How We Met
Long story short, we were set up by mutual friends. At brunch one day, I joked with a good friend from high school to set me up with one of her husband’s friends…and she sure came through! When she sent me over this tall, handsome guy named Patrick that her husband knew from law school, I happily agreed to let her forward my number to him. We were technically “long distance”, though we were only 45 minutes apart, so we stuck to texting for the first few weeks of getting to know each other. After those first few weeks, we decided to set up our first date. However, thanks to a lovely Hurricane, our first date was forced to be postponed as it was to make landfall for the day that we planned. We moved our date a few weeks later and this actually worked out better as we were able to celebrate the news of Patrick passing the Bar exam earlier in the week, as well.
how they asked
The proposal was inevitable and I am an extremely impatient person! We looked at rings together in January and I was pushing for sooner rather than later. The months went on and I still had no hint. Finally, in the middle of April, Patrick concocted a story about how he forgot about a “Spring Soiree” for the Federalist Society, a group for conservative attorneys that he is part of. Knowing me, he wanted to ensure that I would be dressed and done up to my approval for such an occasion. I had a strong feeling that this would be it. I was an absolute wreck the entire day. I knew it was happening, but I had no idea how he was doing it. Finally, the hours passed and we set off for Park Ave in downtown Winter Park to “meet friends” before the event. We frequent Park Ave quite a bit, but this time, we parked the car on the other side of the park.
It was lightly raining and I insisted on staying in the car for a little bit to let it die down. I could tell that Patrick was getting tense and decided to just go for it. The second I opened the car door, it stopped raining and I swear everything in the park was made so much brighter. We started walking through the park, then Patrick guided me a different direction. My heart was racing a million miles an hour when I realized he was leading me to the beautiful rose garden at the edge of the park.
Patrick grabbed my hand and said, “darlin, I’ve been lying to you about everything that’s going on tonight”. If you know me at all, you will not be surprised by my response… I said, “I know” with a grin. After he was done laughing, Patrick continued on with sweet words and eventually got down on one knee. To end the night, we walked into a private room at a restaurant we love for date nights and were greeted by our immediate families, including my brother, sister-in-law, and oh-so-adored nephew who drove down from two hours away!
