Vince and I have a lot of mutual friends. The night we met, he sat by me at the Sun Shoppe in downtown Melbourne while we were out in a group. I was eating a flourless chocolate tart, and you all know that I've never been one to share my desserts! For some reason, I let him have some. From then, I just kept seeing him out, and he just kept making me laugh. He even gave me a private surf lesson (which didn't work out too well), but it brought us together so we could share our first kiss.

We decided to take a long weekend down in Key Largo. We went fishing the first night and I caught a shark off the bridge--what a workout! That night we got some much-needed rest, and were getting ready to go out for a nice brunch. Before we left, he got down on one knee in the hotel room and presented the biggest ring I'd ever seen. It was my Grandmother Hallie's, and I am so honored to get to wear it someday soon (I'm wearing a ring with "training wheels" right now, one Grandmommie gave me the day I turned 16). Little did I know, Vince had asked for my hand back in June when my parents were visiting. He and my parents planned to have the ring sent to him, and he had held onto it--without me finding it--for 5 months. After the shock wore off, I said, "Of course!" and we celebrated at Cafe Moka, which it turns out is directly across US-1 from the venue.

I've been pleasantly surprised at how smoothly the wedding planning has gone (bridesmaids' dresses aside). Deciding to have the wedding in the Keys was an easy decision--I said "I love you" on our first trip down and we got engaged there, with many happy trips in between. We started planning while my parents were down over Christmas, and found the dress I knew was mine as I was stepping into it. A few days later, Mom took a trip down to the Keys with us to scout out some things. We didn't have much of a plan, but after meeting with the photographer, he recommended a planner, caterer, and cake maker, all of whom we were able to meet and secure our date. We also looked at several different venues, with Coconut Palm Inn being the last stop. Like the dress, we both knew it was the one as soon as we looked out onto the bay. All the rest is rolling out into place, one thing at a time.