How We Met: Nic and I “met” on Match.com in November 2012. I sent him the first message with a terrible (yet epic) pick up line, “that’s some serious fishing!” regarding his profile pictures. He responded “yep.” It was a thrilling start… Then after some back and forth conversation we met up for coffee at a little coffee shop in Vancouver, WA called Savona.
This is the picture I took on November 10, 2012 outside of the coffee shop while I waited for my date to begin. I captioned this “I crossed over #Washington.” I thought it was so funny I’d driven from Oregon to Washington just for coffee (mind you, I lived in Portland so it’s a 15 min. drive)….little did I know I was meeting my future husband.
On our first date, we broke all the rules and talked about every topic you’re not supposed to cover the first time you meet someone – politics, marriage, family, children, money, religious views – you name it we went there. We’d both been put through the ringer once or twice before in relationships and were at a point where we knew who we were and what we wanted in a partner.
We were unapologetic in our honesty and I believe that set us up for success in the long run.
This is the first picture we took together a month or so into dating. My friends didn’t believe he was real so I had to give them proof! (Timberline Lodge, Mt. Hood, OR). We liked each other here, but we’re still crazy awkward….gotta love that stage!
This “selfie” is from the NFC Championship game between the Seahawks and the Packers on January 18, 2015. We were really excited to have scored box seats! We’re a couple years older, he added some facial hair, and I’m not longer feeling awkward about taking pictures with him…in fact he’d rather I cut back on them LOL.
how they asked: Having just recently relocated to the Seattle market, for our jobs, Nic and I decided to take our relationship one step further – home ownership! (Bet you thought I was going to say marriage. Ha! That’s what I thought our next step was going to be too.)
After some passionate and animated discussions about buying a house “unmarried”, I finally got to a place where I was comfortable making the jump to own something together. We knew our relationship was headed to marriage, but it just wasn’t something Nic wanted to rush into.
We fell in love with a dream log home in Monroe, WA in January 2015 and signed paperwork in February with a tentative close date of February 20. My countdown to getting those keys began.
Around 445PM on Friday, February 20th, 2015, Nic said “Got the keys! Meet me and the real estate agent at the house at 545PM.” I was ecstatic.
Work took a little longer and I got to our house in the dark around 620PM (yes I remember ALL the details!). Only Nic’s car was there and I was bummed I’d missed our agent to thank him for his hard work. But that faded fast as I realized the enormity of what Nic and I had just done. This house was huge, this house was empty, this house was a log home and most importantly, this house was ours.
Nic greeted me at the door with a “Welcome home!” And I stepped in, ready to process the fact that I’d committed to this log cabin with my boyfriend. I noticed a cute set up of champagne flutes in the kitchen and thought the sellers had left us a gift (I’ve since learned no one does that!). Nic said, “we need to toast the house” and marched me over to the kitchen.
Then I realized there was a chicken shaped chalkboard sign in the corner that read “Home is where the heart is, and mine is with you.” I immediately realized this was not from the sellers. Then Nic put his hands on my shoulders and began (mind you he said beautiful and very eloquent things…I likely won’t do them justice here since 1. what he said verbatim is between he and I and 2. I wasn’t exactly taking notes as he went).
“Before we toast the house, I have one more question to ask you. You’ve been so great this whole time and especially awesome over the last few months with the move and changing jobs. You make me so happy and I love you. I know you just made this big commitment to the house but I’m hoping you’ll make one more commitment and…. [he got down on one knee and pulled out a box, opened it and revealed the most gorgeous ring I’d ever seen of course!] marry me?”
Given the journey and animated discussions we’d had about “how do you feel about buying a house not married?” I had no idea this was coming.
My hands went right to my face and I think the first words out of my mouth were “What?!” Followed by many more “what’s, are you sure’s, and is this for real’s.” I cried and nervous laughed. Then finally when prompted again by Nic said “yes of course!” and put the ring on.
We sealed it with a kiss, a glass of champagne and toasted ourselves and our new log cabin in our new and very empty kitchen. But in that moment, the room was full of love and nothing else really mattered.
First picture as an engaged couple!
