In early February 2014, both Megan & Brad decided they would test out the online dating waters. Brad had moved to Portland and was a full-time student in Chiropractic school. while Megan had recently completed her master’s degree and was exploring Portland for the first time outside of being in school. Neither had much time to dedicate to meeting people the old-fashioned way. Both had been on previous dates with other people; some were bad, and some were really bad. One fateful night, Megan came across Brad’s profile in which she saw a cute guy with a nice smile. She immediately checked his stats to see if it met her criteria: Above 6’2? CHECK Beard? CHECK She looked further at his profile in the “Something you should know about me section” where Brad revealed that he recently failed his written Oregon Driver’s exam. The question that threw Brad for a loop was “If you see a horse and rider on the road what should you do?”. Brad, being a native Texan, should have had that answer in the bag, but it was such a curveball he ended up failing his exam. Megan immediately laughed to herself, as just 1 month prior, she had taken that exact written exam to get her Oregon driver’s license and came across that same question, but of course she passed. She knew she had to reach out to this guy and find out more. They messaged back and forth for a few weeks and finally decided to set a time to meet in March after Brad had finished his examinations. Brad liked what he knew about Megan: Tall? CHECK Higher education? CHECK Obviously they both have high standards for dating. They decided to meet at a little English pub in NE Portland called Rose & Thistle. Brad ended up being 45 minutes (according to Megan, he still claims it was only 20 minutes), but by the grace of god Megan decided to stay and wait. She is very happy that she did. When Brad finally showed up they spent over 4 hours at the pub, going pint for pint and story for story with each other, and the rest is history!

Flash forward to 4.5 years of dating: Megan and Brad decided to take a 3 week long backpacking trip around Europe. They were set to travel to 6 different countries (Iceland, Hungary, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Germany, and Ireland). Brad had felt that this trip would have been the perfect opportunity to ask Megan to marry him. He went through the typical traditional steps. He bought the ring and next he was going to tell their families. Brad wanted to talk to both his parents and Megan’s parents prior to leaving for Europe. Megan and Brad were set to fly out Friday afternoon. Early Friday morning, Brad attempted to get a hold of Mike. He called and called with no answer. Frantic to get in touch of his potential father in law, he called Patrice. He told her the situation of how he really wanted to talk to Mike before he left the country. Patrice immediately called Mike who was in Tahoe working around the house. “Mike, did you receive any calls?” says Patrice. Mike thought to himself “Yeah, I sure did! I keep getting all these damn robbo calls from an 800 number!” Turns out 832 is a common Texas area code and that was Brad trying to call. Mike had not only declined all his calls, but decided to block Brad’s number. All in all, they finally got a hold of each other and the plan had been set in motion.

Part two of the proposal came when Brad and Megan were traveling internationally. First up was Iceland where they went car camping for 3 days exploring different waterfalls and hot springs. Brad was waiting to propose to Megan under the Northern Lights; however, 3 nights came and went and each night was cloudier than the last. The final morning of Iceland trip, the duo set out on what was their favorite hot springs location, Reykjaladur. This was 5 mile RT hike followed by boiling river at the midway point. They set out at 7 am to start their hike. As they climbed deeper into the hills, the steam piled high until they came across the boiling river. It was a perfect opportunity to embrace two of Megan’s favorite things: hiking and hot springs. Brad reached around his pocket, and immediately realized he left the ring behind in the camper. His plans had been foiled in Iceland. Two countries later, Brad decided to work up the courage once again to ask Megan to marry him. This time they were in Croatia. The had spent the majority of this trip relaxing on the coast of the Adriatic sea and exploring the city walls of Dubrovnik. Brad had the brilliant idea to take Megan to a nice dinner and ask her then. The two continued their exploration of the city. They stopped in at “Lady Pi Pi” a lunch restaurant for a large seafood fare. By the time they had finished their lunch, Megan was stuffed and decided that they shouldn’t go dinner that night since they had spent so much money on that meal. Brad’s plans were foiled again.

Fast forward to their second to last destination, Munich, Germany to celebrate Oktoberfest. If you know Megan, you know she LOVES her Dirndl (traditional Bavarian dress). Brad decided to embrace the culture as well and purchased a pair of lederhosen. Megan had just put her new Dirndl on. Brad saw her and knew the time had to be right now. He was tired of waiting and missing his chance. Not this time. Megan was putting on a necklace a friend had made her. She walked back to living room where Brad had called to her. He said “I have one more of jewelry to complete your outfit”. He was down one knee holding the ring. He continued proclaim his love and told Megan about his plan all along. Of course, she said “Yes!”. She immediately called her family. The Antosik’s sighed in relief as they originally thought Brad was going to propose in Iceland. It had been almost 2 whole weeks since the anticipated proposal date. They even thought Brad had asked and Megan had said “No”! Megan to this day still loves poke fun at Brad for all of his missed opportunities; however, they both agree there is no better way to celebrate an engagement than with 1 million of your closest friends at the world’s largest party!