How We Met
I was at my sister’s winter showcase with a friend, and she dragged me to a soccer game afterward to meet up with a bigger group of our friends. I hate soccer so I wanted nothing more than to get the hell out of there. I was sitting on the bleachers, minding my own business when this guy came to grab his bag from under me. (*cue meet cute am I right???*) We exchanged small talk for a short while, but it wasn’t until he told me his name that I realized I had heard of him. As it turns out — he had a business transaction with my dad four years prior. We just happened never to meet.
We were both dating other people when we met, so obviously nothing came of it. It wasn’t until I saw him at a mutual friend’s wedding almost a year later when we were both now single that I felt like maybe there was something there. After the wedding, we casually started chatting on social media completely platonically and I happened to mention that I was going on a thanksgiving cottage trip with my friends and needed a funnel. He had one so he asked where I was and offered to bring it to me. What was meant to be a completely transactional encounter turned into a 6-hour date in an LCBO parking lot, and one of the best days of our life?
We always joke that it took us five years to find each other, but I’m a firm believer that we found each other at exactly the right time.
How They Asked
Aba owns a telehealth platform called myrocky.ca and he had been planning to have an investor event to wrap up the year with his co-founders and shareholders. Sometime around October, he had led me to believe that December 30th, 2022 is the date they had planned for the event to take place. My boss was in on this and uncharacteristically gave me the day off. (I didn’t really think anything of it at the time).
The other co-founder’s wife, Mariam, and I spent months leading up to the event trying to find the perfect dress. After all, it was the first time we were meeting a lot of these investors and we had to make a good first impression. (Or so I thought). We arranged to uber to the event together to meet the guys who were presumably already there setting up. Something that is completely out of character for them btw….but the morning of was so normal I didn’t think anything of it. My parents had work, my sister Sandy was getting ready for work and my sister Natalie was meeting up with friends. All just a part of a regular Friday. Until it wasn’t.
When the uber was getting close, Mina (Aba’s business partner) called Mariam to tell her he needed help choosing a shirt and that she needed to meet him in the bathroom. When we got there, he quickly grabbed her and told me that Aba needed me in the hall. As I was taking my coat off, I heard the song “Home” by Reed Pittman play, and Aba started to sing to it. I opened the doors and proceeded to walk into the most P E R fect proposal setup I could’ve possibly imagined.
It was an aisle of all of my favorite romantic movies with a “movie” poster of us at the end of it and of course Aba singing to me the lyrics of our song. Movies and music were a huge part of what connected us and continued to bond us as a couple so the proposal idea was a beautiful ode to our relationship.
Aba also hired my favorite wedding photographer, Tyler, to snap pictures and that was one of my favorite surprises because I was excited about the idea that [he] got to experience our journey to marriage from the very beginning.
But, I think one of the most beautiful signs that it was the perfect day was the weather. I had always told Aba that I hate the cold and I would hate to get engaged in the winter. But on that particular December day, it was 15 degrees Celsius. Record warmth. There was a beautiful rainy overcast that made our outdoor pictures turn out incredible, and we got to end the day celebrating in that same room with an engagement party my sisters and friends organized for our closest family and friends.
My sisters also rented a feta one (pictured below) that allowed our guests to leave recorded messages that we later turned into a vinyl. It was amazing to listen to those recordings and relive the most perfect day. I relive it every time I look at these pictures, and I’m truly just thankful that God blessed me with the most wholesome another half.
