We're getting married!

❤︎

We have known of each other our whole lives. We were neighbors when we were really little for a few years. Even though I don't remember our time as tiny tikes together, our families have shared stories & filled us in on our baby dates growing up. As time went on, our families grew and moved on. Alex's name was mentioned a time or two by my mom, "Do you remember Alex Lais, from next door? I ran into his mom today!" is what I remember most. Our paths didn't really cross again until September 2013. It was family weekend at EIU. Senior year had just begun & what better way to kick off the year than with your family & friends in your favorite bar. Well, Alex & I both had the same idea. To say my friends & I lived at Ike's our senior year would be an understatement, so it's surprising it took as long as it did for us to meet. I remember standing by the end of the bar with my friends & seeing this woman walk directly towards me. She for sure knew who I was & said very excitedly, "Do you know who I am?!" I probably gave her a weird look until I looked over her shoulder and noticed Alex walking towards us & realized it was his mom. We said a few things, left with, "Say Hi to your mom and dad for me!" & went our separate ways. That next Monday Alex added me on Facebook. I obviously FB stalked him & had to find out if he was single or not. He was. The following weekend, we went to the same bar. I was in the back of Ike's when I saw Alex with his friends. One of my friends knows Alex from high school & I made her walk over to him with me to say hi. We hung out all night long & exchanged numbers. We texted non-stop the next few days & Alex asked me on a date to get Froyo which turned into DQ because only the finest in Charleston, IL. I got a hot fudge sundae, he got an oreo blizzard & we sat and talked like we had been best friends for years. It wasn't long at all before we became inseparable & had the absolute best time of our lives falling in love our senior year.

It all started in a hallway. Well, technically it started on Taft Dr. in Normal, IL, but that’s not the story you all are looking for. It was Family Weekend in Charleston, IL (home of the Harvard of the Midwest, THE Eastern Illinois University) and naturally I was posted up at the hallway-resembling Ike’s bar with my parents eagerly awaiting the upcoming order of an extra-large Chubby sticks. In walks a beautiful young blonde, who steals all the looks, and who I recognize automatically upon entering the dimly lit Ike’s entrance. It was the same woman who I had always known of, but never really met. The same woman that had a path I had crossed countless times, but something about this time, this path, this night, was different. Immediately after she walked in, I looked to my mom (the Big Cat Cathy Lais, ladies and gentlemen) and asked her if she remembered our old neighbor from years ago. Of course she did, and in true Big Cat fashion, she emphatically set down her Bud Light (or maybe chugged it down) and charged toward the beautiful blonde. “Do you remember me?!” the Big Cat asked. As the young woman looked on in slight confusion, I made my way up to the two in the start of their conversation, and it was then when it all clicked. “Oh, I remember you! Hi Alex!” “Hi Taylor!” I so smoothly responded, and in true cliché fashion, the rest was history. We shared a brief conversation the night of the “re-meet” and went our separate ways. It wasn’t until the next weekend where we met back up again, the same path, the same bar, the same feeling of something different was about to begin. From there on, there were countless risky flirtatious texts that somehow always landed well, nights filled with laughter with friends who soon became family, and moments that tested our relationship in its’ early stage, but no matter what, we continued to grow closer, tackling anything and everything in our path…together. We are soul mates, and our two paths finally had become one.

After a VERY busy fall semester, I was looking forward to spending an entire weekend with my friends in Chicago. The Cubs were playing the Dodgers in the NLCS and USC was playing Notre Dame, what a great weekend for sports! I was so busy at work that I didn't really have time to think or plan our weekend like I normally would, I just wanted to get there and be with everyone! We flew to Chicago on a Wednesday night and were staying through Monday morning. That Thursday we spent with Alex's friends in the city, grabbing drinks and food and exploring the new Wrigley field facilities around the park. On Friday, we had plans to go to dinner with Alex's coworkers that night since they were all in town for the USC football game. That afternoon, I didn't feel the greatest, probably from one too many whiskey cokes the night before... we kept it low key and I ended up taking a nap. I woke up to Alex asking if I just wanted to stay home and not go to dinner. Of course not! (reverse psychology) We got ready and made plans to meet up with our friends after. Our uber arrived and Alex sent me downstairs alone to meet the driver, he followed shortly behind with a a gift bag... hmm. In the car, he told me we weren't actually going to dinner with his coworkers, but he was surprising me with an early Anniversary date in our favorite city since we would be celebrating 4 years together the next weekend. Well, that curved my curiosity and I was surprised enough by that! We got to dinner at City Winery, and another surprise of our own personal igloo awaited. We ordered a bread/salt flight (Alex was very excited!) and of course wine. We sat there and talked, played music and just hung out under the beautiful city lights.

