You guys... We're getting married!! And it's gonna be an affair!!

You all can imagine that this is from my, Careda's, POV. If you thought Barrett was going to give a POV.... ha ha ha.... We met while working in New Jersey. He was new to our crew. We all received an email telling us about the new crew member and I read (so did my cousin) that his name was Brett. So, for 2 FULL days I called him Brett and was annoyed with him because he would never respond when we called him or asked anything! Well, eventually we asked why he never responded and found out it was because we weren't ever speaking to him! On Wednesday, we ended up in a small beach resort town called Wildwood. It was desolate! Everything had been closed down for the season, for months! Wednesday's were our off day, so everyone was hanging out at the super quiet hotel; talking, laughing, and playing games. Barrett, who had been quiet the entire time, decides to ask if I wanted to put on a bikini and go to the beach. It had to have been 20 degrees! This was bold and hilarious and he spent the rest of the time making me laugh with his tomfoolery, he reminded me of my dad. Needless to say, I did NOT go to the beach that night, but, we did sit and talk for hours that day and every day after. And in the 5 1/2 years since that day, we have been to so many beaches (because I absolutely love the beach, he does not), so many baseball games (because he loves baseball/sports), and so many places together. We've done so many things, I have laughed so very much, and I, honestly, wouldn't have it any other way!! The best day of my life was the day a hilariously crazy guy asked me to get half-naked and go to the beach in October!

Again.... My, Careda's, POV... As I think back on it, Barrett had been priming me for a full week. We'd driven the hour drive to go walking downtown, almost every day, because I love doing that in the summer at night. This particular day we went a little early (which means 10pm) to see the fireworks, Navy Pier does this all summer. We were also supposed to eat at one of my favorite restaurants, Bubba Gump Shrimp (because, yes, I'm that person. I enjoy answering Forrest Gump trivia. ha ha ha). This is not an expensive restaurant, so I am not thinking this is anything special. We see the fireworks and eat and then he decides he wants to walk along the pier, well he's never been down the entire pier, so we start walking... despite it now being, like, 60 degrees outside (YES, that's cold to me!), and windy... super windy-- we're on Lake Michigan. We walk and he's looking and hiding and being all odd. And at some point I become curmudgeon Careda and get super annoyed because I'm SO cold and he's out looking at the water in the pitch black night! Eventually, he acquiesced my request to leave and we started walking back toward the exit, but stopping periodically to look at stuff. I don't know why, but I stopped to sit behind a restaurant, look at the water (where it was warmer), and listen to a song, (I'm pretty sure it was Lloyd's Get It Shawty..... so, that's a thing that's in my engagement story! ha ha ha) While, I'm jamming, Barrett calls my name and I turn around to the sweetest thing ever!!!! Him on his knees, looking at me with his handsome face, holding this beautiful ring. I was STUNNED. I IMMEDIATELY started to cry. I don't remember exactly what he said, verbatim, but what I got from it was, "Wanna be hilarious and do hilarious stuff together forever? And then have kids and do hilarious stuff to and with them!?" And, duh, of course I do, so here we are!!! And I, literally, CANNOT wait to start our forever!!