WE’RE GETTING MARRIED!

We met on Match.com at the beginning of 2019. After two failed attempts to meet in person (due to snow!), we were finally able to meet for breakfast at Southside Diner in Mount Vernon. We had spent almost a month getting to know each other over text and phone calls and I was certain that all of the sweet things that he said were just lines. Later, I would learn that he was genuine and that he had lost his contacts the night before we met, but drove from Columbus to Mount Vernon that morning anyway because he didn’t want to have to reschedule again in fear that I would lose interest. The diner had a special meaning to me, unbeknownst to Chris at the time, as it was the place where I met my late grandpa for breakfast every Sunday before church. When Chris suggested the diner as their meeting place, I was confused as to why this guy from Columbus would know anything about the diner and their great breakfast. I made an assumption that he went on Yelp and searched breakfast in Mount Vernon. At the time, I didn’t know his history with Mount Vernon and how special Knox County was to Chris and his family. We talked for hours, both thinking afterward that we had talked too much. Breakfast ended, Chris walked me to my car in the 10 degree weather and like the perfect gentleman he is, didn’t kiss me. It left me confused and kind of annoyed. I resigned myself to the fact that it didn’t go as well as I had thought and that he wasn’t interested. Later he told me that he didn’t want our first kiss to be in a parking lot in the cold. Little did I know, that would be our last first dates and would be the start of our happily ever after.

Chris and I been talking about marriage for quite a while.There were many times I thought he would propose, keeping a fresh manicure *just in case* for months! I told him a few months before that the moment I knew I was falling for him was on a date to the Cleveland Symphony. We had been gifted tickets by our friends and I was told to “take the new guy”. That’s how early it was. Even my friends didn’t refer to him by his name. Fast forward a year later, Chris purchased tickets to the symphony for a Valentine’s date. He bought 4 tickets and told me that he wanted to take my parents and to treat them to a nice Valentine’s Day celebration. Chris had been sick for weeks prior, and so the day of the symphony, I insisted that he go to the doctor before we left for Cleveland. My words were “this is not negotiable”. Chris went but protested saying that he didn’t have time to go. I told him that we had hours before we had to leave and that he needed to go and get checked out. The first time I almost ruined his plan. He tested positive for the flu but insisted on going to the symphony. We went to dinner in Little Italy and Chris had plans to walk to Severance Hall from the restaurant. Despite it only being a few blocks, I insisted on driving because that night, Cleveland had single digit temperatures and the wind off of the lake made it pretty miserable. The second time I almost ruined it. I told him that I couldn’t understand why we wouldn’t park in the parking garage that was attached to Severance Hall to stay out of the cold. What I didn’t know, was that his plan to “take pictures in front of the hall” was because he was going to propose on the steps. After he got down on one knee, I don’t remember anything. The symphony was beautiful. After we got home, I walked in to see a bouquet of white roses with a card with all of the things he said in the proposal. He said that he knew that I wouldn’t remember what he said and he wanted to be sure I knew how he felt.