How We Met
Jordan and I met on Freshman Move-In Day at Gardner-Webb University. Out of all the new people I met during that weekend, he really stood out to me and seemed like a really great guy. About four weeks later, we started talking and hanging out as friends. Naïve me thought he just wanted to be friends. Two weeks into our new friendship, he kissed me unexpectedly, and that was when I realized he wanted to be more than just friends. The night after our first kiss, he asked me to be his girlfriend. I hesitated and then said, “…sure?” We laugh about my response now! We’ve been together for over three years, and we’re practically inseparable.
How They Asked
Every year, Jordan and I go to McAdenville to see all the Christmas lights. This year, he suggested that we go on a weekend (which we never do) and eat dinner afterward (which we never do either). He was being so nonchalant about all of it that I didn’t think much of it. On the way to McAdenville, we encountered some traffic, so we took an alternate route that my GPS suggested. Once we were finally able to drive into the town, he kept trying to figure out which part we were in. I couldn’t understand why that would be so important to him, but I was too occupied with looking at all of the pretty lights to say much.
We parked in the same place that we do every year and got out to walk around. It was cold and super crowded. Jordan stopped to use the bathroom at one of the restaurants, and he was gone for a while and I started to wonder what was taking so long. (I found out later that he was texting our wonderful photographer Spencer.) When he came out, we continued to walk our usual route along the main street, until we came to the roundabout. Normally, we would turn around at the roundabout, but he suggested that we go down a side street that we had never been down before.
As we walked down the street, we saw an archway set up in front of one of the houses. Jordan suggested that we take a picture in front of it, but I said, “Ehh, I don’t know” because a line had already started to form. We walked the rest of the street and then turned around to go back. We passed by the archway again, and Jordan was insistent that we take a picture in front of it. I agreed, although somewhat reluctantly. We waited for a family to finish taking their pictures there, and then the guy at the front of the line waved us in and told us to go ahead. I was a little surprised (after all, he had been there way before us) but I thought he was just being nice.
Jordan and I moved under the archway and he told me, “You’re gonna want to take your gloves off.” I said, “What? Why? What’s happening?” even though I already had an idea of what was going on. As I took my gloves off, I watched him pull a small purple box out of his coat pocket. I gasped and started crying. He got down on one knee and said, “Allyson, will you marry me?” and all I could do was cry and nod and say “yes” while the crowd of onlookers cheered. Spencer emerged from the crowd and continued to take photos of us. Meanwhile, we found out that the guy at the front of the line was in on it too because he told us that he had recorded a video of the whole thing.
The owners of the house, Mike and Ken, were so excited that we had gotten engaged in front of their house. (Apparently, Jordan and Spencer had gone to McAdenville earlier in the week to scout locations and had decided on the archway in front of Mike and Ken’s house.) They invited us in for a glass of wine, and we left with a cute kitchen towel and a scented candle (our first gifts as an engaged couple!). We spent the rest of the night at McAdenville taking more pictures with Spencer. It was like something out of a Hallmark Christmas movie, and it was definitely a night I’ll never forget!
