here we go!

November 7th 2017 was a rainy Tuesday in Raleigh, North Carolina.  To the beautiful Hattie Sage, it was just an ordinary day, nothing special.  Little did she know, her life was about to change...FOREVER!!  Shortly after Sam's best friend Matt arrived at Wine and Beer 101 to grab a midday beer, the thought crossed his mind to invite his buddy, ole pal Sam to join him.  Sam answered the phone with anticipation wondering why Matt was calling.  I mean who was he kidding?  There’s not much to do on a rainy Tuesday when you're in the roofing business.  So, of course Sam sprung at the invitation and drifted the median to set course to Wine and Beer 101.  Little did Sam know, his life was about to change...FOREVER.  It was the first time I had ever gone to this beer shop and I was ready to kick back and have a nice midday beer with my buddy.  I walked in the store, gave Matt a friendly nod hello and BAM!!!! There she was, the girl I was gonna marry... So I sat down and proceeded to order the highest gravity beer I could find to try and ease my nerves.  I don't know how I knew but she was definitely the one!  So I did what any normal person would do. I went to the truck and got my Onewheel. Within an hour her hands were in mine as I taught her some Onewheel basics inside her store.  I’m pretty sure that’s when she fell for me, but just to be safe, I knocked back another brew and pulled out my next move. I convinced her to watch all of the most ridiculous videos I had ever made.  By this time, she was probably secretly wishing I would ask for her number... But! I didn't!!  It wasn't until Matt and I left to get food and returned a few hours later.. as Hattie was walking to her car after closing the stop, I drove my truck up onto the curb and rolled the window down (at that point I was looking super cool) then I asked her, "Hey, wanna come hang out?.. she respectfully declined.  Eventually, I got the courage to ask her again and she said YES!

Sam and I took a trip to Italy with my family back in October, we had a few days in Rome before traveling up through Tuscany. We had talked about our future a little...so I had the idea that he could potentially propose, but I didn't want to get my hopes up! On our first night in Rome, we strolled through the streets and looked at the sights and found ourselves at the top of the Spanish Steps where we had a lovely glass of wine and watched the sunset from a beautiful view overlooking the entire city. On the second night, we had dinner reservations at a little restaurant near our Airbnb and I had wondered if he might propose there... but the restaurant was small and very busy (totally didn't feel like the spot!).  So as dinner came to an end, we decided to head out and explore the Pantheon and Trevi Fountain.   To make a long story short, Sam basically dragged me throughout different parts of Rome to find juuust the perfect spot! He saw that the Trevi Fountain was super crowded and far from the intimate romantic setting that he had envisioned, and while I was beginning to give up hope that he would ask me (on what I thought would be the perfect evening to do it!), he came up with the most wonderful setting I could have ever possibly imagined! He brought us back to the beautiful overlook at the top of the Spanish Steps and gave me a haiku poem he wrote that went like this: Always knew I'd ask Because we are meant to be ____ ___ _____ __? As I got to the very last line, he got down on one knee and finished the haiku with "Will you marry me?" And of course, I said yes!!!!!