How We Met
Like many couples today, we met on Match.com. (It actually worked!) John “liked” one of my photos so I sent him an email, and that launched a weeks-long conversation. After emailing each other for about a month and a half—including a period when John traveled to Europe and wrote me from overseas—I was pretty impatient for him to ask me out (instead of just being a pen pal). I basically tricked him into a date by suggesting we meet up after he returned from Europe so I could hear about his trip in person. It worked. We hit it off at one of my favorite restaurants in downtown West Palm Beach, and after a few more dates we officially became a couple.
how they asked
One weekend, John and I went to visit my parents in my hometown of Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Whenever we get together, my parents always treat John and me to dinner and other activities, no matter how much we try to pay, so this time John suggested we outsmart them and make an advanced brunch reservation at the historic Casa Monica Hotel in downtown St. Augustine.
Little did I know I would be the one outsmarted.
On March 1, when we arrived at the hotel for brunch, the hostess led us to a private room—and when I walked in, I saw six of my closest, lifelong friends from middle and high school standing there holding a banner that read, “Will you marry me?”
John then walked in behind me with a song playing on his phone, and I immediately recognized the tune as a piano version of “our song,” “To Get To You (55th And 3rd)” by Kenny Chesney. The piano recording, I later learned, was an arrangement written and performed by one of my close friends who is a professional musician in New York City.
As the song played and everyone looked on, John said sweet words, got down on one knee, and asked me to marry him, holding the Tiffany engagement ring I’d long been admiring.
After I shouted, “Yes!” and came back down to reality, we all enjoyed brunch together. My parents, John, and I then spent the day walking around St. Augustine with huge smiles on our faces, calling everyone to spread the happy news.
I was beyond shocked by the proposal and the incredible thought behind it, particularly how John found ways to include loved ones near and far.
It could not have been more perfect.
