- So I'm Hannah Skinner, and most of you, some of you, may already know how my story ends.

It's the 2025 International Tattoo at the Scope Arena.

And this gloriously decked out Marine in his dress blues, those are important, you need to remember the dress blues, walks out to the middle of the Scope Arena, gets on one knee and proposes to a tilted tenor drummer, too stunned to know what to do with her drum.

But I'll take you to the very beginning.

In the 2024 International Tattoo, I was hired as an instructor and the music writer and the lead drummer for the tenor and bass section of the Pipes and Drums.

I take that job very seriously.

Some might say a little too seriously, but we get it done and we get it done the right way.

Sergeant David Skinner, much the same way, was with the fast action or fast response team, and they run an obstacle course where two teams compete against each other to get to one from one end of the scope arena to the other end of the scope arena, going over obstacles to see who can be the first one there.

And I noticed this Sergeant Skinner, he was the winner every time.

That's also important because I am interested in winners.

At the Scope Arena, when you're preparing for the tattoo, you have some downtime waiting to get to know different groups and you're put together in different sections.

And the Fast Company was next to the pipes and drums.

Whether that was a good idea or not, it worked out for me because I got to see Sergeant David Skinner quite a lot and he got to see me intensely redirecting some individuals.

And in one of these exchanges, I was given the old knife hand that he seemed to really like.

And he turned to a friend and said, "Who is that?

That was hot."

So that was hook, line, and sinker for old Sergeant Skinner.

He had found the one that he chose.

I was having none of it.

He would come up to me and say, "Ma'am, do you need a coffee?"

I do.

"Ma'am, let me hold that door for you.

Thank you.

I was not playing that game.

I didn't want any of it.

I didn't want any of it."

And he kept going the whole week so much so that one of our best friends, Michael, says, "Okay, we're going to dinner and Hannah's pet Marine's coming."

So then it becomes Thursday night and we're playing our first big run through of the show.

I'm feeling quite confident and I come off and there's this Marine in his blues.

No one warned me about these blues, by the way.

I think that's some of y'all's fault.

Someone should have told me because there's this Marine standing and he has his cover, which is their hats in his hand and he says, "Ma'am, may I escort you to the VIP event?"

Well, I was just trying to keep it together, okay?

So I'm standing there.

"Yes, sure.

"That was it for me.

So there was a handsome Marine and Blues asking to escort me somewhere.

"Yep, I'm going.

We're going."

We get through the rest of the weekend, absolutely doing the giggly fall in love portion, and then I have to drive back to North Carolina and he's in Virginia.

So a week goes by and I get a phone call, "Hey, are you busy Saturday?"

"Maybe.

""Well, I need you to be really sure because I'm four hours into this six-hour drive and I need to know if I need to get a hotel."

As my parents would have it, he stayed right at their house.

So that's Southern parents for you.

Okay, I'll fast forward a little bit to the 2025 Virginia International tattoo.

I'm getting ready for it like any other week.

We're so excited to be back with family and family from all over the world.

And as we're getting ready for that week, my first little inkling of something's going on happened.

My friend says, "Hey, do you think Dave will propose to you at the tattoo?"

"Absolutely not.

That guy can't speak in front of anybody.

It's not happening.

""Nope."

And then another friend decides, "Hey, can I braid your hair every day this week?"

"Sure.

"Part of our uniform is the Scottish traditional uniform is the women have our hair braided, right?

Every day.

All right, whatever, that's fine.

And then we keep moving on.

And on the day of, this is Saturday, it's the performance that's recorded.

I feel like I'm everyone's favorite person.

They've got me in a chair.

I've got one person giving me a massage.

I've got another one braid my hair.

One's shining my shoe, another one's fixing my broken toe, and someone's really interested whether or not I needed coffee.

I did.

So I'm sitting there, everybody's favorite person.

I just feel like I'm so loved in that moment, and little did I know I really was.

I though I was pulling a fast one.

It was Dave's birthday, so I was going to have the Piper's Pipe happy birthday to him, and they did.

Then we get through to the dance set.

This is in the middle of the show and we're doing our best performance.

And as we get to our second portion, I'm marching up, getting ready, we call it in the shoot, getting ready to go out.

And my drum sergeant turns to me and says, "Hannah, how often do you do your eyeliner?"

I said, "Why are you asking me about my eyeliner?"

And he goes, "I'm just worried.

I'm just wondering.

I just want to know."

Okay.

Well, I'd use it as like my calm down beforehand.

I did my eyeliner before I came out here, guys.

Okay, so it's my ritual.

And then here's Paul.

Paul's coming up to me with an interview camera.

"What sticks are you using to play today?

The same sticks I've used since I was 14, Paul.

Why are you asking me this?

I was so confused.

"And then we get to the performance section and I'm performing my heart out in the middle of the scope arena.

It's the best performance my team had done and we're finish it and we're set and we don't roll off and the lights come up and a voice you've already heard here tonight, Raymond goes," I apologize, but we need to have a special interruption.

"I can't do Raymond's voice.

Sergeant David Skinner and Hannah Voyles met a year ago here at the Virginia International Tattoo, and they have been dating ever since.

You could hear all the women in the crowd," Oh.

"But the only thing I could hear were those Marine dress blues and those shoes just stopping right towards me.

I will never forget that sound of his shoes and that swagger he had as he marched straight to me.

They gave him a microphone.

It's not a good idea to give a Marine a microphone, but he did a great job and he got down on one knee and I started bawling and making weird sounds.

And someone took my drum from me and I couldn't get my sticks off my hand fast enough and he proposed to me in front of the world to see.

So that is how our story ends, but we're excited to come back to the Virginia International Tattoo in 2026 as the Skinners.

Thank you.