asked her to marry him. And of course, she said “YES!”

Kahler and Kelly, both having a “K” for a last name, spent many years in the same homeroom. Though they never dated during middle school or most of high school, they were friends and also shared many mutual friends. While they were students at Eyer Middle School, they went to Dorney Park one night with a bunch of friends.

“They held hands while walking through the park, but that was it. They never dated until high school but Brianna always remembered that night,” Wendy Kahler, Brianna’s mother said.

“That Dorney Park night did not start our relationship, but it did start my ongoing crush for Dylon all these years,” Brianna said.

“In July 2014, in the summer before our senior year, we were in contact “just as friends” when I asked Dylon what his plans were for his upcoming birthday and he asked if I would spend his birthday with him. That’s when I knew something special was about to begin!” Kahler said. The couple went to Shankweiler’s drive-in for their first date and ended the night with a kiss.

On Aug. 21, 2014, Kelly asked Kahler to be his girlfriend and the rest is history. Their senior year they attended homecoming and the Senior Ball together and after graduation Kelly enlisted in the Navy, leaving January 2016 for basic training. When Kelly graduated from basic training, Kahler went to visit him for the ceremony in Florida and then ultimately, Kelly ended up stationed in San Diego, Calif.

Kahler visited Kelly in San Diego in July 2016 for his birthday and in October 2016. Kelly always knew he wanted to propose to Kahler, but it was during those visits especially, his feelings solidified.

“There’s just a lot of hardship while being that far apart and I knew putting an engagement out there would really settle her mind about our relationship,” Kelly said.

The couple discussed getting engaged after he returned from deployment, but he knew he couldn’t wait until after his deployment to set his plan into motion. Kelly decided he was going to propose the next time he returned home which was right around the holidays, and with a limited amount of time he was allowed for break, Kelly knew he had to hatch a good plan.

As Kahler was counting down the days until she would see her boyfriend again, Kelly was hard at work putting his plan into motion.

He had to first nail down when he would plan to take his leave and then lock in a flight coinciding with his plan. He had two date ranges he could choose from - one being around the Christmas holiday and the other in the early part of the New Year, and he decided to go with the second. Kahler would be celebrating her birthday Jan. 3 and Kelly’s sister had a birthday in that range also and he wanted to be there for those events.

It was important to Kelly to have parental support for his proposal. His parents were fully supportive and helped him get his plan together. He also asked for Kahler’s father’s blessings and called her mother on Christmas Day to let her know of his plans. Once he received support from all four parents, he returned to the place where he and Kahler had previously shopped for rings and he bought the one she loved the most.

Kelly decided he wanted to propose in public while Kahler was working so he called her boss and began to coordinate his plan with Kahler’s schedule. She was given a shorter shift on the Jan. 1 and his plan was to show up at her job around noon toward the end of her shift and ask her to marry him.

The plan was in place. Now to come up with an alibi for how he would keep her at bay while he was packing for and flying on a plane a day earlier than she expected.

“I played the day out exactly as if I had duty - through having to muster and having drills, I tried to keep the talking to a minimum and all of this charade was going on as I was sitting in my room packing and getting ready for my flight home,” Kelly said. “I then told her I offered to stand watch for a friend 8 to midnight Dec. 31, 2016 which would give me the best leeway of time for my flight and getting checked in at the airport since I had to be there at 8 p.m.”

Luckily the plane had wifi so Kelly texted Kahler a “Happy New Year” when he would have been “getting off watch” and told her he’d talk to her the following day. His plane was set to land 6 a.m. in Newark, N.J. and when she was supposed to go to work that day, was actually the same time he would have had to be up for morning muster and duty and so he was able to keep the talk to a minimum once again. Once his plane landed, he met up with family and friends and made his journey to the mall to carry out his big surprise.

“Asking her to marry me - surprisingly, I wasn’t nervous at all …. but thinking ‘was I going to be able to get her to believe my alibi?’ - that was what I was nervous about,” Kelly said. Meanwhile, at work Kahler thought she still had another day to see Kelly, as she had plans with his father to drive to the Philadelphia airport Jan. 2 to pick him up.

“At first when I saw everyone at my job, it took a minute to process what was happening but once I realized both of our families were there I knew Dylon was going to pop out somewhere. As soon as I saw him, I just felt so happy and complete. Seeing him - my mind pretty much went blank, and I thought that was my only surprise. As soon as he pulled me back to talk to me. I knew it wasn’t just the surprise of him coming home!” Kahler said.

While Kelly is serving in the Navy, Kahler is studying to be an ultrasound technician at Northampton Community College with her eyes on a medical program as well. A long distance relationship is a challenge, but Kahler and Kelly have found creative ways to stay connected while he is away. One of the things they look forward to is “date nights”, where they FaceTime watching the same movies on their laptops.

“In March, Dylon will be in port for a month long, and the ship is allowing two weeks leave, and during that time he plans on coming home. Hopefully things work out with my spring break from school allowing us to have three whole weeks together! This will be the longest time we will spend together since he’s been in the Navy,” Kahler said.

Kelly is currently stationed in Coronado, Calif. on the USS Theodore Roosevelt Cvn 71. His air division works with the equipment that launches aircrafts off the flight deck. Just before Kelly was set for a short holiday break, his ship went underway for a couple days which began their “out to sea” schedule. Once Kelly returns from his holiday break, they will start going out to sea and coming back for a couple days and weeks at a time for about a half a year leading up to a deployment closer toward the end of 2017 which will last for about six to nine months.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better proposal. We are excited to plan and get ideas but nothing is set in stone. We would love a southern feel to our wedding, as Dylon is originally from the south,” Kahler said. “Our dream is to be surrounded by all our friends and family who love and support us through everything.”

They would like to have a simple, small wedding to start and then in the future having a big wedding once Kahler graduates and Kelly is hopefully stationed much closer to home. But for right now, this newly engaged couple is just enjoying their time together on “Cloud Nine” starting off with such an exciting note to begin this year’s chapter in their relationship.