How We Met
October 2013. I was spending the night with my best friend, and we somehow ended up on Plenty of Fish. After a little bit of browsing, I convinced her to create an account for herself. It was sort of a joke to the both of us, in the beginning. I decided to sign up as well, just for the heck of it. I had never imagined myself as someone who would try online dating. Up until this point, I had never had a boyfriend, let alone been on a real date. After a few weeks of scrolling through profiles, talking to the odd person here and there, and not really putting any effort in, I came across Nicks profile. To be honest, the fact that he had a selfie with his dog is what first attracted me to hm. Once I read his profile, I found that we had a lot of similar interests. We were both university students, animal lovers, and concert goers. I decided to send him a message, asking him what the last concert he had been to, was. For the next 2 months, we got to know each other, and although I had never met him in person, I knew I was not going to let him go.
December 26th 2013. The day we first met. I was so nervous! I was finally going to meet this guy who I liked so much, and knew so much about. I drove all the way from my parents house (I was living at home at the time) to his house (he had his own place, with a roommate), which was about an hour away. I remember the drive as if it was yesterday. My 1 hour drive felt like an eternity. Finally, I pulled up. I parked. I got out of the car. And that’s when I saw him. He was real. He was just as handsome as his photos. He was mine. I mean . . . he wasn’t mine (yet) but I knew he would be.
February 5th 2014. It took him a few months to muster up the courage to officially ask me to be his girlfriend. Since we met on December 26th, we were inseparable. He quickly became my best friend. My person. Today, we made our relationship “official” on Facebook. The most common reaction we got from friends and family . . .”finally!!!”
Somewhere between December 26 and February 5th, I realized he was “the one.” I remember that moment exactly. He had picked me up from the bus stop. We were walking to his house. He switched positions with me so I was on the inside of the sidewalk, away from traffic. It may seem like the smallest thing, but it was the biggest thing to me. Growing up, my mom always told me that the person I was dating should “always make sure you’re on the inside of the sidewalk” and he was the first person that I had ever seen do this.
In the next few years, we accomplished so much together. Neither of us had ever had a passport. So, in February 2016, not only did we get our passports together, but we got on our first airplane, and travelled to Europe for 1 month. #NickandMelTakeEurope brought us to Spain, Italy, and Greece. After this trip, we realized we had been bitten by the travel bug. This same year, I went away to Oaxaca (Mexico) to teach English for 3 months. During this time, Nick was a single dad to our 2 dogs, and worked his butt off so that I didn’t have to.
Fast forward to 2017. There was still 1 place on my bucket list that I had yet to visit . . .
how they asked
Ever since the tv show Little People Big World aired on TLC, I had been the biggest fan. I always dreamed of visiting Roloff Farms during pumpkin season. But, I did not have a passport, let alone someone who would be willing to go with me.
Fast forward to October 2017 – when this dream finally became a reality! Little did I know, that there was so much more to this dream than I could ever imagine!
Nick had been planning the engagement for about 6 months. During his hunt for the perfect engagement ring, one of my best friends moms reached out, and said that she wanted us to have her original engagement ring, that she came to Canada (from Sri Lanka) with. A few of our other best friends decided that they wanted to be part of the engagement as well, 1 taking the responsibility of photographer, and the other – videographer. Nick disguised the engagement as a “best friends road trip to Portland!” I didn’t think much of it. We all got in the car on October 20th, and drove down to Portland. We spent a few days in the city, visiting some amazing restaurants and doing some site seeing.
The big day finally came around, on October 22nd. Roloff Farms. During pumpkin season. It felt like a dream. We met Zach Roloff within minutes of arriving at the farm, and I was swooning over Jeremy (my favourite Roloff) as I saw him in the distance. We toured the farm, met some more of the family, bought Roloff merchandise, and did a little photoshoot with the pumpkins. Finally, we decided to wait in line for a farm tour. As we were walking toward the line, Nick pulled me in the opposite direction. He told me he wanted to check out the store again, first. I was a little annoyed, as I just wanted the tour!!!! Until I realized where he had actually took me. He was checking us in for our private “golden compass pass” tour of the farm. Just the 4 of us (Nick, myself and our 2 friends) were about to get our own private tour. And who was our tour guide?! JEREMY ROLOFF!
This day could not get any better. Or so I thought.
Jeremy drove us all around the farm. Nick and I got to sit with him in the front seat (me in the middle . . .obviously!) 45 minutes went by in what felt like seconds, but it was time for the tour to come to an end. Jeremy wanted to show us one more stop, before driving us back. The chapel.
It was so surreal. We all got out to check out the Chapel. Jeremy and our friends were kind of hanging back, as Nick and I peered out the window admiring the beauty of it all. I had my back turned, as I continued to admire the farm from the chapel window, when I heard Nick begin to talk. “Melissa . . . it was love at first click.” He grabbed my hand, got down on one knee, and pulled out our friends mom’s ring. My exact reaction was “what the heck?!” We had been together for 4 years, but he had always told me that he wanted to finish his schooling before he even thought of marriage! It was the absolute perfect proposal, and he is the perfect guy for me. Of course I said yes, and we got out to celebrate with our friends and Jeremy. The coolest part was that we were featured on Jeremy’s instagram story! It was all just so surreal.
I called my mom a few hours later to tell her the news. “I know” she said “Nick came by before you guys left, to ask dad for his blessing.” He continues to surprise me, in the best way.
