We're getting married!

It was an unusually warm, 65-degree day in December. Looking for something to cure my hangover from the previous day's Santacon festivities, I walked into Morgenstern's Ice Cream Shop on the LES. If I had known I'd meet the love of my life, I wouldn't have worn a sweatshirt with a messy bun. But luckily it didn't matter! Suzi (Evan's mom), who was standing behind me in line to order, tapped me on the shoulder to ask me what she should order. Good thing she did because I turned right around to answer her question and laid eyes on Evan for the first time. I won't sugar coat it (sorry Dad!), but he looked HOT! He had a great tan, having just gotten back from a trip to Colombia. That glow, coupled with a pink button down, wanna-be hipster glasses, and a kind smile, immediately caught my attention. So while I ate my scoop of Vietnamese Coffee (also what Evan ordered), I made obvious, flirty eye contact in Evan's direction. But he was with his family, which I caught onto quickly, so I was too nervous to approach him! Instead, when I left the store, I remarked to a friend how cute the guy behind us in line was and asked if she'd go back into the store to ask him if he was single and pass along my number. Thankfully she obliged to do my dirty work, went right up to him as I hid nervously behind a garbage can outside the shop, and told him I thought he was cute. While Suzi shouted "OMG OMG OMG!", Evan sheepishly replied that he was in fact single and he too thought I was very cute. Numbers were exchanged and I waited ... barely 10 minutes ... until my phone buzzed and it was Evan. We went on our first date three nights later, where Evan went in to kiss me after just fifteen minutes, and the rest is history!

I started planning the proposal in March, and my rough idea was: I get Lisa to meet me at a bar across the street from Morgenstern's Ice Cream shop (where we first met), I propose to her in front of Morgenstern's, and then we get dinner with our families at Hanoi House (one of her favorite restaurants). Simple enough, right? Well, she was hot on my tail when a miscommunication caused the restaurant to send Lisa a reservation confirmation email for 10 people (the size of both of our combined families), which Lisa was surprised to receive. She asked me, "Did you make this reservation?" Of course I responded, "Nope. Must be a mistake." She was not sure what to believe, but she knew my proposal plans might have been foiled. I decided that the plan was toxic: she knew too much already. Over the next week, I contacted Morgenstern's and devised a plan to have them bring an ice cream cart to an unassuming location a couple blocks from our apartment. This would all go down a day earlier than the initial plan to throw her off guard. I knew I had to get her dressed appropriately, so I made a fake event flyer about a cooking class with one of the Manhattan's top chefs sponsored by NYU's Arts, Culture, and Cuisine club. To make things seem more legit, I had the presidents of that club send me a confirmation email with fake tickets to the event. Lisa still sniffed that something was awry, though, because apparently $60/person for this cooking class was way too good of a deal. Needless to say, she arrived on time and I got down on one knee. We went to dinner afterwards with our families at Emilio's Ballato, our favorite Italian restaurant, where the owner made a one-time exemption to his "no reservations" policy and granted us a table in the back room next to some A-list celebrities, who I'm sure wondered why we were so special. All of the chaos in planning paid off in one amazing evening with family and friends. I was so happy that I would now be marrying the woman of my dreams!