how we met
Kyle grew up about a mile from my parents house and he was good friends with my brother Billy. They met through wrestling practice and through the years Kyle’s father and mine became buddies! Growing up I had the BIGGEST crush on Kyle. Everyone knew it, my mom, brothers, and even my friends. My friends wrote about him in a few of my yearbooks from elementary, middle, and high school. Yes, i know kinda embarrassing! When the phone would ring and caller ID said Richards i would race to answer it, even though I knew it wasn’t for me. I went to every wrestling match I was able to go to luckily both my brothers wrestled with him so I had a perfect cover up!
Fast forward a few years and I am a freshman in High School and Kyle was a senior. He played football and I was on the Pom Squad (Dance team that performed at the halftime shows) in my head we would have made the perfect couple in his head I was just his friends little sister HA! Ill never forget on my first day in High School I was walking to my 3rd period class and I had to go through these double doors and I went to open one and Kyle had kicked one open and held it for me and my heart sank, it made my whole week!
I would see Kyle around at parties, football games, and he would come over my parents house to hang with my brother but I would never tell him I was madly in love with him. He even saw me and my best friend walking around one night and got us home safely!
Fast forward a few more years and I am 20 years old. Kyle was over at my parents house helping my brother do some yard work stuff for them and Kyle had asked me for my phone number and asked if I wanted to hangout later that night, obviously the answer was yes. After he left and I was running around trying to figure out what the heck I was going to wear, my brother come into my room and asked what I was doing. So I filled him in on the fact that the guy I have been crushing on since I was 8 just asked to hang out. Of course my brother being bitter says yeah well that is only because he wants another job. Kyle was working with my brother doing electrical work for his uncles company but knew I managed a restaurant and thought I could get him a job bartending for some extra money… The restaurant I was managing wasn’t hiring but I wasn’t going to let this opportunity go to waste so I hired Kyle with no bartending experience to bartend! I figured well someone has to teach him and that someone was me!
Fast forward 6 years later and we have been together ever since! Bought our first home back in May. :) He is my rock, my best friend, and best of all my future husband!
how they asked
He comes home one day from work saying “Babe we are going to Disney World” he knew I had been dying to go back there plus we needed a little getaway. Kyle is in sales and when he earns points that can be used for various things such as travel. So we plan everything and book everything and i’m thinking “oh mannnnn this is it, he has to be proposing to me in Disney” We have been together for 6 years and shared the same views on what we want in our future and have talked about getting married so I thought for sure it was happening.
Day one in Disney we go to magic kingdom and we arrive at the castle and nothing… We walk around all day and still nothing. We go out for drinks later that night and have so much fun but still nothing. At this point I am giving up hope. We get back to the hotel and my feet are in so much pain. I had work heel out that night and they tore up my feet, literally, It was a bloody mess! Kyle found a 24 hour CVS to go buy me $50 worth of gauze and neosporin and I am at the hotel crying mostly from the pain but also because I still wasn’t engaged.
Day two in Disney. We wake up to head out to the parks and my foot is still in so much pain but i wrap it up and squeeze it into a sneaker and pretend I was fine. Limping around the park and enjoying my time Kyle said oh babe we gotta get back to the hotel and get ready for dinner. It was a surprise dinner that I didn’t know was on the itinerary. So I am excited but also thinking you’re going to propose at a dinner when were in Disney?!? So many other places to do it at and you choose dinner?” We pull up to the contemporary resort and take the elevator all the way to the top to this restaurant called California Grill. The dinner was so delicious from the sushi we started with to the steak i had for dinner to the dessert we finished off with. STILL NO RING. At this point I am a little bummed out. It was a little chilly out that night so I suggested we find a gift shop in the resort so I could grab a sweatshirt. We finds a place but no sweatshirts so I settled for a blanket. He then says follow me, I have something to show you.
He takes me out onto the roof top terrace that is looking right at the castle which is all lit up in pretty colors. It was so beautiful. Next thing you know, the famous Disney fireworks start and we are eye level with them, it was awesome.
I looked over to Kyle and he was down on one knee with a ring in his hand. I instantly start crying and I don’t remember much of what Kyle said but I do remember him saying “You make me the happiest man alive and I don’t want that to ever end. Katelyn Marie Smith, will you marry me?” I said yes!! He even had a friend he went to elementary school with hiding out in the stairwell to take pictures! She lives down in FL and works at Disney! After the best firework show we went back inside the restaurant and had champagne to celebrate.
Day three in Disney. We wake up floating on cloud 9 and Kyle says “I have one more surprise for you” He got these shirts made for us to wear around the parks on our last day. They say Just Engaged 11-15-15!
We will get married 11-5-15 in Monkton, MD. We rented an entire kids summer camp that had cabins with heat, electricity, and bathrooms for family and friends to stay in the night of the wedding. Friday will start with our rehearsal dinner which we have a company that is coming out to do do unlimited wood fired pizzas and salads. They turned an old truck into a cool wood fired pizza oven truck. We will be playing beer Olympics and finish with a bonfire. The wedding party, their dates, us, and our family will stay there Friday night. Get up Saturday for the wedding which will be a boho chic wedding in the woods. Finish off the wedding with a farewell bonfire and then have a brunch the following morning. A weekend long wedding with all of our favorite people.
