Hartford, Connecticut is no Paris-- Ernest Hemingway never paid homage to the city's sites, and few, if any Hollywood movies ever use this sleepy East Coast town as a backdrop for a meet-cute. But love is a funny thing with a mind of its own, and Hartford was the birthplace of our little love story. AJ and I met in a hotel conference room where we both stayed for a workplace training program for our first job out of college. It was impossible to know that the first "hello" would kick off an unforgettable adventure where I moved to Boston to be with AJ and AJ and I moved to San Francisco together to start a new life. All of the moments in between, all of the laughs, the tears, the friends, and the family have led us right here: a time and place of knowing that we're in this thing called life together, and we couldn't be more ready.

I spent months planning out the details of the proposal and finally came up with the perfect plan. On the day of the proposal, I played Angela's favorite song, "Hallelujah" in the background, compiled photos from each of the seven years we'd been together in a collage that greeted her at the door, laid out rose petals to lead her through our house and into the backyard where cameras were strategically placed to capture her reaction, and dressed up our dog, Herman in a "love" costume. The problem with this? I was so caught up in planning the setting that when it came time for the actual proposal, I realized I never planned what I was going to say! Instead of proposing with a romantic speech, I rambled off a few corny cliche lines. Thankfully, she still said yes.