How We Met
Matthew was someone I knew my whole life. Someone I looked up to, admired, and always felt safe with. He was my best friend’s brother. I always had a harmless “crush” on him. He was older and charming, and I feel in love with his smile, but I never thought our worlds would collide. I would always go out of way to make sure he saw me or that I was over the house when he was visiting home. I remember he would always give me a kiss on the cheek when everyone else got a hug and I always felt like there could be something there, but we seemed to always be in different stages of life. He was four years older. We were both in relationships and with me graduating high school and him graduating college it didn’t seem like we would be crossing paths anytime soon.
As time went on we both ended up single, but I was moving to NYC for school and he was moving back to our home town to begin work. Then one weekend I decided to visit home and we ran into each other, got drunk, and confessed our feelings for one another. In high school my best friend and I use to always plan out our perfect lives together. And she would always say I think you will marry my brother. Little did I know that would be our fate nearly 10 years later. It wasn’t always easy, but I knew from the instant our worlds collided that late September 2007 that he was the guy for me.
how they asked
Now, jumping six years into the future, we had the first and biggest shock of our lives when we found out we were pregnant. In early 2014 I gave birth to our little girl and I finally felt complete. I knew this was what I was meant to do. Little did I know that later that year on Christmas Eve I would be given the second biggest shock of my life. Every Christmas Eve since I was a little girl I have always watched, “It’s A Wonderful Life” with my Dad after everyone else had gone to bed. So when I started spending Christmas Eve with Matthew it only seemed logical to continue that same tradition! On Christmas Eve 2014 it was a little different, with us both working crazy hours and having a 9 month old we didn’t have time to decorate the tree so in typical fashion here we were at 1AM hanging ornaments, wrapping gifts, and watching “It’s A Wonderful Life”.
To give you a little visual about how the next bit proceeds here I was, a mess, tired, grumpy, and in sweats with mascara smeared down my face (not feeling the least bit sexy) hanging ornaments as Matthew handed them to me kneeled from the floor.
We were finishing up as I was looking at the TV as my favorite part came on, the part where George is asking Mary if she wants the moon.
Just then that’s when Matthew said, “look you missed one” as he handed me a hook with something shinny on the end, and said, “Will your marry me?”
My first thought was, this is a sick joke! But as the shock wore away and reality set in I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect intimate setting for him to ask me to be his wife. On 9/9/16 we celebrated 9 years together and said our, “I do’s” in front of our closest friends and family in the most romantic setting at The Bird and Bottle Inn, in Garrison NY.
