A break in the algorithm of good ole' Tinder. No, seriously! When we matched back in August 2021, neither Frank nor I were in each other's allowed radius that you can set. At the time, I lived in the Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago and Frank in Lake Villa. If you aren't familiar with the area, that's about 50 miles away. Yikes! If I'm gonna be honest here, I wasn't in it to win it at first, and told Frank that, while he was wonderful to talk to, it wouldn't work out because he lived too far away and at the time, I didn't have a car to traverse that distance. I assured him we could totally be friends though. Ouch...burn much? Frank, being the convincing handsome gentleman he is though and clearly not deterred by being friend-zoned, won me over pretty quickly by putting his best foot forward. He drove that 100 mile round trip to visit me as often as he could, and even surprised me on a weeknight with dinner on a random Wednesday because he couldn't bare waiting until the weekend. What a guy! How could someone say no to that kind of effort & charm? For me, the answer is that I couldn't! If you're already thinking "what a guy!", wait until you read the proposal story up next! He really went above and beyond. Every time I think of the effort he put in to make it as special as it was, my heart melts.
Surprising someone who is generally oblivious is pretty easy but when it came down to popping the question, I had to try my best to make sure she was clueless. How was I able to keep this a secret? First, I had to setup a reason why we would be going out in the middle of the week in December. A work Christmas party of course! That is what I went with.. a work Christmas party at a restaurant on a Thursday evening... I think this will work. A couple days before the day I "just had to" get my nails done because they were "so bad". Naturally, I did not want to go by myself so dragged Victoria with me. Another thing checked off the list. Prior to the proposal day, the weather was forecasted to be bitter cold with a ton of snow falling over Chicagoland. Victoria already was saying how we should skip the party due to the weather. Skip?! I told her we absolutely couldn't skip a work Christmas party and I had already paid so we had to go! The day came and sure enough it was bitter cold and snowy so getting anywhere was a challenge. I had to call in reinforcements to help. With the help of my family & friends they helped decorate, set up the room, and get the FaceTime video set for those to watch who couldn't be in person. We pulled into the snowy lot and I am waiting to walk into the restaurant, Victoria all of a sudden wants to change her shoes. She was delaying the proposal.. err.. I mean work Christmas party. Finally we made our way inside, she pulled the curtain back and SURPRISE! friends, family, balloons & decorations there to help me ask the question. After the scream Victoria let out, I was able to ask if she'd marry me and I was lucky that she said yes!
You're writing that story with us, and we thank you so much for that! We can't wait to celebrate our commitment to each other with our closest family & friends.