How we met: We met on our college cross country team. I was a freshman, and he was a senior. I thought there was no way on earth we would ever be together. I thought that he was way out of my league! He was a good athlete, smart, hilarous, handsome, and the student body president of the university. Little did I know, he had a crush on me and thought that I was WAY out of his league! He thought that I was the MOST beuatiful woman he had ever seen! Eventually, we kind of figured out that we liked eachother! I would go into the library at night, HOPING he would come in and see me. I knew that he studied almost every night at a particular table and I would always sit near it. He stopped going to his usual study table, and would stop at mine! After about a week, he asked me out on a date! He asked me to go dancing at a local dance hall named River Falls Lodge! Little did I know, a year and a half later, I would be proposed to in the exact same place as our first date!
how they asked: Well, I am still in school with 1 more year to go. Ben graduated last year and is teaching high school history and coaching track 3 hours away in Sumter, SC. It has been a long distance type of thing, but he ALWAYS comes up to Greenville on the weekends for me! For weeks now he has been making sure I could go to a charity dance at our favorite dance hall. I cleared my calendar as dancing is very dear to us. It is something that bonds us, two people dancing, holding hands, looking into each other’s eyes, and trusting each other for every move.
Saturday morning he picked me up and we headed off to the small dance hall, tucked away in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I was very excited as we had not been able to dance with each other in quite a while. We talked, laughed, and listened to his new Black Keys CD for the 30 minute drive and in no time, we were at River Falls Lodge. As we arrived… I noticed there were no cars in the parking lot. It was just us. ( Usually, this would raise suspicion to me, BUT it was NOT the first time we had shown up to dance and gotten our dates wrong on the dancing websites calendar ) He got out of the car and pretended to call his friend who was in charge of the dance. It appeared we had arrived one hour early. Ben then said that he was going to the bathroom to fix a blister that was starting to form on his foot. I believed it as he had complained about his socks rubbing his ankle the wrong way on the car ride over. I sat in the car as it was a little chilly outside and waited. I thought nothing of his taking leave for a quick couple of minutes.
Little did I know, he had rented out the dance hall. There was NO dance in an hour, it was a set up. Ben went to the back of the building where the bathrooms were and entered the hall through the back door. He then quickly set up candles in a half a circle and mounted a hidden video camera! He came outside and got me enthusiastically saying that the dance hall was left open! He suggested that we take advantage of the vacant hall to practice and dance with each other before the crowd arrived. I, still not suspecting a thing went with him briskly to the main entrance.
As we entered, he had his phone in his hand and pushed play. I heard one of “OUR” songs come on. It was Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran. At first, I thought the sound was just from his phone… BUT then I noticed the song sounded really good and that it was from a huge speaker he had set up in the corner of the room. I continued to walk to the middle of the dance floor. I noticed sparkling lights and candles everywhere and then I knew… THIS IS IT!!! We danced around for the whole song. I was SO nervous, I forgot how to dance, but Ben just led me around the hall! He was SO suave and didn’t skip a beat. The whole time, I was lost in his eyes. We were both laughing and stumbling around as the song played.
Eventually, the song came to an end and he held me close. We just stood there for half a minute. Eventually, he said, “well… there is no charity dance…(and we laughed) … It’s just you and I. What do you think is about to happen?” I said I didn’t know… But I really did! He then pried my arms off of him as I tremmered with excitement! He walked a couple steps beside me and jumped to reach a ring box hidden in the rafters. He then walked back in front of me and took both of my petite hands into his big masculine hands. He told he that he loved me… He told me he thanked God for me everyday and then he got down on his knee and stared into my eyes! I couldn’t keep my legs still and I was shaking with joy! He then spoke a sentence which I will never forget… “Zoe… will you go on a life long journey with me and be my wife?” and then he presented me with the most beautiful of rings! I put it on my finger trembling and said… YES!!!!!!! He picked me up and spun me around for a good half a minute! After that… we just held each other close and danced for the rest of the hour. And that is story of how I will soon become, Zoe Susanne Wade!
