HIP HIP HUZZAH!

When Alex and I first met, he invited me to go to The Texas Renaissance Festival....I though 'EW what a weird thing to do and I barely know this guy'. Little did I know, the Perotti's indoctrinated him with the love of the Faire early on! The next year I tagged along-the magic of campfires, tents, patchouli and palo santo incense got me! We have been going every year since and slowly adopting the culture. We made our first consumes at home and began planning our vacations around what ren faires we could visit. We regularly visit 2 in Texas, stopped at 1 in Colorado, and 1 in Tennessee. The cherry on top was our police escort, but that's a story for another day. This year Alex planned the proposal to take place at one of our favorite places...He gathered our friends and family-without me catching wind of his plans-and had us all in small town Todd Mission, Texas. We walked through the gates that morning and Alex startled me by asking for a picture (which we always avoided before). As I tried to spin to my preferred picture taking side-he grabbed me to stop my momentum and knelt down on one knee. I was so surprised! Sweet words were exchanged and he asked me to be his WIFE! Of course I would say yes one-hundred times over! And we spent the rest of the day enjoying turkey legs and all the fun the renaissance festival has to offer. He probably has another version of the story but that is how I recall it!

If you asked us how we met, you may get different stories. He swears I met him at a college house party, of which he was not in attendance. He was returning a book to his classmate (how studious!). I, on the other hand, was enjoying the collegiate camaraderie. As he tells it-I broke trough the crowd to introduce myself to this tall, handsome man I had never seen before, but he could also tell I had lost a few rounds of beer pong by that time of the night (It was a less classy time of my life, OK?!?). I was insistent on getting to know him so I introduce myself and follow up with -insert valley girl accent here- "I just want to know what you're about." He was not impressed, brushed me off, and promptly left the gathering. Time went on-and as summer nights in Abilene go- the party has to start somewhere! The infamous "Purple Door" or 'Perotti's House' came to be the hangout. I didn't ever recall meeting this mysterious 'Perotti' (who didn't like going out but didn't mind having the parties of the summer at his place?). I remember our first meeting as my first visit to the "Purple Door". He manned the door while he greeted each person he knew with some slapstick joke or just with their last name ('cause football, DUH!). I received "it's Perotti...I live here" and a hand shake. The night transpired into true 2012 fashion and we friended each other on Facebook. We casually accompanied friends on group dates for months without truly 'defining the relationship'. Finally his roommate (shoutout Weston) interrupted our usual watch-some-obscure British Hulu show with "so when are y'all going on a real date" to which Alex responded "...uhhh Friday" and I replied "I work Friday night..." So a lunch date it was! 02/08/2013 I thought we were headed to hibachi and he pulled into a Red Lobster. So, cheddar bay biscuits and awkward lunch conversation transpired into a mouth full of food and Alex stating bluntly "this is our first date". The rest is history!