The countdown to forever is on!

When people say "when the time is right" takes a new meaning in our love story. We both worked at the School of Dental Medicine for many years, but never crossed paths. It wasn't until we had mutual friends that we begin to see each other more and eventually start our very first conversations, which happens to be over Game of Thrones. Yes, we started talking to each other over Game of Thrones (pre season 8....lol). We found ourselves wishing the other would come by just so we could talk. Gerard actually found excuses to come to the area I was working (lol), but I didn't know that at the time. Then I started really liking him, so my friends at work plotted to find ways for us to get together. We decided to do a lunch with a group of people, we all knew I liked Gerard, except Gerard, clueless!!!! Next, the mutual friends said we should do a double date, to be on a more personal level, so we could get to know each other better. Gerard still had no clue. I finally got the courage to ask him to go to dinner with me at Chipotle (our mutual favorite place to eat) one evening and that's all she wrote, our love story blossomed into the beautiful flower that it is now. ~Amanda (The bride to be)

It was exactly one month from our first date on August 5th that I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that Amanda was the one! From that moment, I knew the exact words I would use to ask for her hand in marriage. I wrote them down and promised to keep them with me and read the words each and every day till the day I proposed. What I felt for Amanda was truly special and I wanted to come up with a way to show her just how special she was to me. So began the planning! I used every single date and special occasion to figure out details about how I would ask her. One of the most memorable occasions was testing just how well she could play along with a surprise! I asked her to take off a certain day of work with no questions asked. That day, we got in the car and drove for about an hour and when we got near our destination, I asked her to put on a blindfold. She kept the blindfold on the entire time and when we arrived at our destination, I parked the car and walked her to the location blindfolded which was about a mile walk (that was serious dedication on her part). It was a surprise trip to the State Fair in Raleigh, NC in which we had a really great time (little did she know, it was all part of a bigger plan). Another important moment occurred while we were Black Friday shopping. She saw a purse she really wanted, so I asked her, “Do you want me to get this for you as an early Christmas present or would you like to pick a mystery box gift?”. Luckily she picked “Mystery Box”! For Christmas, I bought a wooden treasure chest for our “Treasured Memories” (we like to keep little memorabilia of every fun occasion). When she opened the chest, she saw a toy airplane at the bottom. She looked at me with a bit of a puzzled stare and I said to her with a smile, “You picked Mystery Box so we have a mystery trip by plane for 6 days were the temperature will be from 35 to 50 degrees so pack appropriately”. ~Gerard (The groom to be)

Our trip started with a 6:00am flight in which she agreed to put headphone on to watch movies on the phone so she would not know where our destination was till we arrived. As the plane landed, she saw the big sign at the airport that said welcome to New York. For the first day, I had picked some random sights to visit so she would not suspect that the trip was overly planned. The next day on New Year’s eve, I told her to get ready by 8:00pm so we can make our way to the place where we would celebrate New Year’s. As we arrived to the location, we turned the corner around a dark building where she saw the yacht we were going to board. The boat cruised through the Hudson River running parallel to the city which gave us a beautiful view of the buildings and all its lights. As the night went on, we enjoyed some good food, music and danced the night away on the private deck of the boat. As midnight approached, I had Amanda and I make our way down to the main dance floor. While we walked there I began to tell her the words that I wrote months earlier and she could hear our song coming on. She thought we were going to the dance floor to slow dance to our song but when we arrived she turned and saw me go down on one knee. During a very specific part in our song, I asked Amanda to Marry Me! Even though the boat was full of people, at that moment it felt like it was just us! Her response was YES! After she caught her breath, we made our way to the top deck of the yacht where we watched the New Year’s fireworks right over the statue of Liberty as we entered 2020 engaged! ~Gerard (The groom to be)