We can't wait to celebrate with you!

We were on vacation in Italy with my cousin (and best friend) Bella and her boyfriend Robbie. The night before our drive from Florence to Sorrento, Bella suggested we stop in a charming little Tuscan hill town called Orvieto. She told me she wanted us to do a photoshoot with her camera and encouraged me to do my hair, makeup, and wear a pretty dress. I didn’t think much of it and happily agreed. When we arrived, we spent the afternoon wandering the cobblestone streets of the 300-year-old town, taking photos, and soaking in the beauty all around us. Eventually, we made our way to the town square where the stunning cathedral stood. That’s when Dele sat me down on the steps and said he wanted to “talk.” Okay, that’s weird, I thought — but I went along with it. He pulled out a letter I had written him a month earlier. “You brought that all the way to Italy?” I asked, completely confused. He told me how much that letter meant to him, then said he had written me one in return. From his pocket, he pulled out a card — inside was a list of reasons why he wanted to marry me. Then, Dele stood up and said, “I’ve been thinking… I’m tired of calling you the Future Mrs. Akomolafe.” He got down on one knee, pulled out the most beautiful ring, and asked me to marry him. I immediately burst into tears (the happy, hysterical kind!), said yes, and Bella and Robbie captured the entire moment on camera. It was truly the most magical day — and the perfect start to our forever.

For me, this story begins before the vacation. This story begins the moment I first laid eyes on Gabriella at my house on the corner of 41st and Bluestone back in 2017. To this day I must thank Nicole for taking her by our place on the way to whatever it is they were doing, because unbeknownst to me at the time, she had just introduced me to my wife. Now fast forward to 2024 when the woman that would make me feel like the luckiest man in the world decided to take a trip to Japan. That just so happened to be a place I was planning to travel to the following year. Or at least I was, until a gem was dropped on my doorstep and all my plans got derailed. What started as innocent conversation and genuine curiosity, quickly developed into something more. Something more real, something more tangible, something that I wanted to nurture, something that I wanted to grow, something that I wanted to protect, something that made me feel safe, something that kept me warm in the cold, something that made me feel whole. So, on May 1st, when I got the call from King’s Jeweler in Old Town and picked up the most beautiful ring I had ever seen (courtesy of Krissy and Will) a mere month away from our first trip to Italy, I knew that if kismet truly exists than this was it. I reached out to Bella immediately because I knew for this to work, I would need her assistance, and when she told me she was in, the moment she became real. I am not going to re-hash how it happened because you have just had the opportunity to read that, but lately I have gotten this question a lot: how did you feel leading up to it? The answer? …The same way I feel now: Truly, Madly, Deeply, In Love.