We’re Gonna Get Married!

In September 2013, Eric and Candice first met through a mutual friend at a bar in White Plains, NY. Eric noticed Candice and approached their mutual friend to get more information on her. The friend told a silly little lie to throw Eric's interest elsewhere. And elsewhere it did indeed go. Throughout that night, Candice noticed Eric, approached him and his friends. But Eric had already gone off to be interested in someone else, (she was ugly.) Weeks later, Eric added Candice on Facebook. Meanwhile, their mutual friend confessed to Candice that they had told Eric she was already in a relationship. Candice became upset at this confession, while Eric became equally upset after hearing that their mutual friend had lied, Candice was actually single! Two months went by and their tricky friend decided to make amends with both Candice and Eric, by asking them to come out to the bars on a cold night in November 2013. Candice did not know she would be seeing Eric again that night, but Eric planned to see Candice and finally speak to her. Once Candice walked into the bar, Eric approached her with a wide beautiful smile and squinty cute gray eyes. He was excited to see her again and asked to buy her a beer. They talked all night, hopping from one bar to the next. They settled in a dive-y Irish bar in which they exchanged numbers. Candice was used to giving out fake numbers to people and although she had a brief thought of doing the same to Eric, she felt a feeling of regret if she did. She gave Eric her number, which followed weeks of texting and talking. Love always wins!

Their first date took place the day after Eric showed up to Candice's college Senior Thesis performance. The night before, they had met up at a bar in White Plains again with her friends to celebrate the success of Candice's second senior thesis performance. As the night went on, and Candice and Eric started to retreat away from the crowd to talk to each other more, Candice decided to just "go for it" and ask Eric out on a date (something she never did to anyone she dated--- asking for a date first.) "So, would you like to hang out tomorrow?" A shocked Eric asked, "On a date? Yes, sure of course!" It was the weekend before Thanksgiving, when Eric drove to Candice's college, Manhattanville College, to take her on their first date. After parking the car, and both admitting zero plans or thoughts of what to do for the date, they made their way randomly to a Barnes & Noble. They spent more than an hour walking through the aisles of books and records; talking about music, movies, books and much more. All of what they learned about each other soon landed them to their next destination----to a nearby Sam Ash Music Store, which morphed into a hours-long serenade of Eric wooing Candice with his multi-musical talent on the keyboard, piano, guitar, ukelele even the mandolin! From that moment on, it became a whirlwind of love, strange familiarity, softness and the instant feeling of home between them.

On top of Kruger Rock, one of the many peaks in the Rockies in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, Eric popped the question on the third day of their trip. It was Tuesday, August 23rd, 2020 - when they hiked up their second mountain of the trip. After hiking up the steep trails of mountainous terrain and climbing many intense rock scrambles with their bare hands for 2 straight hours, they finally made it atop Kruger Rock. The rock has breathtaking views, 360 degrees wide and as always, Candice started taking nonstop snaps of the landscape; of every corner of the panorama she could see. Eric, behind her, takes in his views. Candice, standing on the literal edge of a cliff, taking her photos and feeling entirely in bliss, Eric calls for her to take a few steps back so that they can take a picture together. Walking towards him, Eric grabs Candice's waist and tells her to wait a minute. He starts to tell her, "I know I already told you earlier this week that I wasn't going to propose because the ring never came in the mail, but...." That's when Eric dropped to his knee before Candice. Eric took a turquoise blue-colored pouch out of his hiking shorts, and said the precious words, "Will you marry me?" Before Candice could say yes, in shock, Eric took out his phone in selfie mode (which he never takes photos; doesn't even takes selfies) took quick photos of Candice's reaction (that later showed a bit blurry) and stood back up with his knees and body trembling as Candice said yes. They instantly held each other in a shaky, tight, trembly embrace and shared a warm, strong "YES!" kiss. Inside the turquoise blue-colored pouch, was a pair of beautiful, delicate amethyst stone drop earrings, one of Candice's most favorite precious crystals. Eric told her the ring would come in a month from that day. And he told her the truth, that he had planned on proposing to her in Colorado on a mountain like she once dreamed, all along! The entire time!

Because Candice's engagement ring had yet to be delivered due to COVID-19 shipping delays of that time, Eric still planned to do another proposal. Candice knew of this but never knew when it would happen. This second one, was a much bigger surprise than the first. About a week and a half later after Eric and Candice came back from their CO trip, Eric received a box with the ring inside. It was the Friday entering Labor Day weekend, which they both made plans to go up to Candice's parents' house in Connecticut. They were going there to visit her family and other family that was coming from Ohio, including her precious granny, Margarita. About 3 days after Candice and Eric had come back from their trip, and a week after they shared their engagement news with their families, Candice got bad news that her grandmother had been diagnosed with Stage 4 Oral Cancer the week before. No one wanted to tell Candice sooner because of the great engagement news. Because of this abrupt turn of events, her Granny was coming to visit for Labor Day. That Saturday morning, Candice had joked with Eric on the drive up, saying how beautiful it would be if the ring had come in time for her grandmother to see it. Eric laughed but didn't say much. When they arrived at her parents' house- no one was around. Her mom was grocery shopping, her family from Ohio hadn't arrived yet, her sister was still in traffic, brother in the shower and her dad was vacuuming. As they put their belongings in the kitchen area, Eric dropped to his knee AGAIN, and told Candice to turn around. When she did, she saw a black "Catbird NYC" ring box with the sparkling champagne diamond, rose gold banded ring. It was a complete shock as she had expected the ring to come much later. IT WAS ANOTHER TRICK of Eric's to throw Candice off! Candice cried sobs this time, because she was excited that her Ma would be able to actually see the engagement ring in person.