Come for the Love, Stay for the Party

Ginny & Stephen met in the fall of 2004 at WCU outside of a dorm that had been shut down due to a fight. Stephen had a chin strap and amazing blonde swooshy surfer hair. Ginny was wearing 3 layers of neon tank tops with an over priced pair of ripped up jeans. Don’t judge us. Ginny called Stephen’s Blimpies shirt stupid and they exchanged insults until Stephen asked if Ginny wanted to hang out. That weekend, Stephen took Ginny and some of her friends in his old blazer to go swimming at Bear Lake. He convinced her to jump off of a cliff into the lake. Something she would never have done due to her fear of heights but he was a pretty cute lacross player reaching his hand out like he was blonde Aladdin trying to take a sun burnt jasmine on an adventure. That was her first hint that this guy had zero fears in life. After leaving WCU, Stephen and Ginny kept in touch via AIM. Eventually leading to a fall break trip to Chapel Hill to meet Stephens family. One totaled Toyota later, we went our seperate ways. We just weren’t meant to be at the time. Stephen has since admitted to stalking Ginny’s Livejournal hoping for updates after they ended things. To be continued... XOXO Blondethang86 & LAXfool17

Five years later in the Spring of 2009 and new in town, Ginny was looking to find the best (and by best I mean best bang for your buck) LIT’s in Chapel Hill. Ginny started browsing Facebook for old friends living in CH. She came across Stephen. His chin strap had grown into a full beard, his hair was messier, and he was no longer a lanky teenager. He was an adult that desperatly needed to shave. However, his adventures looked amazing and Ginny wanted nothing more than to live vicariously through his travel stories over free LIT’s for an evening. So she messaged him and they met up at Four Corners on Franklin Street, where a fresh from hiking across Patagonia and hanging in Antartica Stephen, told her he had no money within the first 3 minutes. What a way to start a date. So Ginny (overdressed) got a pitcher of the cheapest beer and after a few stories about baby penguins in Antartica and living off the land later, Ginny was sold. She didnt want to leave the conversation and actually overdrafted her bank account buying drinks and snacks just so she could keep talking to him. They both thought... this will be fun for a few weeks like last time and we’ll go our seprate ways. Well, weeks became months, months became a year, a year became a decade, and here we are. Living in the burbs and spending a tuesday night making a wedding website next to our dogs while watching master chef like grownups. Life is wild.

The week of our 10th anniversary I pulled a muscle in my lower back. Days of pain went by. The night before our 10th anniversary Stephen asked me if I wanted to try out Angus Barn. This is it I thought. I took a pain killer from when I had broken my foot, put on makeup terribly (thanks pain killers), and mentally prepared myself. We got to dinner and I wobbled in unable to stand up straight. Upon arriving to AB I thought “This is the fanciest Cracker Barrel” but after 10 years I would say yes if he had proposed from the toilet. The food was amazing, Stephen was looking dapper, and all of the drinks I had to numb the pain in my lower back were kicking in. A random cake came out! “Is there a ring in this cake?” I asked excitedly. “Why would I put a ring in a cake?” He said. Then it was time to get our leftovers and head home. On the drive home I thought... hes trying to throw me off! He’s going to half Kanye me. When we get home, all of our friends and family will be there and the living room will be filled with balloons or a banner or something. Ha! He cant surprise me. I’m the Nancy Drew of Proposals. NOPE. Empty house. I told Stephen I wanted to go to bed, he said he would let the dogs out and be right up to put icy hot on my back. I waited for what felt like eternity. What is he doing? What is taking so long? I’m in so much pain. I started thinking he just wanted an excuse to eat steak and that he didn’t understand how much pain I was in. He finally came to bed where he kept trying to get Lily to jump in the bed but she was acting super freaked out. I became impatient and told him to just put her in the bed. After 10 minutes of pup snuggles and I found a ribbon with the ring! After pointing out that it was right in front of me, he finally proposed! He had successfully surprised me! We celebrated with champagne and FaceTimed family and friends. The next day we celebrated some more at Herons and headed to the doc for my back. You guys, we’re finally engaged! 🍾💍👰🏼🤵🏻