Tessa was attending her first Sunday at Black Rock Church. As she sat down in the Worship Center, she spotted a handsome man carrying his camera and getting ready to take pictures of the service. She noted three things: Warby Parker-esque glasses, wonderfully styled hair, and a sense of style that didn’t quit. As Tessa began volunteering at Black Rock Church in the summer of 2016, Bruce would often stop into the Sanctuary office and say hi to everyone. Slowly, they began chatting more and even having to work together on certain projects (this excited Tessa but she tried to keep her cool). A few months in, Tessa gained the courage and asked Bruce if he wanted to grab some frozen yogurt. This is the moment where Bruce likes to mention that Tessa essentially "hustled" Bruce into their first date (worth it) but her story is that she is just an exquisite planner. They both arrived at Sweet Frog in Westport where they grabbed dessert and Tessa nonchalantly suggested, “We could eat this at the beach?" Bruce got into Tessa’s car and she drove them both down to Compo Beach. To Bruce’s surprise, she opened the trunk of the car to reveal a beach blanket and board game (exquisite planner, see?) As the sun set on the Westport shore, Bruce and Tessa enjoyed their frozen yogurt and chatted with the sound of the waves in the background. This will always be remembered as their first date and when things turned from a co-worker friendship to something more. After six more months of talking, on January 13 Bruce “officially” asked Tessa to be his girlfriend over a finished meal of Turkish food. Since then, Bruce and Tessa continue to grow and are beyond excited to start this new chapter of their lives. Together, they have traveled to Hawaii, Israel, Jordan + Germany. They love hunting for antiques, driving around the countryside of Connecticut, and finding the best Turkish or German food.

On the Monday before Christmas, Bruce called me and asked if I’d like to go on a sleigh ride with him on the day after Christmas. I said sure! Thursday came along and at about 4:33 pm Bruce called me, in extreme frustration that his truck was acting up (which I fully believed because although I love Penny the Toyota, she has her quirks). He said he was in the Redding area and asked if I could come to pick him up so we could still make it to the “sleigh ride”. He sent me the address where we’d meet up, I punched it into my GPS and told him I’d be there in 20. I pulled up to the spot and immediately realized it was one of our favorite spots in the area. I parked next to his truck but no Bruce was to be seen, but a piece of paper was taped to his truck window. I got out of my car, approached his truck, and proceeded to read his note to me. I grabbed the walking stick and flashlight and looked to my right where an entire path of candles had been laid out for me to follow. I slowly made my way down the candlelit path where at the very end I was met with a whole area of string lights right by the reservoir, along with a small table, chair, and blanket. I sat down in the chair and pressed play on the laptop. A snippet from The Office began playing when Michael is about to propose to Holly (I’M NOT CRYING YOU’RE CRYING). After that, I thought it was all done but NOPE. Stanley, YES, THE STANLEY from The Office began speaking to me in the video telling me Bruce was about to ask me a very important question. At the end of the video, Bruce emerged from the trees, got down on one knee, and asked me to marry him. It was all followed by dinner at our favorite restaurant where I devoured the most delicious truffle lobster mac and cheese of my life. Bruce did such a beautiful job, and I won’t ever forget it. A few days later we flew to Germany to celebrate with my family! Watch the video & see photos at howtheyasked.com/tessa-and-bruce/