One of my (Camille) college roommates had introduced me to her younger sister over the year that we lived together. Fast forward to 2020 when this same younger sister asked me to be her and her fiance’s day-of wedding coordinator for them in March 2021. On the Monday of the wedding week, I was at the bride’s house helping gather decor items to take to the venue. Michael drives up in his truck to drop off empty whisky bottles that he collected for this wedding. [Michael here: just for some clarification so I don’t sound like a clinical alcoholic, I collected those bottles for several months, per the groom’s request, and with lots of help. Back to Camille…] I met him very briefly and continued on with what I was doing. Friday rolls around and it is our big day for rehearsal and setting up. Michael was a groomsman in this wedding so he was there helping set up. Throughout the day we were talking when we could and got to know each other a little better over lunch with other groomsmen. The wedding day came and went very quickly for me. During dancing, I had a small amount of downtime and decided to go outside for some fresh air. I found Michael outside with one of his friends and talked to them for a little bit. I could tell that we had some sort of connection but I didn’t think I would see him again after that weekend.

The Sunday after the wedding was the day to clean up the venue. I had texted Michael the night before letting him know when we were allowed to be at the venue for cleaning up. (He lucked out with not having to ask for my number…I was the coordinator so I had all of their phone numbers from the bride and groom.) Michael says that he wanted to ask me that day to get drinks with him but didn’t have the opportunity to do so; I think he did. [Michael here again: I didn’t want to have my first attempt at asking for a date to have witnesses in case I royally crashed and burned. Also couldn’t figure out what to say all day. Okay, back to Camille…] He didn’t ask me that day and I thought that was the last time I was going to see him or hear from him. I was wrong. On Monday following the wedding, I got a call from Michael out of the blue. He said he had two questions for me: 1) Have I seen the photographer's sunglasses? (They were lost and Michael saw this as his opportunity to talk to me again.), and 2) Would I like to get drinks with him that weekend? I’m not one to turn down trying a new place for drinks so I said sure! We went for drinks that Saturday and had a great time! We both had such a great time that before we said goodbye we made plans for a second date. Our connection only grew from there and we kept going on dates until we both decided that we wanted to be in a relationship together. And well…here we are!

Michael and I had talked about getting married since we loved each other and could see a life together. We had looked at rings for me so he knew what I liked. [This is Michael once again: this was the best thing about proposal prep! Knowing a specific range of what she liked made the daunting task of picking a ring much smoother! Okay, continue my love…] Michael was nice enough to give me a window of when he would propose to me. This window was Friday morning to Sunday evening every weekend for 6 weeks…that’s a large window! Little did I know that Michael was talking to some of my coworkers for 6 months prior about making sure I wasn’t working the weekend he wanted to propose to me. I was very oblivious to it all. [Michael for the last time: I was planning for 5 months to propose on 3/19, but Camille wouldn’t take herself off the event her company had that day, and her coworkers and I couldn’t come up with a believable excuse, so I moved it to 3/20 2 weeks prior, just to get COVID 6 days before I was going to propose, and had to reschedule for the next time her family would be together, Easter weekend. Okay, back to my bride-to-be…] Michael and I had just gotten back from visiting Gab and her family in Texas the week of the proposal. I had caught a head cold while there and was still recovering when we got back. We were going to visit my parents that weekend for Easter and my siblings came down from Oregon so we could all be together. My mom texted all of us kids saying we were going to go to this cool place, the Old Sugar Mill, that had many tasting rooms and could get lunch there. I was excited to have a fun little family outing with my whole family and Michael. I didn’t think that Michael was going to propose that weekend because I was still getting over my cold and it was Easter weekend. This played in his favor. We got there and were walking around just checking the place out. I told my family multiple times that we should get lunch and eat before we start drinking lots of wine. They just kept dismissing me and I was confused. Michael finally took my hand and led me to another building. Since it was Easter weekend, there were plastic eggs all over the place. The door was held open with a cone and it had a plastic egg. I was so oblivious to what was happening that I said “Ooo, pretty egg. Can I take it?” as Michael was guiding me through the door. Once through the door, I saw my best friend Gina taking pictures, Michael’s parents, and two of his friends taking video. I then saw the beautiful set up he had and dropped to the floor crying. I got my composure back and Michael finished walking me to where everything was set up. He made sure I was okay before he got down on his knee. He said some of the sweetest things to me before he pulled out the ring. I was a mess and crying so much but that didn’t stop me from admiring Michael, the wonderful words he said, and the ring he chose for me. I was so happy that we finally got engaged and that we had some of the most important people to us there to witness such a beautiful moment. We can’t wait to celebrate the start of our forever with all of you! Love, Camille and Michael