We’re Getting Married!

Despite being 15 minutes away from each other all of college, Alacia and I didn’t have our paths cross yet. That came later, in the late summer of 2017. Alacia was living with two roommates at the time, Diana and Jackie (also two of our bridesmaids). They have been good friends of mine since college, and invited me over to catch up at their place. This is when I met Alacia, their "third roommate" as they introduced her. A couple of weeks later the four of us went to see the movie “It” in theaters and Alacia and I happened to sit next to each other. I thought this was intentionally done by Jackie and Diana so I started to think Alacia was interested in me. A few weeks later I was invited to a Halloween party at their house where Nathaniel (Best Man) came with as I wanted him to meet Alacia. He very much approved of her, and that night Alacia and I exchanged numbers. We talked for a couple weeks and I knew I needed to ask her on a date. I was really excited that she said yes, and we had our first date at Kona Grill for happy hour. I was worried we would run out of things to talk about, but we ended up talking the whole night over sushi and moscow mules and it was the best first date I could have imagined. Before our date, Nathaniel told me to call him immediately afterwards since he was eager to hear how it went. I was at a loss for words to describe how incredible our date was, all I could tell him was that she’s the one. At the time, I meant it as the one that I wanted to have a relationship with. Now looking back, I think a small part of me knew that she was the one I would some day call my wife

It was less than a year after dating Alacia and I decided we were ready, we both knew we had to spend the rest of our lives together. I like to think I knew sooner than Alacia did ;). It was a random September weekend in 2017 that we saw our local Zales was having sale on engagement rings. Luckily for me Alacia knew the type of ring she wanted, so we decided to go look and see what they had in store. We found a ring we both loved, and after much thought decided to get the ring! Now the next step was how and when to propose. Alacia kept asking me when I was going to pop the question, but I kept it a surprise and gave her a window of time. It would happen between November-January, plenty of events where and when I could propose during that time. I planned to propose on our 1 year anniversary, November 2nd, 2018. Truth be told I could not wait to call her fiancée, so the sooner I could get on one knee and ask the better. We planned to go to dinner that night at a local sushi restaurant that is a favorite of mine in Excelsior, MN. I would then ask her to walk to the lake for a late night drink, and along the way there is a beautiful public garden that would be the perfect spot to propose. Nov 2nd was a Friday, Alacia had a pre-planned work happy hour. During that time I met Nathaniel (Best Man) in the excelsior garden where I planned to ask Alacia. He and I talked through the plan of when we would walk through and where he would be hiding to take the photos. Alacia and I met for dinner, during which I was secretly texting Nathaniel confirming when we would leave to walk through the proposal spot. We finished our meal, and began walking towards the lake. We approached the garden and I got down on one knee to her surprise. We don’t remember exactly what I said, but we do remember the most important thing Alacia said as Nathaniel captured the moment perfectly; “YES!”