How We Met
We met the first time in passing through mutual friends in college. We were both young and dumb and didn’t give the other much of a second thought to be honest. Then, 3 years later, in October of 2014, we met again at a wedding, and the rest is history…
Chris had seriously grown up and into the “tall dark and handsome” man he is now – a far stretch from the frat boy with long hair from years prior! I was living in New York City and was the only single girl in the wedding party that weekend, which quickly became a running joke. When I saw Chris (and had to ask one of the other bridesmaids who he was) I made it a point to be sure to speak to him before the end of the night, but Chris (who’d had a few beers – liquid courage!) actually approached me before I had the chance.
We chatted for some time, then decided to both join the wedding after party and end the night with a good old-fashioned game of sock-golf (literally golf using your hand and a pair of socks inside any house with wood floors…this was the first I’d heard of this game, too.) with several friends who were staying in town. We spent the weekend brunching, watching the football games and getting to know each other.
We knew that what we had found in each other that first weekend was something special. We also knew that we lived 700 miles apart. What we didn’t know was how starting a relationship long-distance was going to work, but we MADE it work! We chose to choose each other every single day we were apart, even though sometimes it wasn’t easy.
Fast forward 5 months to March of 2015. I decided to move back to South Carolina, as I knew I couldn’t let this one get away! In that same week, Chris’ job transferred him to Charleston… We took a serious leap of faith and went from a long-distance relationship to living under the same roof. It was definitely a quick, and non-traditional way of figuring out we were true soulmates.
Now, hundreds of miles, several career changes, and a handful of shared rental homes later, we’re here. In our first home, sharing this crazy beautiful life together with our sweet pets, completely enamored with one another and ready for forever!
how they asked
From Chris’s point of view: Upon acquiring the ring, the only thing I was sure of is that I wanted to give it to her. It was burning a hole in my pocket! I ran all sorts of proposal ideas through my mind and wasn’t sure of any of them. After some thought, I still wasn’t sure of exactly what the plan was, but I decided that I wanted to keep it simple, as something big and grand just wasn’t our style.
That week my aunt Paula and cousin Samantha came down to Charleston and we met them for dinner downtown at Rue De Jean. At one point Malia got up from the table and, since Paula knew I had the ring, she asked when I was going to propose…my answer was that I had no idea, but wanted to do it soon! I asked them if they would like to be a part of it, they both happily agreed and in those next few moments, we secretly formulated a plan!
The following evening, Paula and Samantha came over for dinner. Before they arrived, Malia came home from work and, as usual, went to change into something comfortable. Knowing we were having a casual dinner, she started to throw on yoga pants and a tee. As quickly and inconspicuously as I could, I asked Malia to put on something “a bit nicer” since the family was coming over…I’m sure you can imagine how that conversation went…
Once they arrived, Paula quickly put the plan in motion. She told us she wanted to walk out to see the beautiful pond we had behind the house, as she had never been over before. It took some convincing to get Malia to postpone finishing dinner and come outside with us without us arising suspicion. She even admitted later that she looked at my pockets on the way out there, but thankfully I consciously kept the ring out of sight.
Once we were at the pond, Samantha took out a Ring Pop – nothing unusual for her – and asked Malia “Would you marry Chris if he gave you this ring?”. Malia quickly said, “Of course I would!”….then from behind her, she heard me say “And would you marry me if I gave you this ring?”. When she turned around, she saw me on one knee and I asked her to marry me…
She said “STOP!” and then quickly followed that with “YES!!”. She then managed to give me her right hand instead of her left…and was too teary to take photos, but it was absolutely perfect!