How We Met
We attended the same college, Jacksonville State University in Jacksonville, Alabama. My best friend, Chelsea, and I decided to go and pick up some dinner from our on campus wingers, WOW. As we walked through the doors my eyes landed on the unbelievably handsome guy in sweats sitting at one of the tables. I turned into a little school girl and instantly became giggly. I had to play it cool and act like I didn’t see him sitting over there.
As we stood in line to prepare to order our meal, a deep voice ask me “excuse me do I know you?” He knew good and well that we had never me but I played cool. I responded with “I’m not sure, my name’s Lauren.” He replied by saying “No I don’t think so” just when is order was ready. He walked away and ended the conversation with “Well it was nice to meet you.” I was left standing there awe-struck and remembering his smile as he turned leaving out of the door.
I turned back to Chelsea who had started to collect our food and the both of us just burst into giggles. Never had I seen him on the campus, but I knew I wanted to see him again.
We got our food and left out of WOW and headed back to our dorm. Chelsea stopped in mid-stride and pointed. There he was, walking a couple of feet in front of us. We didn’t want to look like stalkers but we wanted to know where he was headed. So in the efforts of trying to catch his attention we began to speak a little louder than usual. Eventually he turned and looked right at me. He said to us “Are y’all following me?” I quickly responded back with a brisk “No….we’re headed to our dorm.” He asked me, “Which dorm is that?” I responded with “Sparkman.” Comes to find out, we stayed in the same dorm and never once ran into each other.
Couple of days later he “poked” me on Facebook. His Facebook poke was the first I had ever responded to. We started up a conversation and decided to hang one night. After the first night we hung out, I knew immediately that this was something special and this was something I wanted to last.
He was the first guy I had ever truly open up to and allowed to see just how silly I really am. It was definitely fate that brought us together. Whether it would have been in WOW or somewhere else, we were bond to be in each other’s lives. I am so thankful that I wanted chicken wings that night.
how they asked
Little did I know, he had been planning our engagement since December 2015. He looked into everything from sky diving to giant sand castles at the beach. He finally made a decision that it would be overseas. In April, he began to tell me wanted to go on a cruise because he had never been on one. I thought it would be a fun idea. It was something different for us to do. I booked the cruise through Royal Caribbean and planned on going on a 7 day cruise through the Western Caribbean for Labor Day. In July, one of friends decided he wanted to join us and our cruise turned into a couples retreat. (I didn’t know that this was actually going to be our camera crew).
We sailed away on September 4, 2016 headed to Cozumel, Mexico. September 5, our second night at sea and it was the first formal dinner night. I was getting dressed and Jonathan, my now fiancé, woke up from a nap and laid his eyes on me in my formal attire. At that moment, he decided he couldn’t wait anymore and he was going to do it that night at dinner. Our friend, Tez, had the ring stored in his room. After we left the room and headed upstairs to take pictures, Jonathan discreetly told Tez “It’s going down tonight.” Tez runs to the room and grabs the ring before dinner begins.
Tez, his girlfriend, Chanel, Jonathan and I sit down at our table in the Michelangelo main dinning room. I began to feel a little seasick but told myself I would push through it. The wait staff brought us our menus and we order our meals. Chanel asked me if I would go to the bathroom with her. I thought it was strange for a grown woman to ask another grown woman to go to the bathroom with her as if we were in high school again. I went, I wasn’t feeling well anyway and thought a little fresh air would do me some good. We excused ourselves and left for the bathroom. When we got back the guys both left to go to the bathroom. Here I am thinking “What is this….high school again? Why can’t anyone go to the bathroom by theirselves.” I didn’t say anything I just ate my soup.
The “men” came back and our entrees arrived to the table. I began to feel so sick that I started to question if I would be able to make it through dinner. I pushed through, I didn’t want to ruin our night.
The server came back with the dessert menu and we all ordered dessert. I got the soufflé. He came back with our desserts and served everyone before me. He placed dessert onto the table and then placed another plate that still had the top on it. He told me that it was a special dessert for me. I was puzzled and immediately went into shock. I said “What is this” and looked around the table at everyone’s faces. The server took the lid off and there sat a small brown box surrounded by beautifully folded napkins.
Jonathan took the box and began speaking. Until this day, I have NO earthly idea what he said. I was so wrapped up in my thoughts that I didn’t hear a word that he said. I thought it was cruel joke. That is until he opened the box and there sat the most beautiful ring I had ever seen. My left hand shot out and no words came out of my mouth. Looking back at videos I never said “yes”, I just stuck my hand out for him to place the ring onto my finger.
Everyone was in on it but me…of course. He truly surprised me.
