How We Met
Dave and I met during a cold January day. I was home on break from school during my senior year of college and was with all of my friends from home. I was the last of us to turn 21 so when we were home together we decided we all wanted to go out to a bar. We were torn between downtown or the little dive bar near us and settled on the latter because of location. Dave on the other hand who is 6 years older than me, decided to go out to the same bar with his friends for the first time in a while. Our meeting story is not your typical “meet cute” and the reason we ran into one another was that his friend was trying to talk to one of my friends. Being the overprotective friend when I have a little bit of liquid encouragement, I went over to their group to pretty much get him to back off. However, that is when I ran into Dave. We were immediately drawn to one another and started chatting. Again with liquid encouragement I am very bold so one of the first things I said to him was if he was going to buy me a drink or not? Very forward. Dave obliged and we started talking about one of my favorite things, animals. I was about to graduate with my BS in Environmental Science and had just taken herpetology, which is the study of snakes and amphibians. So naturally, I started explaining to Dave snake fang structure. This must have been impressive to him because we exchanged phone numbers, sealed it with a kiss, and our first date was a week later!!
how they asked
Every year for the past 3 years, my parents rent a cottage on Canandaigua Lake which is one of the finger lakes in NY. I always take off for a long weekend and this year and Dave comes up on the weekend. Friday was the first day we were there and we had invited Dave’s parents up for dinner. At the cottage with us were my mom, dad, sister, his mom, and his dad. It was right before sunset on the lake and Dave asked me if I wanted to take pictures. Of course I thought! We went to the edge of the yard and started taking pictures with the lake in the background. Then Dave looked at me and said do you want to re-create our cruise picture? When we took a cruise 2 years ago, we took one of the cheesy pictures on the boat. We were turned to face each other and were staring into each other’s eyes. It was pretty ridiculous. Still thinking nothing out of the ordinary, I thought sure! But, I couldn’t keep a straight face. Dave and I have had a pretty big year. We are in the market for our first house together. So Dave looked at me and said “You know we’re taking pretty big steps together. Would you like to take one more with me?” Then before I knew it he was down on one knee and asked me to marry him! Everyone knew already and were cheering in the background and the sun started setting. What makes this proposal so personal to me was that it was with our families. Also it tied into our meeting story. That day, it just so happens that I chose to wear a shirt with a snake skeleton on it, describing the snake fang structure.
