How We Met
Brett and I met in 9th grade when we both went on a class trip to the Grand Canyon. It was true fate as, believe it or not, I had no desire to go on the trip as none of my friends were going. Throughout the exploration of Sedona and surrounding National Parks, I always noticed Brett for his laughter and charm. We even have a group photo from the trip where I am clearly staring at him. Shortly after the trip, Brett found out I had a crush on him through a mutual friend. We dated for a few months as each other’s first boyfriend and girlfriend and then were out of each other’s lives for about 13 years. In early 2017 we ran into each other at the gym in our hometown. I totally avoided him because I was all sweaty and not wearing any makeup. The next day Brett messaged me on Instagram and we began to reminisce about our 9th-grade romance. We were both shocked at how much the other remembered the relationship and each other. Shortly thereafter we started dating again. We moved from New York to San Francisco before settling in Naples, Florida where Brett proposed in Gasparilla Island State Park as the sunset on February 14th, 2020.
How They Asked
Brett told me he had a surprise weekend planned for us. This didn’t seem out of the ordinary as Brett is always full of surprises. I had an out of town work meeting that came up last minute and I thought would ruin everything but it turned out the meeting was super close to our destination of The Gasparilla Inn at Boca Grande, Florida. On Friday night Brett told me he had rented a golf cart to drive to the sunset at Gasparilla State Park.
As I was getting ready Brett was advising me on what to wear a bit more than usual. We stopped for a quick pre-sunset drink and Brett chugged his glass of rose. Once we arrived at the beach, Brett was guiding us towards a lighthouse. I couldn’t understand why we were headed in that direction as the beach was practically empty.
It wasn’t until we walked right up to a violinist, and a blanket set up with pillows, candles, rose petals and our favorite wine and champagne before I realized this wasn’t any ordinary surprise. As we sipped our wine Brett pulled out of his backpack two letters I had written to him from sleep away camp in 2004 along with our original Grand Canyon trip itinerary. The next thing to come out of his backpack was a shiny black ring box. I could barely contain my excitement as I jumped up and down (literally) while he popped the question!
