We're getting married!

The best love story of all, they both swiped right... On November 1st, 2021, Ashley and Evan matched on the lucrative love platform, Tinder. After getting to know each other for about a month or so (besides being acquaintances from the same high school), they had their first date at Applebee's to devour some sweet asian chili boneless wings and watch football. If you know either of them, those are two of their favorite things. On top of matching on Tinder, they found out that many of their interests and family values aligned as well. That is how their love story blossomed, and the rest is history.

As told through Evan's perspective... After some presumed speculation about a proposal during our 2023 summer vacation in Rome & Prague, I decided against doing what was expected, as usual. Instead, Ashley and I talked about going away for a trip to celebrate our birthdays (August 10th & August 11th - a weird coincidence, we know). I figured that trip may be a decent chance to surprise her with a proposal, especially with the trip originally being planned to Niagara Falls. After spending plenty of hours planning a potential proposal in Niagara Falls, the trip destination ultimately changed to Maine, where we would spend half of the journey in Ogunquit, and the other half in Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. After some mishaps, I had to operate under the assumption that Ashley knew about my intentions on the upcoming trip. So, in an attempt to throw her off, I took her on a surprise dinner in which we both dressed up. However, I did not think that the distraction had worked, so I had to improvise and get creative. After much thought, I decided that I would propose to her on the first day of our Maine trip - the travel day. Even if she expected it on the trip, surely she would not anticipate it occurring on the same day we spend 5.5 hours in the car on our way to Ogunquit Beach. Hey, I mean that sounded like a great idea to me. I did a decent amount of research to find out how I should go about asking the question, with not much of a back-up plan in case of poor weather. Sure enough, with my luck, the weather was dark and rainy the entire drive up. Finally, we arrived at Ogunquit Beach and stopped to have lunch at a beachfront bar & grill. While frequently checking the weather during bathroom breaks, the rain eventually (and fortunately) stopped. Now this is where the story gets good. Once lunch was finished, we went for a walk on the beach (part of the plan); however, to my detriment, Ashley had her mind on walking forever, rather than stopping and enjoying the view. On top of that, since the rain stopped, plenty of people started coming to the beach (which I did not want). Thankfully, I knew there was another beach (Footbridge Beach) a couple of miles north that is usually less crowded. After arriving at Footbridge Beach, Ashley still had her mind on power walking. Attempts to have a heartfelt moment were non-existent - believe me, I tried. So in order to get her to stop and smell the roses, in true Evan fashion, I had to fake an ankle injury and ask for her to look at it to see if it was swollen. FINALLY, it worked - she stopped walking! It was time to launch my knee into the sand and ask her to be mine forever. I believe the surprise worked, as she initially said "no" in an overwhelmed and shocked state of mind. However, she immediately retracted her denial and made me the happiest man alive when I looked into her tear-filled eyes as she said "YES"!