Shoes Optional!

It was 2017 spring commencement at The University of Akron. After just graduating with her bachelors, Caitlin was outside taking photo's with family and friends. Willy, Akron's alumni director was walking around congratulating new alumni and taking photos of their celebrations. Willy asked Caitlin to hold an alumni sign and it was there they first met. Despite Caitlin's efforts to get Willy to join the celebration at Manny's (local bar), Willy had to keep working and Caitlin had lots of celebrating to do that night. A month later, they ran into each other again, this time at a bar. From there, they kept in touch and eventually became friends and after several months... something clicked. The rest is history!

Tribe Game. Win #18 in a Row. Woo! Caitlin slept the entire way home.

From Willy... She never saw it coming! A week before Christmas, I went to get Caitlin a Lulu Lemon gift card and somehow came home with an engagement ring (and the gift card) instead. A week later... It was a snowy Christmas morning (nearly 8 inches fell over night). We sat down mid-morning and opened our gifts. Oscar (our Black Lab) was running around crazy with his brand new ball. After there were no more gifts under the tree, I stood up with Caitlin to thank her for the gifts with a hug. Then, I let her know I had one more gift for her. I went to one knee, asked for her hand, and she said yes. A perfect Christmas. From Caitlin...It was a perfect picturesque Christmas morning with the snow blanketing everything in sight. I could not wait to walk in our back woods with Willy and Oscar! However, we decided to make a nice breakfast and open presents first. Leading up to Christmas morning, Willy expressed that he had not bought me a big present this year, since I never gave him a solid Christmas list. With that in mind, I was not expecting anything "big." As we finished opening everything under the tree, Willy stood me up, took me by the hands, and explained he had one last present for me. As he reached into his pocket and pulled out a little Tiffany blue colored box, I was like "Whatttt?" Things that were going through my mind; are there earrings in there, no way he is proposing, maybe this is IT...THE PROPOSAL! Once I quickly realized what was happening, we shared an intimate moment, he got down on one knee, and I said "Yes!" It certainly was the perfect Christmas morning.