How We Met
Alec and Simone met their sophomore year at Iowa State University! Alec’s fraternity was hosting a “get to know you” grill out in August for Simone’s sorority! Their houses were paired together for the ISU Greek Homecoming celebration. To break the ice the older classman told the younger classman to turn to the person next to you and introduce yourself. Simone and Alec turned around and saw each other. They started off as friends and began dating their senior year!
How They Asked
(Simone’s perspective): Alec and I have been dating for a little over 5 years now! At the beginning of the year (Feburary 2019) we were at dinner talking about getting engaged and going ring shopping. I asked if he had ever thought of how we would propose. We both were on the same page that engagement and marriage would be our next step. He said he had thought about it and I asked when it might be. He laughed and said he would never tell me that. I asked for a tiny hint so he said: “2019 will be a good year.” We are sitting at the bar having dinner and the bartender gave us a napkin and pen and told Alec he needed to write that down and sign it so he would stick to his word. The napkin hung on our fridge all year.
Over the year we attended many weddings of close friends and family and took mental notes of how we would like to celebrate an engagement and a wedding. I told Alec I wanted the proposal to be him and me with a secret photographer taking pictures and to be able to celebrate with our families and friends after.
Alec’s birthday is New Years Day so he wanted to go to dinner on Monday night to celebrate as we were going to be celebrating New Year’s Eve the night before his birthday and that day many restaurants are closed. He decided to go to the new restaurant Two Hound Red. He said we were going at 5:30 pm which I thought was way too early for dinner. We had no plans that night and I didn’t know why he wanted to go to dinner so early. Turns out Alec had been planning this night since the end of November with the help of my family and best friends from high school.
As we were eating dinner Alec kept looking at his phone telling me my brother Peter had questions about our dog Miller. I was a little suspicious because Peter has watched Miller before and we had been gone only 45 minutes. During dinner, we recapped our year together and all the fun things we had done. I couldn’t help but think of the napkin hanging on our fridge in Des Moines saying 2019 was going to be a good year. Even if the proposal didn’t happen, 2019 would have still been a very good year.
Once we paid the bill we started walking to Main Street Pub to meet my brothers for some more drinks. I told Alec I wanted to stop in Marché to look around. I thought it was a very cute place and we could get a birthday drink there. I could tell Alec was getting very anxious that we stopped at Marché but I didn’t know what the big deal was. He said “can we go now the boys are waiting” so I said fine let’s go. It had been snowing all afternoon so the sidewalk was slick. I grabbed onto Alec’s arm and we walked to Main Street Pub. Right before I was to open the door to MSP, he pulled my arm closer to him and said he had a surprise for me.
At that moment I knew what was coming but I had no idea how he would ask. We walked to the corner of Main Street and Cresent Blvd with my back to the Christmas tree. He got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I said yes! Almost immediately he asked where Peter was. I thought why in the world is he looking for my brother right after proposing. I looked towards the train tracks and saw a camera lense and Peter hiding behind the building. Peter and a photographer jumped out, said congratulations, hugged us and told us to reenacted it since Alec had proposed too fast the first time and she wanted more pictures. We posed outside for a bit by the tree and Alec said there was another surprise, his parents and sister had come to town to celebrate too with my family and friends.
We walked to Maize + Mash for a private celebration planned by my best friends from high school. The entire party room was decorated with balloons and presents for us. Our families and friends were waiting for us to come up to celebrate. We walked up the stairs and saw all my favorite people and how excited they were for us. It was the perfect proposal. I am so grateful for all the time and effort everyone put in to help pull off the best surprise. I can’t wait to keep enjoying life with him.