Denise's perspective: We first locked eyes when Cory came to interview at my work. My manager at the time had to leave the building so he asked me to fill in on interviewing this candidate - FOR MY JOB - What the heck?!? (Don't worry - I was just moving to another department). At the last minute, my coworker Dave tagged me out of the interview and said he would take care of it. That was a bit of a relief since I hadn't done too many interviews at that point but I still wanted to scope things out so I made my way to the front office to talk "official business" with my friend. This guy that walked in was just jaw-droppingly handsome and I was slightly disappointed that I didn't get a chance to sit in on the interview. I hung around the office for a little longer talking to the receptionist until finally making my way back upstairs. I didn't think much more of it until the day he started. The first time we really talked was when he stepped in some wet paint on his first day HAHA It took him a while but eventually he asked me on a date <3 Cory's perspective: I had a fairly normal interview with Dave and afterwards he took me around the front office to show me some of their products. We wandered from table to table looking at different parts while Dave explained some of the details to me. After a few moments I saw this gorgeous blonde girl standing with a few other people about 15 feet away from me. I was really trying to stay focused so I would get a second interview, but this was a challenge. I even thought for a moment that they intentionally put her in that room to test me. If that were the case, I would have failed. I walked into my first day about 2 weeks later, thinking I wouldn't really see this girl anyway, she was probably just visiting or something. Then I was shown my desk and there she was, her desk only 20 feet from mine. She barely spoke to me at first, but eventually warmed up to me. I asked her out, and to my surprise she said yes.

The day started with one of my other favorite questions: Cory: "Do you want to go to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History today?" Denise: "YEP!" When we arrived, Cory said he wanted to watch the Neil deGrasse Tyson show in the planetarium called Dark Universe. We grabbed tickets and wandered to one of the exhibits until show time. Time was getting a little short so I started trying to drag Cory to the planetarium and I was thinking to myself "we're not going to make it! why is he walking so slow?" We got to the front and were almost there when the girl at the front desk called us over and said there was an issue with our tickets. I really started stressing at this point but the girl at the desk was so nice we got into a conversation about what she was studying in school for a couple minutes. She handed us our tickets back and said we were good to go. We ran in just as the planetarium doors were closing. It was already dark inside so we ducked down into a couple of empty seats in the front row. At the end, the guy running the show asked if there were any questions from the audience. To my surprise, Cory stood up and walked away! I sort of panicked for a quick minute until Cory found his way back. I was thinking "what the heck was that?" I thought he was too shy or something to ask his question out loud HAHA! The guy then said into the microphone "Someone wanted to know if one of Jupiter's moons really looks like the Death Star?" Of course he would ask that - Cory loves Star Wars <3 What I later learned is THIS was the code they had worked out in advance for what comes next...

The announcer (I'm sure he has a better title than that) shows the audience Jupiter's moon that looks like the Death Star then turned the lights back on and said if there are anymore questions to feel free to hang out a little longer. Cory wanted to stay and when I looked around the room, everyone else had left so it seemed we had the room to ourselves. I laughed a little and after everyone else filed out, the lights went back down. The night sky shows back up and some music starts playing... I looked at Cory a bit confused. Was this the after-party where the guy turns on his music and cleans up?? Then I think my heart stopped for just a second when a picture of me as a baby flashed across the screen and I realized the song that was playing. Thomas Rhett - Die a Happy Man played in the background as pictures of Cory and I as babies, kids, teenagers, and then pictures of our time together were shown on the screen. At the very end, the words "Will you marry me?" were spelled out in the stars. Then Cory was on one knee in front of me and I think I was still in shock because I didn't say anything for a few seconds (Picture the movie poster for Home Alone) HAHA - sorry Cory!! He finally said "So, is that a yes??" aaaaand I think it goes without saying that I did, in fact, say yes :) Then I hear a bunch of people clapping! If you remember from before, to my knowledge, after scoping the place out, everyone had left the room. I distinctly remember looking all around me so why and how were there people in the room clapping? I turned around and the pieces all fell into place - Cory dragging his feet, the front desk delaying us, ducking quickly into two conveniently located empty seats in the front row... We were surrounded by most of our close family who did an incredible job of hiding out the entire time and ducking under the theater seats when the lights turned on! Every time I hear that song and think of that day, I couldn't imagine it being any more perfect.