I met Dani at a Bible study that I pretty quickly stopped going to. Apparently, I was “stuck up and rude”, which probably isn’t too off the mark. We later had a stats class together and although I didn’t really know who she was she silently hated me the entire time. Hatred is a close relative to love as both require an object of fascination, and unbeknownst to me I was attracting a lot of attention from Dani as she rolled her eyes and put up with my obnoxiousness. When we were put on the same staff as RAs my junior year, my eyes skimmed over her name with no recognition while she was disappointedly told herself that she would just have to learn to put up with me for the year. During our first couple of staff meetings I learned that she loved craft coffee, her favorite passage was Psalms 51 and she had a weird obsession for gum. Armed with this knowledge, the uncontrollable desire to prove to people that I’m likable and a fascination with the way that she held herself in the world, I decided to win her over. The first thing I did was bought her a packet of gum on a target run that our staff went on. Dani will say that this is the moment when she realized that I might be an “Ok” person. I’m pretty sure that all the pent-upenergy she had stored up hating me was suddenly left without anywhere to go and started to convert to her unending love. Secondly, I started inviting the staff to go on coffee runs to Augies to get some time with her. Although the staff went the first couple of times, eventually it was just Dani and I making 20-minute trips during our 15-minute breaks. I didn’t know it at the time but being late is a love language of Dani’s and probably spoke to the deepest part of her soul. Dani has an effortless presence about her that complements my lack of tact and suave and made me feel at peace. Months and months later, with Dani impatiently waiting for me to get my act together, I told her I liked her in a McDonalds parking lot and now here we are.

I decided to propose by recreating our first date. I bought the same street tacos from the Salted Pig and the Espresso and Tonics we drank from Augies. I set up a picnic with pictures of our relationship and a blanket to sit on (big thanks to Anna and Caleb for the help). I tried to confuse her on the timing of it all by getting lots of her friends to ask her to hang out at different times during the weekend, so she had no idea that her friend Alyssa wasn’t taking her to a winery but to my proposal. Alyssa drove her up to the top of the hill and standing at the bottom I was smiling like an idiot watching Dani walk down the hill. She looked incredible and I nervously walked her over to the picnic. I said some words about recreating our first date that I had memorized and asked her to be my wife. She said, “umm duh”...