How We Met
Brian and I met at a Halloween party during our first fall semester of graduate school hosted by a member of our cohort. I was dressed as Carmen San Diego and he was trying to pass off an interview outfit he wore earlier that day as a “Ryan Gosling meme” costume. We didn’t say much to each other that night but I didn’t go home empty handed that night-I took home the Best Costume award. Alas, fate had better plans in store for us-we just had to wait a bit.
Fast forward to spring semester and two classes together, we were spending a lot of time with each other and coincidentally ended up on the same group project. We quickly became friends, exchanging witty banter here and there while we completed project tasks. A few months into the spring semester, I started to realize I was looking forward to class just so I can see Brian. My heart would race just making basic conversation with him. He was hilarious and smart with a heart full of kindness. Unbeknownst to me, Brian was also realizing that he felt the same way about me.
Summer came around and we went camping together “as friends” and after enduring a huge thunderstorm and some 4AM board games, we decided that we couldn’t just be “just friends” and decided to give us a try…two weeks later after I came home from a Mexico trip and he came home from a trip to California.
One day before the start of our second fall semester and the same day that I flew back from my trip to Mexico, we had our official first date where he cooked me dinner and we stayed up until 4AM chatting about everything and anything. Since then, we have been inseparable. During the two and half years of being together, we have endured a long-distance, my mother’s cancer diagnosis, our first home and our first pet. We cook together, binge-watch everything on Netflix together, have dance parties with just us two and laugh with each other every day.
how they asked
Before the story, I have to establish that Brian and I are huge board game and puzzle fans. We have tried our hand at a few escape rooms and have been unsuccessful in completing them, but have managed to have a ton of fun while doing so. I also have to establish that the year before he proposed, Brian told me he would propose in 2016.
And this is where it begins.
A close friend of ours had a plan to celebrate his birthday in Napa, California and invited us to join him and a bunch of other close friends to celebrate.We were excited since neither of us have been to Napa. Brian even planned out his outfit (a very rare occurrence). The Friday before our Saturday trip to Napa, Brian and I got an email from Brian’s brother inviting us over to his house on Saturday to participate in an escape room demo that a friend of his was putting on. We had to decline since we were going to be in Napa. The next morning at 6AM, sent a message telling the group that the plans were canceled because he wasn’t feeling well. Brian and I were bummed out, but decided that we would still have a great time that day if we went to the escape room demo. The whole ordeal was awfully suspicious, but my suspicions were mitigated when Brian’s brother sent us the website to the escape room demo (https://easyasanyroomescapes.wordpress.com/). Meanwhile, our Napa friends group decided that we would try and celebrate the birthday during dinner.
For the escape room demo, we were told to arrive at Brian’s brother’s house at 3:45 and his friend would provide us with instructions. We met with her and she told us that she was thinking of switching into the escape room business which as why she was hosting the demo. We thought this was very cool and were happy that we were able to provide her with some feedback on how to make the escape room better. Throughout this entire time, Brian was very calm and even made plans to grab some milk tea after the escape room demo.
We were led into the room where there was a setup of many “escape room” like puzzles and were told that we needed to find the Serigraph Pin in order to release our friend Mary from her kidnappers. See, our friend Mary had just discovered this major conspiracy (Conspiracy #970) and had been kidnapped.
We turned on the timer and off we went solving the puzzles to save our friend Mary. One puzzle led to a key which led to another puzzle and another key and so on. Puzzle after puzzle, I thought to myself “Wow, we are doing an amazing job!”. On the last puzzle, I had to solve a code that would open the box with the Serigraph Pin. As I typed in the code and opened the box, Brian started playing Jessie Ware’s-You and I (Forever)-one our favorite songs by one of our favorite artists. He took the box from me (which had a beautiful ring inside), got down on one knee and said “You are my key. Will you marry me?” and I said “Yea, of course!”
Since we were on the second floor of the house, we looked into the backyard and saw our group friends and our families there waiting to celebrate with us. I was in utter shock. Brian planned and designed an entire room escape experience with every detail for the perfect proposal. It was absolutely beautiful.
Oh and Conspiracy #970? The number of days we have been dating on the day of the proposal.
Serigraph Pin? An anagram for Sapphire ring.
And “Easy As Any” Room Escape? An anagram for “Say Yes Ana”
