How We Met
Kyle and I met in college! We were actually in the same orientation group the summer before starting our Freshman Year. To this day, I don’t remember being in the same orientation group! Kyle was not too pleased learning of my spotted memory once we started dating.
Throughout college, we were always friendly, but never had a spark until the first weekend of our senior year. There were ups and downs throughout our senior year, but we graduated college happily as boyfriend and girlfriend. As Walt Whitman said, “We were together… I forget the rest”. I moved to New York City two months after graduation to start my career, and he moved back to Long Island to begin law school. We have had the best four years experiencing New York City together and finding the balance between law school and a career.
Our “first photo” as a couple together, above (appropriately I was wearing a white dress! :) )
how they asked
We discussed our future marriage and would-be wedding for quite some time, but I always knew that nothing would happen until Kyle had graduated law school and secured a job. Fortunately, Kyle secured the job of his dreams at the very end of March 2016 and, ever since then, I can honestly admit that I hoped every weekend “would be it” from there on out!
Kyle prepared for the New York State Bar Exam for the majority of the summer and ultimately sat for the exam the last week in July. The intensity of the preparation made it hard to see each other as frequently as we were accustomed, so I had been anxiously awaiting our week-long trip to spend time on the beach with my family in August. I was so ready to have him back!! The exam came and went and the weekend of August 6th finally rolled around. Kyle and I were ready for the time off, where we would spend the week with my family in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. My grandparents were visiting from out of town, so I was extra excited to have the whole gang in my favorite place for a significant amount of time.
Throughout Kyle’s bar preparation, Kyle had mentioned that his law school friends planned to celebrate the completion of the bar exam in Newport, RI, and that he’d like to meet them for brunch at some point during the weekend. I was slightly annoyed because I just wanted to spend time with my grandparents who had come all this way to see us. My mom convinced me that my grandparents were going to be busy on Saturday morning, so it would be fine if we shot up to Newport for a half-day trip. Once we got closer to Newport, Kyle said that his friends got a late start to the day and were running late, and then mentioned that we should check out one of the Newport Mansions to kill time.
We arrived at the Breakers Mansion after an hour or so drive. As we were in line to buy tickets, Kyle said that he rather go to Rosecliff Mansion, which he pointed out in a photo on the wall. I told him the Breakers was the main mansion on the site, but he was adamant to see Rosecliff! We drove over to Rosecliff to start our tour. Now, for those readers who are not familiar with Rosecliff Mansion or any other Newport Mansion, the only way to tour the mansions is to receive a headset audio tour. Personally, I was interested in the audio headset tour since I wanted to learn about all the extravagant décor and the famous guests and parties that the mansion hosted throughout the years. Kyle absolutely refused to use the headsets – he was driving me crazy!
After a bit of a quarrel, Kyle convinced me to just walk around and check things out without the audio headsets. As if he didn’t know I was already annoyed, he spent the whole tour on his phone texting and talking to friends! He told me he was just trying to connect with his friends to figure out where we were going to meet. About halfway through the self-guided tour, he spontaneously grabbed my hand and mentioned that he wasn’t interested in the mansion’s interior and that he’d like to take a walk outside to see the water view. We went out the front door of the house, which didn’t have a water view, and walked over to check out the large water fountain that decorated the front-lawn.
The front-lawn was empty when we arrived at the water fountain, so I insisted Kyle take a selfie with me. He was such a grump! He said he just wanted me to put my phone down. I responded with something like “No way! There is no one here, so we are absolutely taking a selfie for Snapchat.” Once the selfie was taken and all of social media knew of our Newport adventure, he then asked me to put my phone away. He then asked me to put my purse down, to which I was confused and asked why. He told me he just wanted to take in the beautiful scenery for a bit before heading to brunch. He then took both of my hands and had the biggest, most uncontrollable smile I’ve ever seen on his face. I immediately replied with, “you’re really freaking me out,” as he got down on one knee.
Once he dropped to one knee, my memory gets a bit hazy! From what I can remember and what we’ve talked about, I think I immediately dropped my purse and started bawling as he began saying a multitude of wonderful things that made my knees buckle!
He has told me that, throughout his small, thoughtful speech, I just kept saying “yes, yes, yes,” so he finally skipped to the end and asked me to marry him. His first question after slipping the ring on my finger was “WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE RING?!?!” to which I replied, “I don’t know I can’t see it I’m crying too hard!”
After a moment or two, I realized that my brother and sister were about twenty yards away taking photos of the proposal! It was so special to have them there and witness the most special day and place in my life. Kyle knew that having photos of my engagement was something very important to me and he nailed it by having two of my siblings secretly photograph the proposal!
After the initial shock wore off, we went to the back of the Mansion to take some photos by the water. Kyle told me that he had made a reservation for us in downtown Newport, so we separated from my siblings and went to Bowen’s Wharf on Newport Harbor. Kyle had a bottle of champagne waiting for us and we were able to celebrate just the two of us!
After enjoying the champagne and calling our close family and friends, we headed back to my parents’ Connecticut cottage, where we were greeted in the driveway by my mom, dad, grandparents, and Kyle’s mom. We made our way around to the waterside of the cottage and were surprised by ALL of our immediate family for an impromptu surprise engagement party! My mom had fun cups made for the party with our names and the date on it and everyone was instructed to wear white, pink, or navy to keep with the nautical theme!
Kyle absolutely made my dreams come true but not only asking me to spend the rest of my life with him, but also by having our families share in the celebration with us.
We are each so close to both of our families, so it meant the world that they could all meet and spend time together to celebrate us!
