Our parents played in the local church band on Saturday nights. I was the A/V nerd and he was the roadie for my dad, the drummer. While he played guitar in the band sometimes and I played flute sometimes, it was never at the same time. As a teen, I had developed a bit of a crush on him, but I wasn't subtle about it to everyone else's enjoyment. He obviously knew I had a crush on him, and he did have a fun time teasing me. We had met at several church and family gatherings, but never really close friends.

After Matt completed college, he promptly returned back to Chicago - his hometown - while I was starting college in Tampa. 6 years later, we happen to be both single. My mom "casually" points out that Matt is single living in Chicago, so I reach out to him but not really expecting a response. As soon as he receives my message, he calls his mom to ask whether I'm single! After confirmation, this starts off a frenzy of messages and phone calls catching up on the last 6 years. Three weeks later I'm visiting him in Chicago - in the middle of winter!- and the rest , as they say, is history.

It was Matt's 30th birthday and I wanted to do something big to commemorate the event, so I rented out a large party mansion on Davis Island - the more ritzy area of downtown Tampa. I invited all of our friends and family for the weekend and hired a bartender for the big night! I didn't assume any sort of proposal was going on, as my friends had told me that they hadn't heard anything and Matt had assured me that he wouldn't do something so predictable as pop the question in a house full of people. He told me that he wanted to do something quiet and intimate. So believing my friends and my amazing boyfriend of two years, I went into the party thinking nothing but having a grand time with all of my friends and family. However, my sneaky friends had all seen the ring behind my back at different points in the night when I wasn't looking! The sneakiest and least assuming of all my friends, Taylor, pulled me aside to want to catch up and to go outside and talk. She opened up the front door, let me out first, and then closed the door behind me! And of course, there he was in the front porch of the house, on one knee holding out the ring that he claimed for weeks that he didn't have. We had our quiet and intimate proposal, followed by the pomp and circumstance that waited for us to enter as everyone in the party knew what was happening that night. Everyone, but me.