OMG, we're getting married!

In an very roundabout way, Mike and Heather met in Gainesville. She had been gone from the city for nearly 10 years and he had just finished his Doctorate. Somehow, they found each other one night at a bar. Like any good Rom-Com, our story involves a meet cute, a bit of luck, and a convoluted story line that could have been solved in Act 1 but is drawn out due to unforeseen circumstances...

We both attended the University of Florida, but since Heather graduated before I started there in 2010, she was living in Jacksonville blissfully unaware of the stud about to sweep her off her feet in only a few years’ time. Smash cut to October 7, 2017: a young and handsome Ph.D. working in Gville, and a (nearly as) young but arguably much more handsome media professional working in Jax Beach. I have been playing rec. kickball with our mutual friend Dave for some time and someone has yet to visit him for any of our countless parties, bar crawls, or tailgates (…rude), but fate decided it was finally time. Heather visits for one of our (in)famous Gator football tailgates, I arrive a little later than usual but no biggie, the party’s in full swing. I’m playing games, drinking brews, and here comes fate to say… “Eh, no, not yet.” Heather, I would find out later, was napping in Dave’s car by afternoon. Cue the montage of drinks, friends, and good times with me oblivious to the gorgeous, foul-mouthed beauty only a car door away. As is custom, we end the night at Loosey’s downtown, when Dave walks in with this stunning girl (who resembles a young Maggie Gyllenhaal in a flowing dress). Did the music suddenly shift, wind blowing her hair, as she casually looks toward the bar not even noticing me? I don’t know, I’m drunk, but I make my move as the night winds down. Now would be the time we exchange numbers and have some will they/won’t they, before ultimately getting together. But, since we’re clearly in a 90s movie, we forget we have cell phones. Enter Lady Luck, one of us added the other on Facebook (on our phones at the bar…). Next morning, after the quick panic of not finding her number, I stumble upon my new Fbook friend and send a message… only to find out she lives 2 hrs away. A few coincidental (and some non-coincidental) visits to Jax later, and we decide to give the distance dating thing a shot.

There's no better way to get away than with a trip to your alma mater. A couple of my college besties live in Gainesville, and the Gators were playing LSU for homecoming that weekend. Needless to say, epic tailgates were planned, and it was a quick trip to get my fix of "The Swamp." At the time I had no idea Mike existed, and even joked with Mom over the phone "it's not like I'm going to meet anyone"--so that's funny. But all of my friends were there. This was a big party--and I arrived early. Naturally, by game time, I needed a nap, and snuck off to sleep in in a friend's car. So we were both there--but this was not where Mike and I would meet. The Gators lost the game by one point! Everyone went to Loosey's to commiserate. Awaiting a theatric performance of Spice Girls from an all-male group is when I met Mike. We were both grabbing drinks at the bar and conversation struck up. And never stopped. I’m sure you know we are talkers, so you can imagine how it went. We talked and drank the night away. I had to remind him the next day that I don’t live there, and in fact was heading back to Jax. We kept in touch and only a short time after, Mike was heading to the Jacksonville Airport for a trip out-of-state. He stopped to see me when he returned. Since then, he’s made every effort and shown me love through distance and tough times (and the trivial trials my girlfriends and I put him through…) and you can’t just let someone like that go.

This is the cute story of our engagement... there's even video!

It’s the morning of July 6th, I’ve spent a few days in Jax Beach with Heather but now I need to get her to Gville for the proposal. Friends and I have been feeding bits of misinformation for weeks, so she thinks we’re visiting for a party and only going early to check out “new renovations” in the football stadium. While friends and family secretly gather inside, Dave and Meg meet us at the bar to take us over. On our way, Kevin tests playback, finding the video plays fine but we have no audio. He’s scrambling to text me, I’m texting our accomplice who works at the stadium, and the four of us are out front. I start making up excuses as we circle the stadium, when suddenly, a familiar song blares out for a good 5 seconds that feels like minutes. Heather looks at me and jokes, “What, are you bluetoothed into the stadium speakers?”. “Obviously,” I joke as I mildly panic... Convinced it’s a coincidence, we head into the stadium and down to the field. Everyone’s hiding a little too well, but I can’t stop to search for them because it’s time to start. I’ve accidentally given Kevin the cue to start the video from up in his booth (I knew I should’ve made it something more purposeful than me pointing at the screen…). But Heather is thankfully looking right at the giant screen above when our massive cutout heads appear and an all too familiar song starts up (again). Three minutes later and me confusedly looking around for the others, Heather tearfully says, “Yes,” and I have no idea where to point her as the best surprise is yet to come. I turn her around hoping for the best, and say the only thing that pops into my head, “But wait, there’s more!” (thanks Billy Mays). At that exact moment, everyone happened to jump out in surprise, as her parents and a bunch of our friends from Gville and Jax all yell their congratulations to us. Thanks again to everyone who could make it to share in a day that we’ll both definitely remember for the rest of our lives!

Gainesville, FL is a special place for us. We are both Gator Grads, and it's the city where we met (and met many of you!). We decided to visit one weekend to see friends and check out the stadium, a favorite place in town. It was a really hot day. I was wearing a cute new outfit and Mike had on a silly tuxedo shirt. He was carrying his laptop with him everywhere since I had mentioned maybe covering it up for safety. He was going to leave it in the car while we met our friends, and then I couldn't get him to leave it anywhere. He was looking kind of dorky, but I figured...whatever. After our friends arrived, we set over to the stadium. We couldn't get in right away? Our friend use to be a lead mascot and I photographed my share of Gator sports. Still, we walked around for a bit. A snippet of music played--it was one of our favorite songs! I joked with Mike that he was controlling the music, and somehow thought this one-off song may have gotten semi-popular and was on a test track or something. We got into the stadium and went to the field to take pictures. I was looking for whatever it was that was new. Nothing looked different. Then music started playing--that favorite song again. Then, a personalized music video began playing on the jumbotrons! It was sweet and it was perfect. Of course, I said yes! Mike followed up my tears and kisses with "there's more" and spun me around to see some of our close friends and my parents in the stands. I melted. It had been some time since I had seen many of them, and what better occasion? There are a lot of photos and videos from the day. It was the best 😊 Check out Mike's video here: https://youtu.be/yJK0X023FL4