We first met at a mutual college friends birthday party and he almost didn't approach me at all. He came to our friends party with his cousin and saw me across the room with a male close friend of mine. He asked his cousin who I was and his cousin responded that's Brandi but don't try she is with Jace, the Male friend who BTW was perfectly happy with his long distance girlfriend at the time and now his wife, so Jesse immediately thought I was unavailable. Despite this we got to know each other and became very good friends. A few years went by and then he started to have a greater attraction to me especially once he found out I wasn't with anyone really. He started to show interest and asked me out a bunch of times but nothing ever happened. He got into other relationships as did I, one of those being my first husband. Jesse was secretly sad when I announced my first engagement but being the good friend he was remained happy for us on the outside. Jesse was at my first wedding supporting myself and my husband to be with his girlfriend at the time. 6 years had gone by and we remained very good friends. Jesse and his girlfriend split and he became single for a while. Then things came apart with my husband and we got a divorce which was a little nasty at first. I started getting interested in another guy and we came to a Halloween party together. A couple days after the party Jesse had started to mention he was still interested in me after many years of friendship and I was about to permanently friend zone him when instead I was permanently friend zoned by th guy I was interested in. It felt awful and that's when I realized what I was doing to Jesse and simply sent him a message saying I'm really sorry and being friend zoned sucks. A couple weeks later I had a really rough day and Jesse came over to see me. He stayed up with me till 3AM that night as I cried, but that night everything changed.

As I cried into Jesse's lap and he comforted me from the rough day he made the decision to tell me something he had been hiding for a very long time. Jesse told me about how he was interested the moment he saw me and knew in the back of his mind I was meant for him. He told me no matter how many different girlfriends he had I was the one girl that he could never shake off. He explained that because he knew that it seemed I'd never be interested in him that he would just always remain in my life watching over me as my friend. Jesse had told me he felt that in all his other relationships something seemed off and he felt it was me the girl that almost got away. Jesse always stuck by me no matter what and was a dear friend too me. He told me that night he hoped maybe now it was the right time to tell me that he loved me from the moment he saw me, but since I seemed happy in my marriage he was ready to give up, until he found out my husband and I were splitting. His hope had slightly returned. From the night forward our relationship had reached a new level. We spent numerous night together just talking, about what we wanted in life, our goals, our dreams and relationship expectations. We went on a couple dates and then on December 10, 2016 we ended up together but only in secret till my divorce was finalized, mainly so his parents and those around us didn't get the wrong idea although some still did. Also on December 10, 2016 we shared our first kiss, one that was a long time coming. We have been together since December 10, 2016 and will be celebrating 3 years in 2019.

My 35th birthday was coming up and I was feeling down because of my age and how I had to almost completely restart my life in 2016. I still hadn't had any kids of my own and that was looming over my head because many friends around me were with kids or had them on the way. For my 35th birthday Jesse had a couple surprises in store. One was a surprise party that I had no clue about and the other well a promise....ring. Jesse took me to the store and pointed to a couple rings with his birthstone which was something I requested for an engagement ring in a previous conversation. He said to me which one do you like more. I started looking at them and then he quietly said to me, this my birthday gift to you, a promise ring, to let you know I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I immediately felt tears of happiness and hugged him. He made me choose a ring and sure enough on my birthday he gave it to me. We talked about how my hope was for a unique ring with both our birthstones in it, and this ring was halfway there. 7 months went by and we were out one day and decided to stop into a local jewelry shop that did customizations. Jesse had asked the jeweler how much it would cost to put my birthstone into the promise ring and after hearing the price he couldn't refuse so we left my ring to be Customized. After about a week he picked it up and placed it on my hand and we called it unofficial on March 25, 2019. Although this was the case Jesse is still a traditionalist and we began planning regardless and picked a date but then he surprised me again on Christmas. He had been insisting all day Christmas Eve to stay awake till after midnight. Around 11:45 he said come on we are going somewhere. So we jumped in the car and took a short drive down to the Gazebo in West Corners all lot up for Christmas. We walked over to the gazebo and he was doing something on his phone. Then I heard a song soon to be very dear to our hearts as our first dance as husband and wife. He took my hands and said so you know its officially Christmas right....then he dropped to one knee and proposed the traditional way. It was a simple but beautiful ring with so much meaning behind it. I truly cannot wait to be your wife Jesse Buchler!