How We Met
Scott and I met on a Spring Break cruise in 2012 – he went to the University of Florida, I went to Florida State University, but we had mutual friends on the cruise and we met within the first hour. That is the most time we spent together until the last day, when we ended up talking for a while and grabbing a picture together, but soon we went our separate ways. A few days later, Scott added me on Facebook and we started chatting. He smoothly told me “Hey, I gotta get off Facebook but my number is ***-****, text me so we can keep talking.” We saw each other the following weekend for St. Patrick’s Day in Tallahassee, we shared our first kiss, and sparks flew. The weekend ended, and Scott went back to Gainesville. We texted often and bonded over our mutual love for sushi, and I developed a crush on him right away. We would see each other when we could over the next year and a half, sometimes being on the same page and sometimes not, but we somehow always found our way back to each other. The summer before our senior year of college, Scott told me he wanted to give us a real try. I was skeptical, but there was something in me that told me to go for it. He came to Tallahassee, took me on a date and convinced me to be his girlfriend. We spent the next year long-distance, but fell in love along the way.
how they asked
We moved to NYC after college, and would spend a lot of time in DUMBO in Brooklyn. There is a Carousel in Brooklyn Bridge Park called Jane’s Carousel. It is originally from Youngstown, Ohio and was refurbished and permanently brought to Brooklyn. My parents are both from Youngstown, and both my grandparents and parents grew up riding that exact carousel. In the summer of 2016, my grandparents came to visit us and we took them to the carousel. It was a very emotional experience for all of us, as they were transported back in time to their childhood. It was so special to share that moment with Scott, too. My parents subsequently came to visit later, and we had a similar experience with them at the carousel. Needless to say, it was a special spot.
March 31st 2017 was probably the worst weather day we had in New York in a year. It was 30 degrees, torrential rain, crazy wind, just ugly. Scott had been in Boston for work, and I was preparing to go away the following Monday for a week with work also. I was coming down with a cold, and pretty stressed about the whole thing. Scott had planned for us to have a special date that night in anticipation of his busy season at work a few weeks prior, and he said the rest of the details would be a surprise. He had done something like this before, so I didn’t think anything of it. He told me to bring a dress and heels to work, as we’d be going somewhere nice for dinner. I threw a short dress and open toed shoes in my bag the night before, too stressed to check the weather forecast. Despite my frustrated texts to him about the weather and not feeling well, he never offered to reschedule, so I had to go. He said he would pick me up in an uber at 6pm at my office, and as 6 was nearing, I was completely losing it. I didn’t want to go out in this weather, I didn’t feel well, I didn’t get all of my work done prior to my trip before 6pm, I just didn’t want to go. And I was making that clear. On my way out of my office all dressed up, my colleague said, “What if Scott is proposing?!” and I said, “there is NO way he is proposing and if he is, it will be the biggest surprise of my life.” I was in a terrible mood.
As I was walking to the uber, my umbrella flipped inside out and I was getting soaked, which just made me angrier. I hadn’t seen Scott in a few days, and when I got in the uber, he said hi to me and leaned in to kiss me, and I said, “I’m going to need a few minutes.” As we started driving over the Brooklyn Bridge, Scott tried to say hi again, and I replied, “I said, I need a few minutes. This is the worst night for this I want to do nothing else this weekend I am so stressed out…” At this point, Scott starting freaking out and texted our families, “This is a nightmare.”
Finally, we pulled up to The River Cafe in Brooklyn, which is this beautiful, romantic restaurant on the river that I always have wanted to go to. I didn’t think anything else but, oh, he is taking me to the River Cafe, that’s nice. Like I said, I was in the worst mood. Scott said, “Actually, our reservation isn’t for a little while, so let’s go do something else.” And he starts walking. A while. In the pouring, freezing, windy rain. I start following him, open toed shoes and a mini dress and a coat, complaining and yelling the whole way. Before I could even realize where we were, Scott walked me right past the carousel, right in front of the Brooklyn Bridge and our neighborhood in Manhattan. It was raining so hard at this point that we were completely soaked. There were only two other people there, who I assumed were just tourists. Before I could realize what was going on, Scott said, “I brought you down here to ask you a question.” At this point, I blacked out – I can’t tell you what he said and he can’t either, but he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. And I replied, “Are you f*&$*% kidding me?!” It really was the biggest surprise of my life.
I soon realized that the “tourists” were photographers who captured the whole thing. We called my parents to tell them, and they were screaming on the other end of the phone. I then asked if we could call his parents, and he said we should go get a glass of champagne somewhere warm and call them from there. We walked to a nearby restaurant called the Atrium, and when we walked in and I was finally able to close my umbrella, I looked up to see both of our families waiting for us with champagne. I started crying again – and just could not believe what had happened. We toasted with champagne, and ended the night with a dinner at the River Cafe. I was so surprised, happy, and overwhelmed that I felt like I was floating above everything that night. It was surreal and amazing in every way. I am so excited to marry Scott this coming October in Florida, where we recently moved back to.
I had been sharing pictures of rings on Instagram with Scott for close to a year just to give him an idea of what I liked – but my taste had a wide range, and we never discussed it beyond that. He consulted our good friend Amy to help him find the perfect ring. He searched all around, but ended up purchasing the ring at Beverly’s Jewelers in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It is the perfect ring for me – a gorgeous, 2.25 carat cushion cut diamond set on a very thin pave band. I love it so much!
