How we met: Dennis and I met many, many moons ago in Junior High School. We were “boyfriend” and “girlfriend” (aka held hands) for maybe a month and he broke up with me; as 12 year olds are want to do. I hated him for a while, but got over it…. eventually. He later moved to Florida during High School and we lost touch. One faithful night in October of 2012 Dennis sent me a message on Facebook. We were mindlessly chatting til the wee hours of the morning, and we exchanged numbers at the same time as we were saying goodnight. After several Skype dates and countless hours of phone conversations, we found ourselves in a long distance relationship. We did the long distance thing for over a year with us visiting one another every 2-3 months. Every goodbye was getting harder than the last when we would drop each other at the airport. Finally, my sweet, sweet man decided the phone calls and FaceTime weren’t cutting it anymore. In December of 2013, we packed him and his puppy in the car, shipped all his worldly possessions….. and the rest is history.
how they asked: Dennis suggested we had a “real” date night since we’ve both been so busy. I’ve been overwhelmed with school, he’s been working crazy hours and we both have been preparing to go away for his best friends wedding. I thought nothing of the request, and I was excited to go out. He suggested we get dressed up, take a walk over the Brooklyn Bridge, do the love locks (if you are unfamiliar, google Brooklyn Bridge Love Locks-its adorable), and get dinner near by. The morning of our date, Dennis was upset that it was so cold out. It was very windy and about 25 degrees. I told him we didn’t have to walk the bridge and we could do it another time, but he was insistent that we never have time to do anything like this anymore and lets go have some fun. I agreed. Around 5pm we embarked on our walk on the bridge and he kept texting someone. He told me his job was bothering him, which I thought nothing of. We finally got to the middle of the bridge, despite the wind almost blowing us over a couple of times. We stopped and I suggested a spot to put our locks. I dug into my bag for the marker, wrote our initials and locked them into place. I also did a lock for my mother and my late father. I took some pictures of the locks, we took in the beautiful view of the city for a bit and then he whispered he had a question to ask me. I said go for it, and before I could breathe he was on one knee.
He used my full name and asked me to be his wife. I couldn’t muster words and just kept nodding my head up and down. He said, “does that mean yes?” and I screamed “Of course it means yes!” He got up and kissed me as I cried, put the ring on my finger and whispered into my ear that he loves me, and there is a man about 20 feet behind me who has been taking pictures of us the whole time on the bridge.
Another moment of not being able to breathe as I turned around and the lovely Vlad Leto made his presence known. I couldn’t believe that not only was I just proposed to, but there was a person documenting it the entire time.
After the bridge we had an amazing dinner at Atrium in Dumbo, Brooklyn. We just got home from 5 days in Disney and I am still living in engaged bliss.
From long distance, to live in boyfriend, to fiance; My Dennis is the eternal romantic. He is my serendipity.
Photos by Vlad Leto