How We Met
Yavor and I met when I was an undergrad at Boston College and he was a law student at Boston College Law School in the fall of 2013. We met through a mutual friend (my brother’s roommate from college) one night at a popular BC hangout bar. We started loosely seeing each other as we were both prepared to watch me move back to NJ/NY (where I am originally from) to start Nursing School at Columbia University in the Spring of 2014. Before we met, Yavor had already been offered and accepted a job at the law firm Wilmer Hale in Boston and knew he would be living there. After I moved just one month after dating, we never said “goodbye” and began to fall more deeply in love. Traveling almost every weekend to see each other between Boston and New York City for almost a year and a half, it became clear that we were each other’s soul mate, the person we would do anything and everything for. In May 2015 I decided to take a leave of absence from Columbia University to move to Boston to start our life together. We moved in together and the rest is history.
how they asked
We were in Costa Rica on what seemed to be just another ordinary vacation, little did I know that Yavor had been planning this night for the past four months. Without my knowing, he was able to get in contact with the owner (the former executive chef of the Four Seasons) of a private beach club (the Prieta Beach Club) located near our hotel. All he told me was that we were going to a special seafood dinner that only happened on Mondays during the sunset on the Pacific side of the peninsula. As we were driving to dinner Yavor was calm and cool. As we got closer to the beach club I pointed out how odd I thought it was that everyone was leaving the club as we were approaching and how I would have expected lots of people to be arriving for the sunset. Yavor played it cool as we approached the valet. We were greeted by our wonderful waitstaff and escorted to the bar for a drink as the sun was setting. We were told our table was still being prepared and that we would be escorted once it was ready. Yavor began to act very nervous, to the point I knew something was going on. I noticed a private table on the beach, and out of complete surprise and excitement I pointed out the table. I was ecstatic about having a private dinner on the beach, and as soon as the “surprise” was up, Yavor began to calm down. Little did I know there was more to it than just the dinner. About ten minutes later, Yavor got up from the bar, saying he was going to check on the table. Thinking nothing of it I continued to sit there and finish my drink, talking to the bartenders who were all in on the surprise! Soon after, a woman tapped me on my should and handed me a collage of pictures that Yavor had made. It said “Elizabeth and Yavor’s Menu” and had three sections, Appetizers, Entrees, and Dessert, each with pictures of us that we had collected over the past two and a half years. At the bottom it said “for more follow me”. I followed the woman down a sandy path lined in candles at which point I saw Yavor standing at the end with two glasses of champagne. I started to immediately cry as I approached him. He got down on one knee and when he opened his mouth to talk I fell to my knees and began to hug and kiss him.
Through all the crying and stumbling I was able to say “of course!” and accept the ring. The proposal was followed by a private dinner on the beach surrounded by tiki torches and candles lit in heart formation. It was the most magical experience of my life and exceeded all the expectations I could have ever dreamed of.
