How We Met
Ed and I first met during our freshman year of high school. I quickly became very close friends with a group of girls that happen to be from his town that he had grown up with. I would frequently hang out with the girls on weekends and we would usually get together with the guys too. I always thought Ed was so cute, but we were nothing more than friends. It wasn’t until junior and senior year that we spoke more and became closer friends. We had more classes together, starting texting and with the blink of an eye we had our first kiss on our senior trip to Disney World. I was definitely falling head over heels for him, but we were about to head to college and I wasn’t quite sure where the road ahead would lead us.
Then college came and went, and we were together through the entire journey. We learned a lot about one another during our college years and really developed our relationship. But once Ed and I graduated and we moved back home to Long Island to start working full-time/going to graduate school, we had to start “dating” again on the weekends to even see each other with our busy schedules. It was during this time at home when we reconnected that we both really knew that we would spend the rest of our lives together. After a few years, we decided to move into New York City together and begin our lives as one. It was the best decision we could have ever made, and led us to an even more beautiful journey ahead…
how they asked
Living in NYC brought so much excitement to our lives and inspired Ed to start thinking about how to seal our “forever.” Because there really was no pressure and I knew engagement was inevitable, the when, where and how were not really on my mind. So when Ed started ditching me to sneak around with my dad to visit our family jeweler, I didn’t catch on. One day he told me that he would rather golf with my dad than go apple picking (which was not an odd response from a guy), so I agreed to meet them afterward. Another day he told me that my dad was taking my brother’s boss golfing and needed another player (again, Ed loves to golf!), not surprising. Even when we were in Nashville with friends, Ed took a call outside “for work,” when really he was setting up a date with the jeweler because the diamonds had arrived and it was time to finalize the ring setting.
Let’s just say I made it easy for him to customize the most beautiful ring…because I never caught on! Then he had to plan the actual engagement… how would he get me downtown to Battery Park to allow my friends to snap an amazing engagement photo with the Statue of Liberty in the background? Easy – I took it upon myself to plan a boozy brunch with friends starting at 1pm (unknowingly on engagement day). One of our best friends, Veronica, suggested when we were together the night before that we head downtown early and visit a street fair. The morning came, and we cabbed downtown and start walking around aimlessly and taking touristy pictures (as girls do…). While Ed was secretly squirming, I was enjoying the scenery and the beautiful day with my best friend.
I had no idea of what was about to happen. As we were standing in Battery Park looking out at the water, my friends tried to get me to ditch my coffee. Still, I thought nothing of it and kept enjoying my jolt of caffeine. We continued walking along the pier when Ed asked me to take a picture with him, which I did think was odd because he typically avoids taking pictures. When I called him out, he convinced me into believing that he really did just want a cute picture of the two of us with the Statue of Liberty in the background. So we posed for Veronica (our now camera-woman), she took the picture and then there was an “issue.” Ed walked over to see what was wrong with the picture. As he walked over, I watched him reach into her purse and pull out a large box. I stared, frozen, but only for a second until I finally realized what was happening.
At that moment, I threw my coffee, started crying so many happy tears and immediately thought about how I could have missed all of the signs! (I am a very detail-oriented and analytical person, and I had no idea that the day I looked forward to for so long was finally here!) He knew that he got me, and with the biggest smirk on his face, he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.
After tons of phone calls, FaceTimes, and texts, we met up with our closest friends at the boozy brunch I had originally planned… to now celebrate the wonderful moment that started our journey to forever!
