How We Met
Christine and I attended the same high school, but did not meet until before junior year. I’m not sure how that happened since our class was only about 50 people, and we even had the same circle of friends! We met at a mutual friends birthday party a late summer, but I thought Christine was a cousin, not a fellow classmate. We started talking, and instantly clicked. I fell hard for her smile and her laugh, but being too shy, I didn’t pursue her. I was bummed the rest of the summer, and then school started. I was not expecting to see her the first day of school in one of my classes. We clicked again, and I lucked out with being able to see her smile and hear her laugh everyday at school. It took me a year to have enough courage to ask her out, so we didn’t start dating until fall of 2006. We have been together since then. High school sweethearts has always had a nice ring to it.
How They Asked
We had already been together for 5 years, and discussed getting married, but never planned anything. I knew I wanted to propose, and soon, but I wanted to capture the entire thing. I asked a mutual photography friend if she would do it, and she agreed. Now the hard part: how to have her there without Christine seeing her and becoming suspicious…I got it! Our friend was starting her photography business at the time, and we had already done photo shoots with her. I told Christine she wanted more pictures for her website, so this gave us a reason to dress up, be somewhere nice, and have our friend take pictures.
The park is in the center of a historic neighborhood, and so we took pictures in front of grand houses before finally getting to the park. I was so nervous, but once Christine sat down on a bench in front of rose bushes, I got down on one knee and proposed. She was so surprised, and her smile was the only answer I needed. I slipped the ring on her finger, and smiled at the fact that she would eventually be my wife.
