Dave and I had been close friends for a number of years, but our friendship leveled-up around mid-2021. I had last seen Dave in early 2020, right before the world shut down, so we were overdue to hang-out and catch up. There was supposed to be this really neat light up hot-air balloon festival at the Oviedo Mall; Dave had suggested that we check it out. Unfortunately, upon arrival we found out that the balloons would not be flying in due to weather. We quickly abandoned ship and made way for a nearby restaurant. After dinner, we drove around sort of aimlessly, looking for something to do. I started driving back towards Dave's place, when he jokingly commented that we should drive out to the beach. The idea had come up before after many of our past hangs, but we never did it. This time, I was driving :) On the way out to Cocoa, we learned that a launch was scheduled out of Kennedy Space Center. It was already pretty late, but we decided to hang around to see it go up. While we waited, we walked the around the beach and talked each other's ears off. Right before lift-off, we grabbed a seat in the sand and watched the most amazing night-time launch! The whole sky lit up! A few days after our adventure, I texted Dave saying that he and I were going to do "All the Things"... and from that day on we kept going on adventures together- we even made a "things we want to do" list. Before we knew it, I was all moved in and now here we are...getting MARRIED!

Imagine it: a great romantic plan, each detail perfectly laid out- and then everything goes wrong. Under the ruse of celebrating our second anniversary, I'd planned to rent out the Aerophile Balloon at Disney Springs and propose in the air. I’d worked in cahoots with Charity’s sister, Stephanie, to choose a location and to craft a plan for her to secretly capture the moment. Afterward, Charity and I would check in for our dinner reservations at STK. I didn't tell Charity much about the evening’s plans beyond it being "partly outdoors, partly indoors", and would include a nice dinner. Given that it was June 27th, it was a sweltering 97-degrees outside. Charity wore a stunning green velvet dress, prompting me to swap my outfit plans for a sweater and slacks. Mistakes were made. Arriving at Disney Springs, the balloon ride we hoped for was grounded for due to upper-level winds. Thankfully, Stephanie and I had scoped out an alternate proposal spot near Cirque Du Soleil and House of Blues—a quiet, green space with the balloon in the background. While not ideal, Disney Springs was a frequent date spot for us, making it a fitting back-up place to propose. At this point a lot of things were happening. I was holding onto hope that the weather would improve, and the balloon would go up. So I attempted to stall long enough for a potential balloon launch, by checking into STK about two hours ahead of our reservation. Since STK told us to expect a long wait to be seated, we took a stroll. I knew that I had to lead Charity toward towards the back-up location. Which means she, of course, insisted that we venture in the opposite direction. It had cooled to about a balmy 92-degrees. We were absolutely melting and Charity was beginning to have feelings of- what I will describe as...“discontent”. Somehow, I convinced her to follow along. Meanwhile, Stephanie was dealing with tribulations of her own. She’d had a slight disagreement with security regrading a bottle of champagne she was trying to bring in for us. The fought her for a while, causing some delay, but eventually they recognized the folly of their ways and let her pass- policy be damned. She’d gotten through just in the nick of time… Walking to the proposal site proved more and more of a challenge. I was trying to coordinate with Stephanie over text and all while working to keep Charity from diverting us from our path. Eventually, we made it to the site. I stopped to look at Charity and said "I love you so much" as I started to tear up. Given the circumstances of our evening, Charity completely misinterpreted my emotions and thought I was having a meltdown because the anniversary plans weren't going as planned- and she moved in to console me! Then, I got down on one knee and asked Charity to make me the happiest man in the world and marry me. After a moment, Charity realized what had just happened and said "Yes!" Stephanie, emerging from the bushes, captured the proposal on video just in time and joined us in celebration afterward. She took photos for us and recounted her recent victory over Disney security as we opened the gift she’d smuggled through. Afterwards, we called family and friends to share the news and made our way to dinner, where the mishaps continued… STK turned out to be more nightclub-like than we'd bargained for and didn't even have a working air conditioner. It was a “No” for us… we quickly left and found a more suitable dinner spot at Cooper's Hawk on I-Drive. There, we had a delightful meal and celebrated both our second anniversary and our new engagement!