The moment every girl dreams of was about to happen & I honestly had no idea. Alex asked me if I wanted to open my present by the river. I remember kind of questioning this since we had such a nice set up in our igloo, but I agreed & we went out to find a spot. On a beautiful October night, the steps by the water were filled with people, we searched for a spot before deciding to head back by the igloo to stand by the ledge. I was told to close my eyes & opened them to find a book in front of me. Every life adventure we have, I have created a shutterfly photobook of our memories to give to Alex as chapters in our story. Alex made one for me this time, our first year in California together. I was so surprised! He put so much though & effort into the photos & descriptions, I slowly went through each page looking at all of our amazing memories together. As I went to flip to the very last page, Alex put his hand down & stopped me from turning the page. I instantly knew what was about to happen as butterflies filled my stomach. He looked me in the eyes & I grabbed onto his suit jacket as my eyes immediately filled with tears. He said the most amazing things to me (I mean I remember the important words, but jeeze does that moment fly by!) He eventually literally said to me "you're going to want to step back for this" & I let go as he got down on one knee & asked me to marry him! I obviously said yes through the happiest tears I've ever cried in my life. Right after he stood up, people around us started cheering. The most amazing part was that up on the bridge right above where we were, our best friends & family were standing watching the whole moment. They all came running down to congratulate us! Having them there to celebrate meant SO much to both of us. Alex had set up bowling for us to continue the celebration (shoutout to Kailey for being 20, bigger shoutout to Alex for thinking of her) We celebrated all night long & I couldn't have dreamed anything better!

I knew this day was going to happen from the early moments of our relationship. I never knew, however, how dang difficult it was going to be to plan a proposal without Taylor catching any wind of it. If you are to know one thing about Taylor, it’s that she catches on to EVERYTHING. Need to find someone on Facebook with just the vowels of their first name? She’ll find the person in 34 seconds. Trying to buy a surprise gift for Christmas? She’ll catch wind of it 4 days before the big day (fun fact, this actually happened). So needless to say, I had my work cut out for me. First things first, I had some phone calls to make. I had all the plans in the world to talk to Steve (Taylor’s dad) on their family’s trip out to Los Angeles in April of 2017, but the timing never worked for such a meaningful conversation. Fast forward a couple of months, there I was sitting on a bench in the middle of USC’s campus calling Steve asking for his oldest daughter’s hand in marriage. To say I wasn’t nervous is a tremendous understatement, although we have always had a great relationship, it was still the father of my soon-to-be fiancé, who I wanted to make sure I could vocalize and share how much his daughter meant to me and to give him the confidence in our life’s path. After all of the exciting phone calls, text messages, and deleted call/text history work, the planning had to begin! Luckily, Taylor was never shy about sharing her desired engagement ring, so with the help of Lori and Kailey, I found the perfect ring. It was meant for her. For us. For our story.

I knew that no matter what, I wanted our family and friends to be involved in this night because of how important they are to us. We had plans to travel back to the Chicagoland area to attend the USC vs. Notre Dame football game that weekend, but I had no plans on actually attending that game. Since our visits to the Midwest are numbered, we were able to get an amazing number of close friends who traveled countless hours to Chicago to celebrate our “visit”. Just the visit, nothing else. It was also our four year anniversary coming up, so I booked a “River Dome” for an amazing private dinner on the Chicago River. Again, I tried to keep Taylor off of my tracks by telling her that we were attending an event with USC coworkers in downtown Chicago, when we hopped in our ride, that’s when I told her of the night’s first surprise. Again, just a dinner, nothing else. As we settled into our River Dome, drinking wine, eating a bread and salt sampler (literally my heaven), our friends and family were meeting up only a few blocks away, eagerly awaiting to stand on top of the State St. Bridge, with our River Dome location specifically and purposefully reserved to be closest to the bridge. As dinner was wrapping up, I wanted to step outside on the Riverwalk to give Taylor a present for our anniversary. Just a present, nothing else.

Taylor had previously put together two incredible photo albums depicting our first two “chapters” of our story. Without her knowing, I somehow was able to string together long nights of creating Chapter Three of our story, and presented it to her on the Riverwalk. As she flipped through the pages, I could see friends and family from the corner of my eye, as I fumbled around with a box in my pocket, trying everything in my power not to drop it. As Taylor turned to the final page, she read: “As we move on from Chapter Three, there’s only one question left to see, Taylor Nicole Brandon, will you Marry Me?” I’m pretty sure a “yes” was mentioned in-between the cheers, the tears, the laughter, and hugs. I never asked for a confirmation in fear of a change of response. After that, we celebrated with the close family and friends that traveled to share in our special night and made a number of phone calls, FaceTime calls, and text messages to those who were unable to join. We bowled, we danced, we laughed, we celebrated love. I felt so blessed to have so many people join us and honestly proud to have pulled off a proposal without Taylor catching on to any part of it. Just an engagement, nothing else.