How We Met
Mike and I met back in college when I was a freshman and he was a sophomore. We had mutual friends and I had seen him around, but one day I saw him across the gym at a campus event and for some reason I couldn’t stop thinking about him in the days thereafter. I ended up telling our mutual friends that I wanted to get to know him more, but when they shared that news with Mike, his response was “Cool dude!” Feeling no hope for us whatsoever, I might have possibly still continued to go out of my way to get his attention…leaving my dorm early for class knowing that I’d run into him leaving his class, tweeting song lyrics from his favorite artists, and some other things that as I’m typing out make me sound slightly crazy. Nonetheless, my crazy attempts to get his attention ended up working and we connected through Twitter and eventually moved on to texting. A few months of this strictly-digital communication carried on as we both began to express interest in one another. Eventually I ended up giving the kid an ultimatum and told him we needed to hang out and see where this could go or discontinue our communication. Thankfully he asked me to get frozen yogurt with him (in which neither of us ate because we were too nervous) which then led to lots of dates over the course of the last few weeks of the semester. As we went on summer break I will admit that I thought we would see the end of this fling, but I was wrong because Mike was different. In those months apart I had never felt more cared for or known by anyone, and after endless FaceTime dates, I flew up to Connecticut for a week to see him where he (very nervously) asked me to be his girlfriend while dancing to “Two is Better Than One” by Boys Like Girls Featuring Taylor Swift. In that moment I knew he was the one (because he played Taylor Swift, duh!)
How They Asked
It’s crazy to think that Mike and I have been dating for five and a half years! I guess I should have caught on to the trend from the earlier days of our relationship that he likes to take his time. And although it’s not much of a secret that my patience was dwindling, all the people who said “It will be worth the wait!” couldn’t have been more correct. I had my suspicions that a proposal could be coming up, but Mike continued to work overtime to have me convinced that a proposal wasn’t really on his radar. He proposed on Friday, December 7, 2018 and managed to totally surprise the girl who always finds a way to ruin her own surprises (oops)…I had a work conference that day so my mind was totally in work mode. Earlier on in that week, my best friend Nicole had asked me if I wanted to get pizza at our favorite fancy pizza spot to celebrate her one year anniversary at her job. I agreed to the dinner plans and didn’t think much of it. I will say that I started to get a tiny bit suspicious when she promptly made reservations and even texted me a play-by-play of what she was going to wear. However, I quickly talked myself out of any type of suspicions because I didn’t want to get my hopes up, and being super organized wasn’t out of the ordinary for Nicole. So Friday rolled around where I spent the day at my work conference and was even able to leave a little earlier than my usual 9-5 schedule. I texted Mike to see if I could stop by to see him on my way home since Fridays are his day off from work, in which he proceeded to tell me that he was feeling really sick and had “been on the toilet all day” so it was best if I stayed away from him. He even went so far as to FaceTime me from bed to show me how “sick” he really was. After getting off the phone with Mike, I went to go pick up Nicole from work to begin our night of pizza plans. As we drove to Worth Avenue in Palm Beach where our favorite pizza spot is, I noticed Nicole was acting a little strange – as in not being able to finish her stories and constantly checking her phone. However, I just figured she was distracted and carried on with driving. As we were walking towards Worth Avenue, we started to approach the 40-foot Christmas tree that graces the infamous shopping street every year – and just so happens to be one of my favorite Christmas spots in town. As we got closer to the tree I thought I saw Mike standing near it, but figured I was just seeing things. However, about 30 seconds later I realized it was indeed Mike under the tree and across the street from him was a photographer all set-up, and in that moment I knew exactly what was happening. Something important to note is that next to my love for Michael, my next greatest love is Christmas. I’m affectionately known as “Elf” and anyone that knows me knows that I truly do “treat every day like Christmas.” Therefore, to see Mike standing under one of my favorite Christmas trees, dressed in a sweater (in Florida), with a ring box that he had meticulously wrapped to look like a gift (complete with a bow that he tied all by himself) was absolutely incredible. I truthfully don’t remember what he said, or what I said (the next day I asked him if I even said “Yes”) but I do know that it was the most perfect moment I could have ever asked for. After he put an absolutely stunning ROCK on my finger, I was immediately surrounded by my best friend and my brother and sister-in-law who were there to share in our excitement. And most importantly, we still ended up getting pizza at our favorite spot. The surprises then continued as we went to the local Christmas pop-up where I was greeted in excitement by even more friends. Mike truly thought of everything and perfectly pulled off a HUGE surprise. Our proposal was truly a Christmas miracle and I can’t wait for many more magical moments together!
