We’re getting married!

We initially met in middle school and quickly became best friends. I always had a crush on Corey, and Corey secretly (or maybe not so secretly) had a crush on me too. We stayed best friends all through out high school and dated on and off a bit. Once I graduated high school, I went to Birmingham to attend Samford University. Apparently distance does make the heart grow fonder because after a few weeks of not seeing each other, Corey decided to be my date to my first sorority function. While in Birmingham, we both realized we wanted the same thing and decided to give long-distance a go! We’ve been together ever since and are so excited to finally be getting married!

I had an opportunity to go back and visit London, so we booked a plan ticket for Corey to come with me. If you know me at all, you know I'm a bit of a control freak and like to know plans. I had (not-so-subtly) hinted that I was really hoping for a proposal in London. Corey convinced me (which is really difficult) that it wasn't happening there, so I had zero expectations of a proposal in London. He told me it was happening after the trip so we could see our families, so I didn't think anything of it when he was acting weird during the trip. We had booked afternoon tea on an old English bus, so we arrived to our departure point, and Corey was acting really weird, but assured me he was really happy and excited for tea. We hopped on board and starting riding around London, looking at the sights and eating our snacks. All of the sudden Corey took one of my tea cakes and said he was going to eat it. After a bit of protesting, I went back to eating my other cakes and thought nothing of it. A few minutes later, he handed me the cake back with my mom's engagement ring sitting on top. I was totally stunned and even protested a bit that this was not happening here. He assured me that it was and got down on one knee (as well as you can in a bus aisle) and asked me to marry him. I think I said "okay" because I was so shocked! I quickly corrected myself and began crying and hugging him. The staff caught on to what happened and took some pictures and popped champagne. It was the sweetest most surprising moment, and I'm so grateful he was thoughtful in incorporating my mom and her ring into the proposal. We spent the next hour drinking our champagne as I tried to recover from what just happened, and then we headed back to our hotel to call all our family and friends. When we got back from London, Corey gave me the ring he bought for me, and we celebrated with our family. It is my favorite story, and we are PUMPED to be getting married!