We're getting married!

"a guy walks into a bar.." It all started when Kevin walked in when I was bartending downtown Harrisburg. He came in with a few of his friends, and immediately I noticed him. After a few drink orders with mixed signals, I remember turning to Jesse, the bartender I was working with, and laughingly asked “Do you think he’s gay?”. We spent the rest of the time each talking to Kevin to see who he seemed more interested in. After the rounds, Kev gets up and leaves, Jesse turns to me and says, “oh yeah, absolutely ”.Later that night I look up to see Kevin, alone, walking through the bar again and sits at the end of my bar. After we began talking, it was clear God intended for us to meet that night. It was my last night bartending and Kevin’s first time going out since he just moved to the area. He sat at the end of my bar for hours it didn’t matter what I was doing or who had my attention when I looked at Kev, he was already looking at me. After another pep talk by Jesse, I got the courage to shoot my shot. If there was anything I learned through our short conversations, it was that I had to talk food/dogs and pretend to care about golf. I told him that I had friends in Nashville that could get him on this elite golf course, so I write the name of the golf course and MY phone number on a napkin. He looks at it, thinks it is the number of the course and puts it in his pocket (go figure). Through our talk I suggested the best taco place that is open until 4 am and he suggested we go eat after my shift. Somehow 12 turned to 2 am, turned to 6 am and there we were watching the sunrise over the river. I spent that entire "first date" talking and laughing with a stranger who somehow felt like a best friend. Today, that napkin that I wrote is framed and hanging in our home (Kevin gave it to me the first time he told me he loved me). Today, we are planning our wedding, and it doesn't feel real sometimes. Today, when someone asks, "when did you know", I simply say "I always knew".

Our story starts back when we met at Hops,Vines & Spirits in Downtown Harrisburg. I was eating dinner with some work friends after just moving to Carlisle, and decided to continue the nights fun with some drinks across the street at the bar. I was enjoying the festivities and night out with friends, but I had my eye on the bartender at the far side of the building. I thought this girl was beautiful but didn’t make a move at first because my friends were going to the bar next door. As the night went on, my friends decided to call it an early night, but I didn’t want to go home yet. I walked back into the bar with the bartender I had my eyes set on earlier. I tried to make small talk, but she was not an ordinary girl. Would she take shit from anybody? No. Would she speak her mind? You’re damn right. After a few hours of talking and trying to learn more and more about her, I finally found out her name when a coworker of hers was calling her to ask a question. Ah, finally, I figured out her name to annoy her more with. As the night grew, we realized we both loved dogs, and it just so happened that she would fall in love with my wiener (Bleu, for those of you that are sick and twisted). She attempted to give me her number, but because I was taken back from her beauty and my love of golf, I was thinking a bit slow that night. Turns out she did not give me the number to the golf course in Nashville (still have yet to find that). I waited for Felicia to close the bar up, and then she somehow trusted me to go on a night’s walk over to city island where I did not kill her. We sat on tables with bums underneath of us and talked for hours by the river. There was just something about this girl that drew me to her other than her incredibly beautiful smile. All in all, after hours of talking, laughing and getting to know each other, we parted ways that morning to go home while the sun came up. Ever since then, she’s been the woman of my dreams and more than I could ever ask for.