How We Met
I first met Lora in 2013. My best friend reluctantly dragged me along to help this random girl who was starting grad school at the University of Virginia. In addition to being one of the hottest days of the summer, I am also a person that dreads moving furniture that isn’t my own. However, the minute my friend and I pulled up my mood instantly changed. I saw this beautiful girl awaiting our help and instantly forgot about the heat and my hatred for moving furniture. The more I chatted with her the more intrigued I became by not just her beauty but her intellect. Soon after at the beginning of the semester, I gathered up the courage to ask her to accompany me to a University of Virginia football game (we were both in grad school so tickets were free of course), and after a dinner downtown that night the rest is history.
how they asked
I knew Lora’s 30th birthday was coming up so I decided to propose to her that night. We both like to gamble so I convinced her that she should have her a small get together at the MGM Casino at the National Harbor in Maryland. She had also planned a brunch for the next day but she conceded Friday night so that I could have a little fun for her birthday week too. I knew this venue(MGM National Harbor) would allow her to dress up without looking out of place. I also knew that she would be able to invite friends and family to join in on the fun of the night without fully giving the surprise away. A few week out, I slowly started to leak the word to her close friends and family as January 19th inched close. Soon, the small personal engagement I had originally planned ballooned to around 20 people.
Close in the middle of the night and near proposal time I was struggling with a concrete idea as to how to get my future fiancee outside for this picture. In my haste to not have her find the ring, I had agreed to allow her to leave her coat in the car. Convincing her that I would run back and get it as the night ended. As it turns out, the night was nowhere near ending so my excuse to run to the car so that she could get a jacket was an epic fail. However, one of my best friends decided that we should ask for a group picture outside. After 15 minutes(which felt more like 40) of protesting from my fiancee, because she felt it was too cold outside for a group picture, the group finally convinced her to go outside. Once we were outside we took one group photo and then I began to halfheartedly urge her to take one just with me. Once the crowd cleared, it seemed as if the world stopped for a brief moment. In that moment it seemed as if the crowd had disappeared and it was just her and I outside. I slowly got down on my knee, struggled to pull the ring out of my pocket, choked back my tears, and asked her to marry me. Through her tears, and my nervousness it was a resounding yes.
Thanks to the article that I actually found on this site, I was convinced that a photographer for this moment would be a great idea and a worthy investment. Close to a week out, I managed to find a photographer in the area who graciously accepted my proposal idea on short notice. In addition to the short notice, the photographer also accepted my idea to hide outside so that my fiancee wouldn’t be suspicious of anything as we walked outside to the spot that I had chosen to propose. My fiancee and I are so thankful that I actually read the article and managed to pull together a photographer because the photographer was able to capture the moment of the proposal, and our subsequent happiness of the night perfectly!
