We are getting married!

We met at a dental school party and didn’t think much of it. As time passed and the hardships of dental school set in, lugging tons of dental school things around became more and more difficult. Tim had a great idea of altering his dental tool box so he only had one thing to carry. With a brilliant plan like that, I hopped in on the idea (especially because he offered to basically do it for me). He invited me over to work on it, and we instantly became friends. Then, one of his roommates suggested that we study together because we both learn by talking through the material. Since that day, we have been inseparable. Dental school can bring out some of the highest highs and lowest lows. We have been each other's rock throughout it all. Finally, it came time for our classes half way dinner and they did superlatives. We unanimously won the award "The Cutest Couple That Never Was". Then, to mess with us, they changed the award to "There is Still Time". After the award my mind started to wonder "what if." As the summer passed, we joked about dating but it wasn’t until our summer break that it became more serious. We went on a trip with friends to New Orleans and I found myself leaning on his shoulder and holding his hand. When we came back, Tim called me and told me to put on a dress and heels because he had a reservations at Basi Italia and he would pick me up in 30 minutes. When I responded "Wait, like a date?", he said "Yes" and hung up. (See photos in the gallery.) Tim told me "we already know we love each other, and care about each other so why aren't we dating?" The next week Tim surprised me after work with 4 dozen roses (2 dozen yellow roses for two years of friendship, and 2 dozen red roses for double the amount of love) asking me to be his girlfriend. -Emma

I knew I wanted to propose so I set up an entire trip based on going to Hawaii, the only state I haven't visited. That was until Emma and everyone else suspected my plan. So, I had to go back to the drawing board. When Emma and Lauren (Emma’s roommate) were watching Bridgeton and I just so happened to “sort of like it.” There was a hot air balloon episode and Emma said it was a dream of her’s to go on one. So, I found a local company that offered rides. I just couldn’t think of a way to get Emma to get her nails done without making her suspicious. I came up with a brilliant idea to call Emma’s brother, Nick, and have him convince Emma that he was proposing to his girlfriend Miki and needed Emma to make sure her nails were done. Emma fell hook line and sinker and was so excited to help Nick with “his surprise.” She wanted to make it believable so she came up with the brilliant idea to have me say I was proposing to Emma and that’s why I needed Miki's help getting Emma's nails done. (And if you are confused by now, so was I, but basically it was a double cross). All week Emma told all of her friends at school about this top secret proposal “for her brother." She was so excited she drove from Columbus to Findlay to get her nails done and payed for the both of them because she thought Miki was getting proposed to next weekend. Everything was set for me: Emma completely in the dark and the bottle of champagne bought. Until Emma started asking questions. She thought we should dress up for the hot air balloon in Bridgerton attire. I was quick to shut that down, imaging looking back at our engagement photos years down the line, but Emma wasn’t easily convinced. So, one of our professors recommended an aviation theme, and she had goggles and leather hats to match! Emma was so excited she went out and bought a matching leather jacket and decided to pack her own picnic for the hot air balloon. I was now ready, I told all of her friends and family so they would be waiting at the house after. It was going to be perfect until a storm came brewing in and the hot air balloon was moved up a day. It was still going to be okay, I was determined. So when we arrived on Friday for the hot air balloon and the owner said we couldn’t go up for a sunset hot air balloon due to the wind, I was left scrambling. I had a backup spot across the city on a lookout point but it was an hour away, so I rushed us as fast as we could to get across town before sunset. With a half hour to spare we arrived at the lookout for “a picnic”. But, first we had a half mile hike up to the look out. The rings were safely in my aviator jacket, so I had to convince Emma that hiking in our leather jackets was a good idea. Although I only had a pool towel for us to sit on, we hiked up to the top and enjoyed the picnic Emma had packed. I wanted to get nice engagement photos, so of course Emma made us put on our aviator gear (see the gallery) to get some photos. She thought the silly pictures were absolutely perfect but I wanted a nicer picture with the sunset in the back. Emma started suspecting that something was off, so she said “You aren’t proposing right?” I started sweating and responded “If I was, that would be so rude that you just were calling me out, it would ruin the magic.” But thankfully, the magic wasn't ruined and the proposal went off beautifully! We couldn't imagine a more "us" proposal and are so blessed we can share our story with you all! -Tim