How We Met
Our whole story began with a “swipe right” on Bumble during the summer of 2020 in North Bethesda, MD. I thought it was so funny that Jordan’s dating profile picture was him wearing a face mask (it was the prime of the covid-19 era). Jordan was intrigued by my interests in street art and the day of the dead.
After correctly answering two of my vital questions (“Are you a serial killer? Do you have covid?”), Jordan bought us two tickets to Bengie’s Drive-In Theatre for Star Wars. Somehow my driving skills on our first date didn’t scare him off!
How They Asked
I want to share with you all the story of my and Jordan’s engagement on August 21st, 2021! During the week leading up to the day, I had a gut feeling that this could be a really special day for us, but of course, one can never be sure. I had known for months up until then that Jordan wanted to marry me, as we talk about our future together all the time. The last time that we were at The Wharf for a concert a few months beforehand, Jordan had mentioned that he felt “something really special would happen the next time we went to The Wharf.” This particular place in Washington DC means a lot to us, as it was where we met for one of our first dates. There is a swing on the dock that we call ‘our swing’ because we took our very first selfie together on it together three years ago. So when he told me that he wanted to take me out for my birthday lunch at The Wharf, I began to think that maybe something a little more would happen that day as well. Well, I was right :)
This was partially reinforced when Jordan took me to get my nails done the morning of my birthday lunch. It was so cute, he told me that when he called the nail salon to make the appointment that he didn’t know how to answer their question when they asked him what type of manicure he wanted to schedule. He had responded “the kind that goes on your nails…” lol. Eventually, they were able to conclude a French manicure. :)
After getting my nails done (Jordan waited on the couch in the salon for me to finish), we were off to The Wharf for my birthday lunch. As we walked to ‘our swing’ on the dock, I was convinced that if Jordan was planning to propose to me anywhere that it would be on our swing. But other people were sitting on it! So we walked right past it. Maybe I was wrong and had made everything up in my head. As we walked towards the end of the dock, Jordan started saying that he had never believed in soul mates before he met me and that he was now completely sure I was his soul mate. As his hands started to shake from nerves, he said he knew that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me.
Then he got down on one knee and took out this quite bulky maroon-colored velvety box from his pocket—I still don’t know how I missed the giant bulge in his pocket that entire time! Suddenly, I noticed our friends, James and Chris, among the other people on the dock as they started playing the guitar and singing “Marry Me” by Train. Finally realizing that there were other people on this dock beside me and Jordan, I then also noticed our friend Bittner with a giant camera videotaping us and our friend Young with another giant camera taking pictures of us. I was shocked!
It was then, in all of my amazement, that Jordan asked me to marry him. J I was so shocked that I just stood there beaming at the ring and Jordan and everyone around us—I even forgot to answer his question! Jordan had to remind me of that lol, and then I said: “yes yes, of course!” The best part was waiting for two minutes for me to try to remove all 8 rings from my fingers before Jordan could put the most beautiful ring ever on my ring finger.
After kissing and blushing in front of the small group of friends and random groups of strangers on the dock who were clapping and congratulating us, we then had a spontaneous engagement photo shoot! We took a bunch of cutesy photos in front of all of our favorite places at The Wharf, including on our swing, in front of the Ben & Jerry’s (our mutually favorite dessert), and under the stars by Pearl Street Warehouse where we saw our first concert together. It was magical!
Even though Jordan had already outdone himself with the proposal at The Wharf, the day did not end there! On the way back home, I couldn’t stop smiling at both Jordan and the beautiful Eiffel Tower ring now on my finger. He told me that we could wait to call our families together once we got home. Then I received a couple of text messages saying congratulations from my aunt and cousins in NJ. How did they know about the engagement that just happened? Eh, maybe one of Jordan’s friends posted about it on FB or something.
My Aunt Debbie then apologized for not being able to make it to the party! Wait, what party?? I asked Jordan and had him promise that there were no more surprises today or that he would need to tell me right now lol. He confidently assured me that nothing was waiting for us at home beside our adorable puppy Koda. Even though he took away my phone at that moment, I still somehow believed him because he knows how OCD I am about having a clean house for visitors. And the house was surely not clean at this point. As we pulled into our driveway, I sighed in relief, as I had not seen any suspicious cars by our house.
When we opened the front door, to my surprise our sweet little Koda came running towards us wearing a bandana saying “my humans are getting married” and had a balloon on her head. I will never forget how adorable she looked trotting toward us! I noticed the living room was also decorated with congratulations banners, balloons, and pictures of us. Someone had to have come and decorated while Jordan was proposing to me! Maybe it was our local friends, Grace and Stanley, as I had helped Stanley a bit when he proposed to Grace. When I opened the back door to let Koda outside, however, there was a crowd of people standing on our small deck yelling “congrats!” I couldn’t believe my eyes—I really couldn’t! It was the sweetest thing that anyone has ever done for me.
But the best part was that everyone was not there just for me but for us—to celebrate me and Jordan. I immediately started crying of course, especially when I saw my little sister who had flown from London to be there. I hadn’t seen her in 9 months, and there she was right in front of me! We had family who flew from Florida and who drove from North Carolina and Tennessee. I had just been talking to my dad earlier that morning, and he had mentioned that he and my stepmom were driving. Now I knew that they were driving from Jersey to my house in Maryland for this surprise!
We had the entire proposal crew, some of Jordan’s college friends, and some of my medical school friends there as well. Almost everyone we cared about was there to support us, and it meant everything in the world. It meant even more that Jordan had spent MONTHS planning for this day, which I later found out. I knew right then that I was the luckiest girl in the world. I can’t wait to walk down the aisle this September and become his wife. For now, I can settle with being his fiancé :)
Congratulations to all the current and future engaged couples out there!
