I took a chance at online dating using Coffee Meets Bagel. I was frustrated with it and actually decided to delete it. Right before I was going to delete it, Tim messaged me: "Hey Stephanie! How is your week going?" My response was, "Hey! It's going well, how are you?." I saw he was from Boston, and the Eagles vs. Patriots Super Bowl was coming up. In typical Philly fashion, I asked, "so what are your thoughts on the Eagles being in the Super Bowl?" followed by a "guess we can't talk anymore" when he admitted to being a Patriots fan. Good thing we actually did keep talking (and that the Eagles won #gobirds). ⁣⁣ We met on a cold winter day in Silver Spring, MD. I had my Eagles gloves on, of course, but tried to hide them. After a nervous and quiet Uber ride into Washington DC, we made it to a bar. The bar was so crowded, we decided to wander up the street (still nervous and quiet) to find another bar - The Drafting Table. We sat at the bar chatting, and I knew Tim seemed so genuine. On our third date at Denizens in Silver Spring, I got up to use the restroom and saw a quote from Frank Sinatra. For some reason, that quote made me realize I really liked this guy. I began always thinking about him and always wanting to spend time with him. That feeling has never changed!

“Online dating” was nothing more than a cure for boredom for me. Swiping through dozens of faces and bios, making immediate judgments on complete strangers, and moving on to the next. Occasionally it would lead to some good conversation, maybe some drinks, but nothing ever felt real, until I stumbled upon Stephanie Feinberg. Stephanie’s profile showed a real person, with a kind soul and a beautiful smile. She was genuinely happy, she lives to help other people and she loves sunflowers! Not the typical person you come across on these dating apps. We started talking, and her kindness and genuineness shown through just like the sunshine in her pictures. Come to find out, my upcoming move to Silver Spring would bring me a mere half-mile away from my future wife. We arranged to meet a few days after I completed my move, and I couldn’t wait! We met on a freezing cold night in February, ironically outside of a coffee shop and a bagel shop in Silver Spring. On that day, I was nervous, awkward, scrambling and shivering. I brought us to a bar in DC that was way too crowded, and I had no backup plan when we were forced to leave. After a long, icy, aimless walk through Logan Circle, we finally found a nice, quiet bar to sit down at and have a conversation. I continued to be nervous and awkward, but Stephanie was so easy to talk to! At the end of that night, I knew that I had just met someone very special. Someone who had the potential to make a big impact on my life. 624 days later, I asked Stephanie to marry me, and I’m so incredibly lucky that she said yes.

There's two special moments that come to mind: I explained to Tim that I had a rare disease, my body produces too much spinal fluid that makes my brain think there is a brain tumor even though there is no tumor present. I had a spinal tap at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. I told Tim he did not have to come, I understood it was a lot for him to process. Tim said, "I like everything about you. That's part of you". The day before the spinal tap, he actually snuck over to my apartment and left a card on my car. He came to Hopkins, helped me in the car, and said bye peacefully as I drove home with my parents. That was the moment. When we moved in together, I had the brilliant idea to dye my hair red in our beautiful sparkling white bathroom. The white bathroom turned pink, along with my hands, and everything in sight. I was mortified and so embarrassed. I was preparing myself for him to get upset, but he simply smiled and gave me a kiss.

There are so many moments that I could write about here. Stephanie is an amazing woman, and it was easy to tell from day one that she was someone extremely special. The first time I really began to think of Stephanie as “the one” was April 21, 2018, the morning of the Kiwanis Pancake Breakfast in Mt. Airy. At the breakfast, I met all of Steph’s friends and mentors from Kiwanis club, and heard stories of the unbelievable things Steph accomplished growing up in this organization, all of them with the goal of helping others at the front of her mind. Each one of them told me how special a woman Stephanie was, and they were right. After that, Steph brought me on a tour of her old home town. Her former middle school (which is just a field now), her favorite ice cream shop (a critical thing to know when you’re with Steph), and her childhood home. She was so happy to show me everything, and I was so happy to learn more and more about the woman I love. We ended up at Black Ankle Winery, where we spent the rest of the day sitting outside, enjoying a bottle of wine, and basking in the stories and sunshine we were sharing together. I was so happy, to be spending the day with someone I could marry someday! Then came Steph’s 24th birthday. We decided to spend the weekend in Charleston, South Carolina, one of my favorite places in the world, We explored the city, visited the markets and ate a delicious dinner at Fleet’s Landing. Everything was perfect, we had so much fun, and neither of us wanted the weekend to end. One night, I gave Steph her present, a necklace with a sunshine pendant on it, and she broke down crying. She was so happy, and I was so happy that I could make someone so happy! Charleston has become a very special place for us, and on this first trip there, I hoped to someday bring Stehpanie back there to ask her a very important question…

I knew is that we both wanted our parents to be at our engagement, and I wanted Pete. For months, we had a trip planned to go to South Carolina with my parents to visit his parents. I had a feeling it would happen then. We drove down to South Carolina, and spontaneously stayed in a sketchy hotel in Myrtle Beach to be able to pick my parents up early the next day. I rushed to get ready so we could just leave the hotel. In my head, I told myself there's no way the proposal could happen that day. My parents were just getting in and I had a terrible time getting ready. After we picked my parents up from the airport, we went to Charleston. Tim changed into nicer clothes. He said I should change, but I was comfortable (and stubborn). Eventually, I decided I should probably change because it was the first time our parents could spend a lot of time together. We went to lunch and then to the Charleston waterfront. I even got to bring Pete! When we got to the waterfront, Tim's mom was nowhere in sight; I assumed she was finding parking. We waited by the water, my dad was intently staring at a bird, and no one seemed interested in walking around. Eventually, I asked Tim if we could walk around. We walked to the pineapple fountain, where someone was getting their photo taken by a professional photographer. Tim walked right in front of them and I was a little embarrassed. I turned around to talk to my mom, turned back around to talk to Tim, and he was holding sunflowers! He started saying a speech, I was overwhelmed with emotions and totally blacked out on anything going on. When he got down on one knee, he showed me a ring box with a little sunflower on it - how cute! He finally said, "Steph, you didn't say yes." - I was too overwhelmed! After the 'yes' we turned to hug our parents, and that photographer was actually there for us! We had a beautiful photography session with our parents, Pete, and then just us. It was perfect, every detail was thought of.

My side of the engagement story starts on October 17, 2019. That is the day I realized that all of my plans were getting washed away by a Tropical Storm named Nestor. You see, October 19 was supposed to be the big day! We were supposed to meet at a vineyard with our parents, get engaged among the grape vines, take pictures by the beautiful oak trees, and celebrate with wine and moonshine. But Nestor had to go and ruin it all! October 17, I was on the phone crying with my mother, because the picture perfect engagement I had been planning for months was ruined and I’d have to settle for a sub-par engagement thrown together at the last second. Luckily, that last-second engagement turned out to be perfect! The photographer agreed to meet us a day early on October 18 in Charleston, at Waterfront Park, by the Pineapple Fountain. All of our parents were there, and even our dog Pete got to be a part of the show as well! Steph was totally caught off guard, thinking that the engagement would be later in the weekend. As I began to recite the speech I prepared, Steph lost it! I couldn’t even get through 20% of my speech before I lost it too. I just had to drop down on a knee and ask the woman I love to marry me, it couldn’t wait another second. She said yes! Eventually. In her excitement, she forgot to actually say the word yes, until I reminded her a few moments later. Then we took some beautiful pictures around the park and celebrated the occasion with our family the rest of the weekend! Everyone agreed, the Last-Second engagement was much better than the planned out one would’ve been. Thanks Nestor!