OUR STORY
The Early Days
By Emmy
As most people in my life know, I had spent many years on the apps trying to find the one who could dazzle me, accept my family, and have the absolute desire to build a family together. It proved to be a tall order, and I was becoming exhausted and starting to look into ways to grow a family by myself. I would still sometimes very lazily swipe on apps, but because I was fairly homebound due to taking care of Grandpa Luther, I had extremely limited time to spend on dates, so whoever I went out with had to be pretty damn special.
I stumbled upon AJ's profile on Hinge, and in one photo he was with his grandma Dycke, captioned that she was his best friend, and wearing an Embry Riddle shirt, where my brother Connor (our officiant) works. I quickly sent off a screen shot to Connor and asked if he knew this guy, and he laughed and said, "That's AJ! He's the nicest guy ever and I've known him since high school!" So...we chatted back and forth for a few days, met up for a quick coffee on a Tuesday afternoon, and then had our first official date that Friday at Fujiyama, where AJ said he would be taking me to Turkey someday. I quickly learned that Connor really missed the boat on matchmaking...and the rest kind of fell into place.
AJ jumped into my life seamlessly. He is kind and giving, both of his heart and his humor. He is stoic and strong and solid, and he does not waver in his love and support of not only me, but everyone in my life. I am the luckiest and I cannot wait to spend the rest of forever seeing what we can do together and traveling the whole wide world.
The Proposal
By AJ
Knowing it was right, knowing that we both wanted the same thing, the question had to be asked. I asked her what she would want for a ring, then it seemed that everyone was watching the same ring on Etsy. When it disappeared, everyone thought we must have missed it. It arrived two days earlier than expected, giving me this unbearable surprise to handle on February 28th, and February 29th just seemed to align perfectly! Without knowing it, our schedule was cleared, our errands were all in the same direction, and a bow tie and sports coat happened to be in the car. We drove out to the chiropractor, to Leff-T's steakhouse, and then Emmy was adamant she wanted to go to TJ Maxx, which I used as an opportunity to take a photo. She was also adamant that we should do the Costco ice cream, however we were losing light and romance, so I politely redirected us towards the Court House Square.
After arriving downtown and convincing Emmy that a quick jaunt around the square would be nice, I gathered my composure and looked for the best opportunity. Who would we run across but an owl that provided the perfect distraction! While we stared, I quickly looked in my pocket to make sure the ring was still in its place, then I took a step back and took a knee. The worlds fumbled out of my mouth, AND SHE SAID YES!
Used an excuse of sending this photo to Ross Blackburn as practice and a self check that AJ's face wasn't giving it all away.
She said YES!
The Owl that helped distract Emmy while AJ worked on his composure
The ring and the owl
Thanks to Sam Sansudsavat with Fearless Elopement for the photos