Have you ever had a moment in your life where everything just stops, and you know something BIG is about to happen? That’s how I’d describe my feelings when I first saw Morgan. She was so happy, just glowing with a smile from ear-to-ear, and a joy and ease that felt magnetic. We met at the aptly named location, Morgan’s Pier, and of course meeting her at a location already named after her was a real precursor to the rest of my life, where she’s always one step (or several) ahead of me! So, back to the story, I’m walking around this pier with my buddies trying to establish sufficient liquid courage to approach the most beautiful person I’d ever seen, and after what felt like 10-20 laps, but hopefully was just one, I mustered up the bravery to say hi. I don’t recall exactly what we discussed, other than her laughing at my corny, “Nice pier you have” line upon learning her name…and between her presence and beauty, mixed with appreciation for dad jokes…I knew we had something special. From there, Morgan and I couldn’t avoid each other! Nonstop texting as I traveled, turned into a first date upon my return, turned into seeing each other every night until we moved in together…and now, I get to be the luckiest man in the world and marry my soulmate.

If I knew what exactly was happening when it was happening, I would have written it all down. But I suppose that’s the beauty of the moments you least expect – the ability to defy expectation. The setting was a summer evening at Morgan’s Pier. The occasion was, a moment. Perched on a pier along the Delaware River, my best girlfriend and I were catching the light summer breeze, and before long, catching the gaze of some gentlemen nearby. My future husband approached me, shook my hand and introduced himself (and it was not followed by, “LIGHTS?!”). We had a fantastic night under the city skyline, and I was totally in… for the “squad”. Smitten… with the idea I found my new best Philly friends. Our conversations from that night seemed to spill into the next, and the next, and the next. All throughout, he stuck to his quirky jokes, and I kept up my bit about the “squad”. It didn’t take long before Kyle called me on my bluff: he wasn’t interested in just being friends, and I wasn’t upset about that. Turns out, I was smitten, but with just one charming squad member in particular. One lofty peanut butter sandwich for Basil, and a few years of the same caliper laughs that have captivated me since the first night, I get my life’s pleasure of following through on the great proclamation Kyle made that first night we met: he was going to marry me.