How We Met
We met during our freshman year of high school in history class. After high school, we casually remained friends; I went off to college and Deron went into the military. We became much closer when he found out that he was moving back toward the east coast.
how they asked
It’s a long story, but…… he planned this for MONTHS. After his deployment in Bahrain, he was stationed in Washington, D.C. He told me that there was a “significant other appreciation dinner” being held by his command and that he really wanted me to come. I was never available to attend any previous family-friendly events, so I made sure was able to go to this one. He requested that I dress up for the occasion (I am an apparel designer so of course, I had found the perfect look). I picked out 5 dresses that I later let him choose from.
1 month before the event, on his way home from my apartment in NJ, Deron told me that he was running to a rest stop and needed to call me back. In reality, he stopped at my mother’s house along the way to ask her blessings for the proposal. 3 weeks before I went to VA for the event, I was having lunch with my mother and grandmother, where I opened a fortune cookie that said: “your luck will change at the next full moon” (you will understand later, but the cookie was not planted). I told Deron all about it and he played along.
Spoiler Alert: little did I know, he was already planning to propose during the next full moon, which was the Pink Moon on April 11, 2017. While all this was happening, he secretly gave the ring to one of my best friends (she lives in DC) so that I wouldn’t have any way of figuring out his scheme. When I purchased my ticket for this trip, I surprisingly was able to get the $1 Megabus (I hear that’s pretty rare).
Finally, on the big day, we decided to take time to relax, so we went for a pedicure and went shopping, then proceeded to get ready for “dinner”. He wanted to do sightseeing at the Lincoln Memorial before the reservation, so we took a few pictures all around. He suggested he go to the top of the Lincoln Memorial so that he could take a picture of the Washington Monument behind me. He disappears.
When he re-appeared he told me that he thought he saw someone he knew, but he was really getting the ring from my friend (I didn’t know she was there). He suggested we go back downstairs one last time to take a few more selfies before heading to dinner. A couple walks over (unplanned) and offers to take a photo of us. Deron gives them his phone, goes back into his pocket, and proceeds to go down on one knee. Of course, as I’m starting to understand what is happening, the waterworks begin.
He pops the infamous question, I nod my head because I’m speechless, and there were cheers all around (we had a decent sized audience). He then proceeds to say “there’s the photographer, and there is your best friend, Brittany”! I was in shock! Oh, by the way, there was no “significant other appreciation dinner”.
