Less than a week before my cousin Catherine's party, Harrison and I had matched on a dating app "Bumble" where the girls have to message first...and well, I hadn't messaged Harrison yet. I had been at Catherine's for about an hour when Harrison walked in the door. I made the connection in my head ("Andover High, Bumble... I never messaged him, omg") and I ran upstairs to hide with with a friend and debrief....aka freak out. After coming up with a plan on what to say, I went back downstairs and went up to Harrison and said "I like your shirt" while simultaneously touching his arm, feeling his shirt, and then I walked away. I walked into the kitchen thinking "why did I just do that..." After filling in Catherine on what was happening, she kindly "re-introduced" us (thanks, Catty!) and from there, we hit it off.

About a week before Catherine’s party, I matched with Caitlin on a dating app called Bumble. I was so excited because I remembered her from high school and thought she was pretty dang cute! However, on Bumble, the girl has to message the guy first before they can chat and unfortunately, Caitlin never did. Opportunity lost! Or so I thought… A week later, my roommates and I got an invite to our neighbor’s birthday party. Our neighbor who just so happened to be Caitlins cousin. Now, at the time, I had no idea Caitlin was even invited to this party but regardless, it was a Friday night, everyone was tired from work, and we almost didn’t end up going. After a little group pep talk and a couple of beers, we decided to head over to the party. The second I walked through the door I saw Caitlin Patten and knew I wanted to talk to her. But, pretty quickly she disappeared, so I went about hanging out and enjoying the party. After a little while, she walked back into the room with some of her friends and was walking right to me. At this point I got a bit nervous because we had matched on bumble and I had thought maybe she wasn’t interested because she never matched with me but yet, here she is walking over. Before I could say anything, she walked up, touched my arm, said “I like your shirt,” and kept walking right past me. WHAT?! I was so confused and thought it was pretty funny and hey, maybe she was just kinda weird and that was that. HA! A few minutes later, Cait's cousin, Catherine – (YOU ROCK CATHERINE!) came walking into with room and "reintroduced" her cousin to me. From there we talked the whole night away. We laughed, we joked, we even danced to some of my records. We hit it off and now here we are getting married!!!

We were on the Patten annual vacation at Long Beach in Rockport, MA. My dad's side of the family has been vacationing there, every summer, dating back to 1969. On the day of the engagement, it was a BEAUTIFUL, sunny beach day and the plan was to go out to a family dinner that evening (we had to get our family photo on Long Beach wall, like we do every year...if we send you a Christmas card, you know what I'm taking about ;) ). I was totally dragging my feet and did not want to leave the beach, it was one of the first nice days we had that week! After a while, I agreed I would go, but I was adamant about not showering or getting ready for dinner. After a lot of pushing, my sister Megan, offered to do my makeup and pick out my outfit (thanks, Meg!), if I agreed to just shower, get ready and have a fun night. After dinner, Harrison and I went for a walk on the beach. On the walk back, we were chatting, and I said to Harrison "let's have a speed walk competition..." Harrison turned down the request (which in the moment, I was pretty annoyed about, HA) and he said "I actually have something I want to ask you..." and I immediately started freaking out. I stopped him asking, "Wait! Is your family here!?" He told me to turn around-- I turned around and saw everyone on the beach wall then turned back around and started bawling into Harrison's chest. Harrison got down on one knee and he popped the question. I said YES and everyone started cheering. We turned around and both of our families were running down the beach towards us. Seeing the pure joy on everyone's faces gave me a feeling I'll never forget. It was truly magical and I could not feel more grateful for Harrison and our amazing families help pulling it off! We are so excited to celebrate this next chapter in our lives with you! See you on the big day!

Although Cait’s story starts on the day of the engagement, for my story we have to go back a bit. About two weeks before the Patten family vacation at Long Beach, Cait and I went ring shopping to pick out an idea of what she liked. Little did she know, I had a talk with my family that day, and by the end of the week had asked Chris and Julie for her hand in Marriage. By the Friday before our vacation my plan was set and I had the ring! Now, not letting the secret out became the hard part. I knew Cait would want both of our families to be there on the night of the engagement. That meant that I would have to get my sister Lydia into town from Manhattan, and THAT meant I couldn’t propose until Thursday. Let me tell you, that ring burnt a whole in my pocket every day that week. All I wanted to do was propose to Cait. It took all I could, and all everyone who knew could, to not let the excitement get the best of us. Thursday finally rolled around and Cait had ZERO clue it was happening. Thanks to the awesome coordination of both of our families, and a little steering in the wrong direction from Cait’s sister Megan (who planted the seed that she had a hunch I was going to propose in the Fall...Thanks, Meg!), Cait thought we were going out to a family dinner that night. But, when dinner time rolled around, Cait decided it was too nice to leave the beach and started protesting going to dinner. She didn’t want to wash her hair. She didn’t want to put on nice clothes or makeup. She wasn’t budging- of course, right? But, with some convincing from Megan to take family pictures and an offer of a free makeup job, Cait changed her mind and we were back on track. After dinner, I asked Cait if she wanted to go take a walk on the beach for the sunset. As we walked, my family snuck into the beach house and hid until they saw Cait and I walking back to the house. I had planned to ask her as soon as we got back in front of the beach house. However, before I had the chance to ask, Cait said “Let’s have a speed walking race!” out of the blue, and turned to race, stiff-legged, back to the house. I quickly grabbed her before she could see everyone and, chuckling a bit, said “wait a minute, I actually have something to ask you…”. Her face immediately changed to confusion, then a smile, and then she stopped me mid speech to make sure my family was here. I told her to turn around, and racing down the beach came Lydia and Megan with cameras, ready to capture the big moment. I could see how absolutely, positively happy she was when she looked back at me and then fell into my chest with happy sobs. I squeezed her so tight, over the moon now too, and asked her if she could let go of me so that I could get down on a knee... We laughed and through some sniffles, I popped the question and she said yes. A whole crowd of beach friends and family went wild behind her. I was the happiest I’d ever felt in my life. I found my best friend, my person, and now, my future wife-to-be! It was such a special night celebrating with our families in one of our favorite places together, and we can't wait to spend our special day with you!!!