We met through Michael's sister one night when he crashed our girl's night. He stole my number from his sister's phone not realizing it would take him 2 years of asking me out before I would say yes to a date. When his charm wouldn't do the trick, a handwritten note on a watermelon left on my doorstep finally did! Well... Kind of. I told him he could meet me at Mueller Lake Park after I met with my CASA kids. After an evening of walking around the park eating ice cream, I allowed him to fix the picnic table in my backyard. Then, after all of this, I finally agreed to a "real" date and so it all began.

In September Michael said he was planning a self-care day for me because of how hard I had been working. He also mentioned that we would be going to a salsa dancing meet up in the evening (we took virtual salsa dancing lessons at the beginning of COVID and this was going to be COVID friendly with many restrictions). Prior to him mentioning salsa dancing I wondered if he was planning a proposal, because who plans a full spa day for their girlfriend unless they are proposing and need their nails to look good?! However, he knew I didn't want to be proposed to in public so when he mentioned the salsa dancing meet-up I thought, "Okay, maybe he really is just trying to pamper me". HOWEVER, after my full spa day he took me home to get ready because we were going to dinner. This took me back to wondering whether he was going to propose at dinner before the meet-up, but I was thrown for a loop once again when we arrived. The dinner set up, though nice and romantic, was very public and so not my ideal proposal setting. Alas, I was determined to avoid being disappointed that a proposal was off the table and enjoy the rest of the night. Once we arrived at the "meet-up" we got out of the car to the sound of salsa music and we made our way down 3 flights of stairs that were lined with candles and led to a deck in a wooded area. As we turned to go down the last flight of stairs I saw a beautiful moroccon inspired set-up with lots of lights and candles. I was completely thrown off but knew what it all meant. After practicing our salsa moves for a while, we made ourselves a margarita from the bar cart and I was ready to sit down to eat some hummus when he said, "wait! You can't sit down yet." Confused I turned around and there he was on one knee asking me if I would marry him. That brings us here, to a countdown to our big day! We can't wait to celebrate what we know will be the beginning of a wonderful new chapter together. See you all in Nashville!!