We met through the dating app Hinge. We had both been doing the dating app thing for a while, and I (Ronelle) had already decided that by the end of the month, I was going to delete my profile. Then Tom messaged me on a Tuesday, commenting on our shared love of proper grammar. I messaged back with my approval of his Halloween costume as Captain Mal from Firefly. From there the conversation took off. Tom mentioned that he ran a Meetup group called Meet Your Neighbors Morristown and they were having a coloring book event that Thursday. I asked if I could join. That Thursday evening, I arrived late and there were no seats next to Tom. Luckily his friend Katy stepped in and said, "I think we can squeeze in another chair in the corner next to Tom!" It was the lowest pressure first date either of us had ever been on, perfect for two introverts. A second date was quickly agreed upon; we decided to go bowling. After a couple of games we sat and talked in the café area and stayed until the place shut down and they had to kick us out. From then on, we couldn't stop talking and texting, and we still can't go a day without seeing or hearing from each other.

For the proposal I knew that I wanted to do something special. I knew that Ronelle enjoyed hiking and wanted to do more of it and anyone who knows me knows that I love to go hiking. I had already planned to do a hike with Ronelle on January 1st, before dawn, so that we could watch the sunrise on the new year from the top of Bearfort Ridge. A friend of mine and her husband were already planning to join us for that as well as they loved the idea of starting the new year this way. When I decided to propose I decided that January 1st was the perfect time to do it since we'd even have someone there to take pictures for us. Having settled on the date, now I had to figure out how to do it and how to surprise Ronelle. Surprising Ronelle was only partially accomplished as she figured out a proposal was going to happen because my hiking friend and her husband was there. But Ronelle was on the lookout for me to pull a ring box out of a pocket to propose and that's where I surprised her. I have a stuffed dog named Dogmeat who is in my pack on every hike I go on. Dogmeat has a pair of goggles and for the holidays he was wearing a Santa hat. I had the ring secured to the goggles band and then covered by the Santa hat. We took pictures together on Bearfort Ridge with the sun rising behind us. Ronelle was holding Dogmeat when I proposed and pulled the hat off Dogmeat's head to reveal the ring. So I managed to get the ring into her hands before the proposal without her realizing it. She said yes and we were very happy. Later as we walked back down the trail to the cars she asked me "You did actually say 'Will you marry me, right? I got so excited I kind of stopped listening'". I assured her I had.