How We Met
Alyssa and I went to college together at UMass Amherst. We always had mutual friends and the first time I met her I drunkenly told her she was my dream girl but she had a boyfriend most of college. At the graduation ball, I was talking to her and we stayed past the close-talking. Towards the end, I asked her if I could see her again before we went our separate ways after graduation. Many, many dates later, a place of our own, and a dog later the day came.
How They Asked
That Saturday we were going back to our school’s homecoming to see all of our friends. I asked her how she’d feel about taking that Friday off and getting an AirBnB to hit up our favorite spots in town. She was very excited in agreed. Little did she know I had a bigger plan… we spent most of the day going to our favorite restaurants, bars, and walking around campus. I told her I wanted to go on a little hike that I used to go on while I was at school. But she wanted to nap (she’s a big napped)… and asked me if I could go alone. I started freaking out because I had a set time with my sister and friend who had set up the site for me and were there to take photos. I tried to compromise with her and said: “what if you take a 45-minute nap, and then we go”. Thankfully she agreed. We drove up to the hiking path. I was trying not to act weird though I definitely was. As we started walking up my sister and friend were faced backward so she couldn’t see their face, taking pictures of nature. We got to the top of the hill with lights and pictures on the tree and she didn’t notice until we got up close and saw all the pictures of us.
That’s when I got down on one knee and asked the love of my life to be my wife. She was pretty surprised and said, “I mean, yes”. My sister went down to her car and let out our dog to come and celebrate with us. I had a local brewery and artist put together a custom IPA which she loves with a picture of the proposal. We popped champagne and celebrated. The next day we broke the news and celebrated with all our friends at homecoming!
One of my favorite parts of the weekend was getting to celebrate with my mom who was very sick then. She loved Alyssa and she was so happy to see the joy on my face and I was so happy to see the joy on hers. Before she passed, she got to see the woman I’m going to spend the rest of my life with and I am so grateful for that. We now have a wedding set for September 2021 and will be adding a puppy to our family.
