How We Met
I’m from Charleston, SC but was going to school at Virginia Tech at the time. I came home to visit for the weekend and he was in town for a golf tournament. We had a bunch of mutual friends but our paths had never crossed before. It was one of those mornings when you hope you never see anybody you know….and of course you see everybody. I was a tad hungover, in the previous day’s makeup, pajamas, just overall not looking my best. I was craving Chick-fil-A and it was just what I needed to help me survive the 6-hour drive back to VA. Of course who happened to be standing right in front of me in line?? Brannan. To make matters worse, I didn’t even realize it was him at first (whoops). He saw me at my worst that very first morning and decided to stick around so I knew he was a keeper then.
How They Asked
I may be biased, but it was absolutely perfect. For a little backstory, one of my favorite venues in Greenville, SC is called Avenue. It has indoor and outdoor space and awesome views of downtown. The outdoor space is split into 2 sections, a covered patio and a green space with trees, benches and a grassy area. Brannan works in commercial real estate and told me he had an event this Friday night for one of his new clients at the Avenue. These types of events aren’t unheard of so I didn’t suspect anything, especially because he had his marketing team put together an invitation detailing everything. We get to the venue that evening and on the tv screens in the lobby is his company’s logo and even the security guard says “enjoy the party!” as we go up to the elevators. We get to the rooftop and the venue is empty except for a few tables. I’m thinking “no big deal, we just need to help set up”.
We turn the corner to head to the outdoor green space and I immediately see a line of candles that lead to flowers, pictures, something covered up (we’ll get to that), and a table with champagne. We walk over to the bench area and I notice the pictures are from different times throughout our relationship, starting with the very first picture we ever took together. We take a walk down memory lane and then Brannan says “I want to create a new memory together” and tells me I can uncover this sign. I take the cover off and it’s a beautiful wooden sign that says “Lauren, will you marry me? Love, Brannan” as I go to turn back around to Brannan, he’s on one knee with the most beautiful ring.
Of course, I instantly say yes and Brannan mentions that he had my dad make the sign for us and he made it so we could hang it up in our house. About this time a photographer pops out and she takes a few pictures of us with the sunset overlooking downtown. We drink some champagne, take more pictures, more happy tears, etc. Towards the end, Brannan mentions he has one more surprise: he made dinner reservations downtown. We head back down to the lobby and are surprised by all of our parents and closest friends.
He even flew my best friend from college out, all the way from Wisconsin. We take a few more group pictures and we all head out to dinner together to celebrate! It was such a wonderful evening and better than I ever could have imagined.
Brannan thought of every little detail and it was so amazing. He even got lucky with the weather! All day that Friday it was windy with thunderstorms but about 2 hours before we left for the event, the skies cleared and we were blessed with perfect weather.
