How We Met
Kristy: We first locked eyes from across the room in Mr. Dews’ 8th-grade language arts class. We were put in the same group for a summer reading project on “The Giver”. We were to reenact a scene from the book and we got chosen to play the twins. From then started our first insider – “Hi, twin!” “What’s up, twin?” “Did you do the homework, twin?” We chatted for hours on AIM and MSN “working on the project” (yes, all on dial-up). Our conversations moved from online chats to texts and phone calls to religiously passing notes in class. After a few months of being friends, he asked me to be his girlfriend and the rest is history! We graduated middle school together, then high school together, and even studied and graduated from the same college together. He is my best friend, my rock, my home, my soul mate, my mentor, and my biggest supporter (as I am his).
How They Asked
Joseph: I always wanted to propose somewhere that held some special meaning for both of us. I thought about our classroom in middle school because it was where we met, became best friends, and had our first kiss. I also wanted it to happen there because I know that our story is relatively rare being that we met so young.
I waited until the school let out for summer and one afternoon I approached the school office with my idea which was to propose in the exact classroom we met 11 years ago. When I asked the office staff if the school would allow this they erupted with enthusiasm as they had never seen anything like it in all their years working there.
My plan was for her to be guided to the classroom by the office staff where all our family and friends would be waiting, sitting in the dark. There would be a single desk at the front of the classroom with a note for her. I timed it so that once she finished reading the letter the film that I made her would start playing. Once I heard my cue, I would come in with roses and pop the question!
For months I worked little by little on the film and snuck away while she was at work to test all the tech and decorate the room. The hardest part about it all was that I had to be constantly on the lookout in case she popped into my room while I was recording or editing the footage.
The next big challenge was figuring out how to get Kristy to the classroom without suspecting a thing. She is particularly hard to surprise so I had to make sure that there was a solid story. The MVP of this whole proposal was definitely her aunt who put on her best acting to convince Kristy that she needed her help to matriculate a friend’s daughter. We worked on the story weeks in advance and she even had one of her other friends call her on the day of the proposal in front of Kristy pretending to arrange the school registration meeting.
The day before the proposal I went in and made sure one last time that all the technology was working and even made a detailed map showing family and friends exactly where to park (so Kristy wouldn’t recognize any cars when coming into the school). After setting up the room and sending out reminders there was nothing left to do but wait until the next day (oh yeah… and I slept maybe an hour total that night).
The day was finally here! On the day, I had a lot of difficulties hiding a grin as Kristy complained about her aunt insisting that she wear something nice. “It’s literally just middle school registration… I don’t get why she’s making me wear such nice clothes and shoes”. I have a terrible poker face so I had to tell her that I wasn’t feeling well and excused myself to the restroom.
This was during the morning so everyone was still in their pajamas as she left. We anticipated that I was going to need more time in order to shower, get dressed, and have everyone get to the school before she did. This is where her aunt really shined. She arranged so that her friend would call her at a specific time to tell her that unfortunately, the scheduled meeting would have to be moved back an hour (just enough time to get everyone in the classroom and ready).
When she walked into the school with her aunt I was hiding in one of the offices and as she was guided to the classroom I walked some distance behind her, so she wouldn’t notice. This is where the proposal video I made for our middle school picks up and shows what happened next! (Watch for her reaction it’s hilarious!)