It was 2012 and the game ‘Ruzzle’ was popular on social media at the time. We never actually met before but at one point we went to the same college, so we had a lot of mutual friends on Instagram. We started playing the game against each other and would flirt back and forth for weeks on the chat feature. Eventually , we had made plans to meet face to face at a mutual friend’s upcoming New Year’s Eve party. Both of us ended up at the party but after a couple drinks and my friends wanting to change venues, we never connected. Months went by and Kendall reached out in February 2013. We spent a couple days catching up and he finally asked to take me on a date the next time I came to Atlanta. The next month , we spent our first date at the Georgia Aquarium and then grabbed pizza afterwards. We became closer and ended up dating for a couple of months before separating due to distance. Kendall was in school in Atlanta and I was in school 3 hours away and we decided it just wasn’t a good time for us. Fast forward to 2014, I had graduated and moved back to Atlanta. Kendall reached out to me the following year the day before my birthday and we ended up reconnecting again and as they say, the rest is history.

My cousin Yasmin had reached out to me to tell me that she was relocating with her husband soon and wanted to grab dinner at our favorite place before she moved. I didn’t think any thing of it because we had a similar conversation a couple of years ago, so we set a date for Memorial Day weekend and made plans to meet up . The day came and I was in the process of getting ready. Kendall came and told me he was about to go to a barbecue and that one of his friends would be picking him up. Before he left he grabbed the cooler and Bluetooth speaker and again I didn’t think anything was weird because he brought those to the last barbecue we had went to. He left before I finished getting ready so I told him I’d see him after dinner. I meet Yasmin and we have a great dinner with matching conversation. We were talking over dinner and she asked me if I thought Kendall was going to propose soon and I said I didn’t think so. By that point in our relationship, Kendall and I had talked about our goals, marriage, and getting engaged but I didn’t think it was going to happen for at least a couple more months. Mid-dinner , Yasmin’s sister (who was supposedly in town from Texas) called and told me she was nearby with her family and wanted to stop by and see me when we had finished eating, so we made plans to meet at the park across the street after dinner... Stay Tuned!

Yasmin and I finished eating and started walking to the park. As I’m walking down the steps to the entrance, I see a large group of people and start recognizing people that I know ! First I see two of my best friends from high school, and then I see Kendall’s mom , and then I see Kendall . I immediately freeze in my tracks realizing that this can only be one thing. I burst into tears and honestly everything else is a blur - literally and figuratively because my glasses become cloudy with my tears. As ‘She’s Mine-Part 1’ by J. Cole plays on the Bluetooth speaker that he took from home, Kendall gets down on one knee and proposes. Honestly I don’t know what all he said because I was just waiting to say “Yes!”. He pulls out champagne from the cooler he took from home, and makes a toast while we’re surrounded by 20 of our closest friends and family. Kendall organized the whole thing with my cousin Yasmin, down to the dinner reservations! She was never relocating and my other cousin was never in town! And obviously there was no barbecue. Even though we were just talking about getting engaged , I didn’t suspect a thing. It was honestly the most perfect proposal and I cannot wait to marry this man on October 6th, 2019!