Shawn and I met for the first time about six years ago at Longstreets in Old Town Petersburg. He was with his cousins, who I had already met in the past. I said hi and hugged everyone then saw one guy that I had not met yet. I was introduced to Shawn and thought he was the most adorable guy! From then on, I saw Shawn in passing at Longstreets and every once in a while when I decided to venture out to Wakefield. He was always so easy to talk to and had this smile that you just cant resist.

March 17, 2016 I went to Longstreets to have a drink with friends and saw Shawn that night. We started texting and we planned to hangout at his house in Wakefield on a Sunday night. I will never forget the first night we hung out together. It was so sweet and simple, just like Shawn. We spent that night talking and laughing .. a lot . I could not believe that I had known Shawn for years before I actually spent time with him. We had the best time and it just felt so natural between us. On May 2, 2016, I decided to ask him if he was my boyfriend and we officially started dating. I found love in an unexpected place with Shawn and I could not be more thankful.

Shawn asked the big question on Christmas Day! The night before we went to his parents house for Christmas Eve and came back home where i was completely feeling the christmas cheer! I turned on our speaker and played chirstmas music and danced for about an hour while shawn just watched and died laughing. He thought I knew about his plan the next day, but I most definitely did not. Every year since we have lived together, we have hidden the Christmas pickle ornament in the tree. Whoever finds the Christmas pickle first gets to open the first gift. I found the Christmas pickle ornament first of course and I got to open the first gift under the tree. There were two gifts for me from Shawn, one was a bag and the other was medium sized box wrapped. I choose to open the wrapped gift first and was sitting on the floor like I always do when opening gifts at home. Shawn kept saying to me, “don’t you want to sit in the recliner when you open your gift?”. I’m like Shawn what are you talking about I always sit on the floor. To make him happy I got up and sat in our recliner. :) I started opening my gift to a vineyard vines box stuffed with tissue paper with a small black box inside . I opened the small black box to find a beautiful diamond ring. I think I was in shock for a couple of seconds and just starred at the ring. Shawn eventually got down on one knee and said “will you marry me?” I don’t even know if I said yes right away because I was so excited, happy and many other emotions at once! It was such a special, perfect and intimate moment! We spent the rest of the day celebrating with our family!