How We Met
We had known each other since middle school. Being so young we tried to “date” but we went to different schools and our paths just took us to different places. And by dating I mean texting for a week or two and then never hearing from each other again. Years went by and we both led our separate lives. I went away to college at the University of Central Florida and he started his career as a firefighter. During this time we, unknowingly, had each other on Instagram.
After a night out with some girlfriends, I had a message on Instagram from this super cute guy. After my thorough Instagram lurking, I realized who he was. After some messages back and forth, he asked me on a date to his work Christmas party. It was perfect timing, I was on my way back to our hometown for winter break. I accepted his offer. He picked me up and we instantly hit it off. We had the most amazing time. I had never connected with somebody so quickly. After dropping me off at home after that night he asked me on our second date, this time a romantic dinner and movie. And the rest was history!
How They Asked
We were on our annual family trip to Marco Island. My family has been going to Marco Island for 23 years and when I say family I mean 52 of us. The group has gradually grown over the years but it has become one of our favorite vacations. During this week we all pick one night to go out to a nice dinner. My older cousin is always the planner of this dinner so when she texted us the week before requesting a headcount nothing seemed strange to me. Once the day of our dinner reservation came she told everybody to be ready on the beach around 7 pm so that we could take some nice family pictures.
Since we spend most of the week in bathing suits this was the one night we really all dressed up. Once it was time for pictures everybody walked out onto the beach. The second we stepped onto the beach I knew something was up. I could feel Alex staring at me. My family told us to walk closer to the water that way they could “see how the picture looked on the drone.”
As we started to walk farther onto the beach I knew exactly what was going to happen. All of a sudden he looked at me, dropped on one knee, and asked me to marry him! As I instantly started shaking my head yes I could hear the loud cheering in the background. Our moment was all caught on camera by our amazing photographer! The rest was followed by lots of couples and family photos. I was thrilled and so surprised. It was the most magical proposal I could ever think of.
