How We Met
Before I said YES to spending a lifetime with my best friend, I said yes to the first of many dates to come. Andrew, my fiancé, and I met at work – River Rat Restaurant. He was a waiter and I was a hostess. Even before that, though, my parents and I would go out to dinner at this restaurant quite often and I remember my mom would always tease me saying she was going to call, “that cute busboy,” over to talk to me. I would always say, “mom.. NO,” even though I secretly agreed with my mom that he was a cutie. A couple years later I was looking for a job and my neighbor suggested I go into River Rat to talk to the owner, who he was friends with. I was excited because I knew my parents loved that restaurant and that’s where the cute busboy, who was now a waiter, worked.
Double bonus! Andrew was pretty popular around the restaurant. Most customers would request him as their server, which gave me many excuses to talk to him since I was in charge of letting the waitstaff know they had a table. The more Andrew and I talked at work, the more I learned about him. He wasn’t just cute, he was actually really funny, (a huge plus in my book!). He was also a gentleman, another plus! I remember even if he had a huge tray in his hands, he would always hold the door open for me out of the restaurant’s kitchen. I always thought that was so sweet. One day he asked what my favorite song was and little did I know, he was saving his one dollar bills from tips to put into the juke box to play the songs I told him I liked. Everyday at work we would play different songs that we both liked and one day we discovered the song, Everything, by Michael Buble.
Andrew would have that song on pause at 4:50 p.m. every day I was scheduled to work, so that it would play by 5:00 p.m. when I got there. (Insert heart melting here) By this point I was hoping to talk to Andrew outside of work and just as I was thinking how that would even happen, I saw a notification in my Facebook inbox. It was from Andrew! He was letting me know I worked the next weekend. I thought, “hmm, I was hired to work every single weekend,” and he knew that. A few days went by and I wanted another excuse to talk to him. I went on Facebook and asked if he was working. He was so I asked if he could check to make sure I took the upcoming Friday off for a wedding I was going to out of town, even though I knew that I did.
We talked for a little while that evening and before we ended the conversation Andrew said he would see me next weekend. I was so excited all week for the weekend to come so I could go to work and see him. Friday came and when I walked inside the restaurant Andrew was no where to be found. I immediately went to check the staff list for that night and Andrew’s name wasn’t on it. I, very nonchalantly, asked why he wasn’t there and another employee said he broke his ankle playing basketball, so he wouldn’t be there for the next few weeks. I was SO bummed. Fast forward to when Andrew returned to work.. I had been waiting for this day! I wanted to laugh again at his jokes and listen to the songs on the juke box with him. I really missed that when he wasn’t at work.
FINALLY Andrew asked me on a date to the movies. It’s funny to think back to that day, because my mom and I went shopping for a whole new outfit for me to wear. Obviously I was excited. Okay, excited was an understatement. That was the best first date, but certainly not our last date together. We’ve done so many fun things together and experienced so much. From traveling, our college graduations, to simply living life to its absolute fullest and always laughing and smiling together. We dated for just about five years, before getting engaged. Now we are happily planning our wedding. It’s crazy to think we are already at this stage of our life together, and I couldn’t be happier!
how they asked
I can’t believe it has already been five years since I said yes to my first date with Andrew, my fiancé. It’s even crazier that it has been ten months since I said yes to a lifetime with my best friend. You know when people say, “It felt like we were the only two people there?” Well, when Andrew proposed, I was so shocked I didn’t even notice all of the people around. It actually felt like we were the only two people and not to mention, there were so many people around us because we were in beautiful Niagara Falls. My mom was born in Canada and my grandma still lives there. We were visiting her for the weekend, so it wasn’t out of the ordinary that we were there. Andrew had just begun a new job at the time, so he was not able to join my mom, dad, and I on the trip… or so I thought.
Andrew did start his new job, but he was able to get time off to come ask me a very important question! My parents and I were walking down by the Falls, grabbed some hot chocolate (because it was February in Canada), and everything seemed completely normal. My mom and dad tried to distract me by pointing to something bright that must have fallen over the railing down near the bottom of the Falls. It was perfect because I was looking in the opposite direction of where Andrew was walking. He came up and hugged me from behind. I jumped and was 100 percent shocked and speechless. I said, “what are you doing here?!!” and that’s when he got down on one knee, asked, and I said YES!
