Designer, model receives proposal in The Fashion Show 2014
April 5, 2014
At the beginning of the Fashion Show 2014 Caine Westergard, senior in apparel, merchandising and design, never imagined she would be leaving Stephens Auditorium as an engaged woman.
Tym Wood, senior in electrical engineering, followed the models on their final walk and met Westergard at the end of the runway on April 5 at Stephens Auditorium.
Wood, armed with a ring and a bouquet of flowers, said a few words quietly through the microphone and asked Westergard to marry him.
“What I said had only been played back and forth in my mind, I’d never really said it out loud until tonight so I was hoping it went well,” Wood said. “At first she started to walk away from me. I was like, ‘you cant leave me out here by myself.’”
Once Westergard realized what was going on, Wood got down on one knee and pulled out a ring he personally designed back in December 2013.
”I knew around Christmas time,” Wood said about when he knew he wanted to propose to Westergard. “I was trying to think of a way to connect all of her Iowa State stuff together, get her family and friends here and her Pi Beta Phi sisters, and then it all kind of came together.”
Lauren Grant, junior double majoring in culinary science and journalism and mass communication is Westergard’s best friend and Pi Beta Phi sister. Grant said she and Westergard have been friends for three years and roommates for two years.
“We did not know for sure it was happening,” Grant said about the engagement. “But he got her and myself a gift card to get our nails done together and she said he had been acting kind of goofy lately. He later told us he hasn’t slept more than 2 hours the last three days.”
Though Wood said he had not slept much the past few days, he had been planning the engagement with the show’s coordinators since January.
“I met with the fashion show coordinators like four times starting in January and then I came to rehearsal before Caine did the other night and we walked through it and how I was going to do it,” Wood said. “Then they brought me up there and said ‘go’ and I went.”
Westergard said Wood and herself had talked about getting engaged a couple of times, but it was not something she was focused on during the show.
“With graduation coming up I thought that would be the main focus for now,” Westergard said.
Both Westergard and Wood are graduating in May and plan to move to Wisconsin where Westergard will begin a job with Land’s End on the women’s design team.
Grant said she is excited to watch Westergard and Wood’s relationship grow as they continue on their journey together.
“I am so happy for them,” Grant said. “They deserve all of the happiness in the world.”