We've known each other since high school. We had mutual friends, but never really hung out with each other. In college I worked at Elroy's, where Marcus and our friends frequented.....often :) My manger at the time, Jennifer O'Neil, always referred to Marcus as "teeth" because of his smile. I started noticing him more, and told my best friend I thought he was cute. Of course Jessica decided to tell him that (and I was so embarrassed). After a while, we started hanging out more and eventually started dating. We became "official" on May 9th 2012 when Marcus set up a cooler and blankets in the bed of the truck to star gaze, and finally asked me to be his girlfriend!

We were in Denver for a vacation over my birthday weekend/visiting friends. Jennifer O'Neil was staying at the AirBnB with us for a portion of the weekend. All I wanted to do in Colorado was hike. My friends and Marcus told me on Saturday night that we needed to be at the hiking spot around 5am on Sunday morning. I was so confused why we had to go so early. Do people do that? But as always, they all convinced me that that's what people in Colorado do to beat the hiking crowds. I'm a very gullible person, and believed it. On Sunday morning, I told O'Neil I wasn't going to wear makeup and just bum it for the hike. She encouraged me to look "cute" for pictures, and I didn't think anything of it. So on went the makeup! Around 5am, we still had not left the house and I could hear Marcus and O'Neil whispering. O'Neil confessed that they had to tell me something. She said she had been planning a hot air balloon ride my birthday (which was on Monday, Oct.24th), and that she wanted to surprise me with it. However, it was too windy to do that day and she had to cancel it. I immediately thought something was up. We ended up hiking instead later in the day, but they told me to be ready for a "surprise dinner". Little did I know, the hot air balloon ride was Marcus's initial plan to propose to me, but he didn't want it to be obvious so he made O'Neil say it was her idea for my birthday. The night rolled around, and as we were pulling up to the dinner spot, I noticed we were pulling into a small airport for helicopters. When we walked in, they told us it was too windy.....again. We went to a bar up the street to wait an hour, and luckily the winds died down. When we went back, we were able to fly for 30 minutes. Before we got on the helicopter, Marcus got down on one knee and popped the question! The view of the city was so pretty at night from up above, and it all worked out! We were thrilled and giddy like little kids!