December 31st 2018 is a day Shola and Tania will never forget. Of course, it was New Year’s Eve, but that year was different. Shola went out with his friends to bring in the New Year and Tania went out with her friends to bring in her birthday, both at SQL Miami. After walking around the bar several times, Shola noticed this beautiful young lady by herself. Without hesitation he walked up to her and asked her what’s the occasion, one of his go to pick up lines. Tania looked him in his eyes and said, “It’s my birthday, I am celebrating with friends”. Shola asked her who she was with and out of nowhere it seemed like her twin sister, Wiehnie popped out from behind her and said “Who is this?”, talking about Shola. He introduced himself in amazement because they were identical twins, he thought he was in an episode of Sister Sister. Shola offered to buy them both a celebratory libation, in light of the new year and their birthday. He felt like he made a good first impression. Shola and Tania talked for some time and they noticed that they could not unlock eyes with each other. Shola felt like he was in a trance because he could hear every word she was saying to him and it felt like no one else was around. Then suddenly she said, “I have to use the rest room”. Shola instantly thought, “Yup, I’ll never see her again”. After 15 mins of waiting for her to come back, all hope was lost, he knew for sure she had used him for a drink city girl style. To his surprise, he saw Tania walking towards him from the bathroom. Their eyes locked again, and he knew at that moment she was different. Tania felt that this interaction was different too, she will never forget that moment when their eyes caught each other again. There was something telling her see where this could go. They talked for the rest of the night and Shola asked her if they could go on a date after her birthday celebration, she said yes. The next day he texted her just to see if the love was real. She texted me back and they have spoken every day since January 1st 2019.

To know grief, you have to experience it for yourself. September 19th 2022 was the day Shola's brother Olujide Lawal unfortunately passed away. On October 12th 2022 Tania’s father, Yves Guerrier passed away. He had two legitimate reasons to postpone this long-awaited engagement. But, he made a promise to both of these men. Shola told Mr. Guerrier “I will always protect your daughter” the last time he saw him in person. He told Jide “Tania will be my wife one day” multiple times in different conversations they had. Both of them gave him the reassurance and approval that my selection was correct, so when October 21, 2022 rolled around Shola had to follow through with his promises. He was so nervous that day, but as you could imagine this was not the only emotion he was feeling. Shola and Tania decided days prior that they wanted to go on date. They decided that we wanted to enjoy each other this night by having dinner a nice dinner. Shola and Tania went on dates often, so this day was nothing out of the ordinary. Shola remembers feeling so happy sitting there at the table, with nothing on my mind besides marrying the woman in front of him. That was the first time in weeks that he had felt genuine happiness and the same was true for Tania. Shola had the waiter bring the ring out with dessert, so they could enjoy the evening together. As Shola watched the waiter walk over with the dessert, he knew it was game time, he was about to marry his best friend. The waiter opened the dessert dish and a small black box sat in the middle accompanied by chocolate cake and ice-cream. As soon as Tania saw the box her jaw dropped. She knew Shola loved her, but he felt in this moment she knew exactly how much. Shola got on one knee and spoke from my heart. He told Tania “You are my best friend, and I would not want to do life with anyone else but you. I love you more than words can explain, so with that being said, will you marry me. Without hesitation she said yes.