Love, Laughter, Happily-Ever After

When people ask us how we met, Sean and I can't help but share a knowing look and chuckle quietly. The story of how Sean and I met fits the classic saying of "When it's meant to be, it will happen." The truly official way Sean and I met was through the Bumble App. I remember super liking his profile when I came across it because we had so much in common. The next day, I received a notification of a match from Bumble. When I went on the App, I had been unable to contain my excitement, I had matched with that super cute guy I "super-liked" on bumble. I actually danced and jumped around when I saw it. Some would say the rest is history but there is more to the story. Now the above may sound like any other online dating story now-a-days but you may be wondering how "when it's meant to be, it will be '' comes into our story. A few months into dating Sean and I were discussing an incident I had with some Track Officials the previous spring. As I am half-way through the story, Sean cuts me off and says, "Were you wearing a bright pink jacket?" I had been. Sean had been not 15 feet away from me and watched the entire scene unfold as he was a coach as well. Come Spring, Sean volunteered as a coach with the High School team which I work with. When I introduced him to the head coach, she shook his hand and said, “You look familiar. Have we met before?” Then it occurs to Erika where she knows him from and begins laughing. She looks at the two of us and goes “Kayla, this is the guy you said was cute at the Rowan meet but would disappear when nearby!” It suddenly dawns on Sean and Sean remembers talking to her at that meet and wondering why she was doing so. Even if I had had the courage to introduce myself to Sean, it wasn’t meant to be at that time as he had a girlfriend. While many people say “I wish I could have met you earlier so I could have loved you longer”, as you have read the universe and fate had a funny sense of humor and a different plan for Sean and I.

Anyone who knows my Fiance and I know that of the two of us, Sean is the openly romantic one who feels comfortable sharing his emotions. I, on the other hand, am a closet romantic that secretly loves romance novels, rom-coms, and fairy-tales. Every year Sean and I have an annual Halloween party as it is my favorite holiday. Up until this year I have always chosen our costumes but decided to let him choose this year. It may be corny but our thing is “Beauty and the Beast”, so Sean chose this as our costumes and I had thought nothing of it. The day of the party I am running around prepping food, decorating, and setting up so I figured there would be no way Sean would attempt to propose at the party. I was wrong and so happy I was. As the party is kicking off, I ask Sean if he would like to take a picture so that we don’t forget. He says no, maybe later and I am stunned he said no because I HATE taking pictures and he loves to. I proceed to go up to my friends and family and tell them how he told me no and he is acting strange. At this point a few of my closer friends ask me to go inside to take a shot and that we don’t have to invite Sean. I was all about it and we headed inside. You can probably already guess where this is going. After about 10 minutes, we walk back out and I notice all the lights in the backyard are off. As I round the corner, Sean and my song “In Case You Didn’t Know” by Brett Young begins to play. That's when I see a path of tea lights with my friends and family along the sides of the aisle and Sean standing at the end under a lit arch. I never thought I would be a crier but the happy tears began immediately. As I approached the end of the aisle Sean removed his Beast mask, transforming into my prince. He got down on one knee with a gold rose in his hands. When he opened the rose, inside was the most perfect ring and I could only nod yes through my happy tears.