Marriage

Erika: I am a licensed mental health counselor working with a wide range of diagnoses, backgrounds, and a whole bunch of awesome people. I am constantly fighting for the destigmatization of mental health disorders and for better access to mental health services. There is nothing wrong with feeling or having gone through situations that cause distress mentally and/or physically. I love mental health. I also love to create art, bake, cook, garden, and enjoy fashion and interior design as ways to take care of myself and have a creative outlet. I also really love puppies and would like 10. Our dream is to have a farm, the whole shebang, with so many dogs. I am also looking to continue my education and get my Ph.D. in clinical psychology. I want to be able to teach and work with developmental disabilities, families, and care takers. And I want this big daunting exciting future with Brad by my side, as my trophy husband. Bradley: I am currently a Golf Professional and serving as the Junior Golf Director/Player Development Coordinator for the Northern Ohio PGA. Golf has been a huge part of my life as I spent every summer since I was twelve on the golf course. Aside from Golf, I have other hobbies like playing trumpet, drums, vintage record collecting, and video games. We wouldn't be where we are today if I choose to play percussion or saxophone instead of Trumpet in 5th grade when concert band began. Who would've thought a single choice made by a 9 year old me would lead to me meeting the love of my life 13 years later.

Erika and Brad met during band camp at Walsh University in 2014 and had multiple classes together. They started as acquaintances which very slowly formed into a friendship. Erika had no idea but Bradley thought Erika was the hottest piece of ass to walk across campus. Erika thought Brad was alright. They would walk out of classes together and talk about music or joke around. They also took Listening and Interviewing (I know what a class) together and were partnered in a group of 6 others, where they just bitched to each other the entire class. And then they would listen and interview via questions. Wow. This is how they started to get to know each other better. One day during ACES (a research presentation thingy) that same semester, Erika went over to look at Brad's poster. Bradley tried to go in for a hug but Erika had no idea what was going on because why would he hug her they have never once hugged yet BRAD, and instead gave him a high five, BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT I THOUGHT WAS GOING ON BRAD. This is still a sore subject for the couple. The following semester, Erika asked Brad to sit next to her in class a lot. Erika then graduated and never looked back. That is until Bradley friended her on, like, all social media. When Bradley graduated in 2018, Erika congratulated him and Brad asked her to go see a band with him. They began talking and talking and Erika started to realize that this guy may be pretty cool. Especially after she clarified that this would be a date (this makes sense after that whole hug high five thing, huh?). They both got excited and decided to push up the date even sooner and saw the Avengers (2nd to last one). A week later they began dating and professed their love. Now they share a home, a good baby boy named Falkor, and so much love. And this whole marriage thing. THE END.

Avengers, gummy ring, real ring I had a general idea that Brad was going to propose soon because I made him tell me. I wanted to make sure my nails looked pretty so I didn't have man hands in pictures. I also picked out my engagement ring. I KNOW I'm the worst but also I know what I want and it took so much pressure off of him. So he had really wanted to see the last Avengers movie (I could care less) so we planned on getting dinner and a movie for our date night. I had joked that it was like we were recreating our first date and Brad did a weird giggle and that's when I knew. So I thought, "I should have some fun with this". All through out dinner I would make jokes about how it was getting expensive having nice nails and that he better propose soon. Then I kept putting gummy life savers on my ring finger in the theatre before the movie and holding it up saying how good it looked to have a ring there. He was sweating. It was great. I figured he would pop the question after the movie but he didn't so I just kept at my fun. In the drive way I asked HIM to marry me with one of the stupid gummy rings and the boy was DRENCHED. As I got out of the car and walked around there he was on his knees. So I got on my knees and immediately said yes.... and then yelled at him for taking off his gummy ring. He cried, I cried, we all cried. He cried more than me though. And that's it. That's the story of how I made Brad incredibly uncomfortable for hours before he proposed to me. To marriage!

I had a few ideas of how I was going to do it, but knowing what Erika would have wanted led to me deciding to recreate our first date. I tried to do it subtly so she wouldn't notice but with us watching Avengers just like our first date, I should've known she would catch on. With her openly calling out my engagement idea as soon as we left the house, I had to be on top of it to find the right time. To make it even more stressful, she maliciously decided to keep asking me to marry her in super goofy ways (mostly lifesaver gummies and just straight up saying 'Marry Me') and seemed to always do it when I considered asking. She totally killed the vibe. We had dinner and then saw Avengers: End Game and had a really great night. We got in the car to head home and little did she know, I had the engagement ring in my hand the whole car ride. I was so nervous that if I didn't have the ring ready to go in my hand before she got out of the car, I would have bungled the whole proposal because I was an absolute nervous wreck (even though it was obvious she was going to say yes, like come on Brad, she did her nails for weeks because she knew it was coming). I knew she was on to me so I waited to do it when she got out and walked around the car, mostly because it would be the only way to catch her off guard! Before we got out of the car, she jokingly put the fake lifesaver gummy on my finger again and asked me to marry her. I truly believed I caught her off guard when she walked around the car and I was on one knee. I think the only thing I was able to get out before she yelled "yes!" was "I couldn't wait any longer, will you-". I don't care what she says, she sobbed.