WE'RE GETTING MARRIED!

I first met Scott with a dorky bike helmet on my head and a faulty Citibike that wouldn't dock. Our first date began at a cute West Village bar in front of that bike dock that turned into another bar, a walk through my favorite neighborhood with my helmet in tow and ended after 6 hours of non-stop laughing and chatting. After we realized I would be leaving for a 3 month work assignment in Brazil in exactly 2 weeks from that first date, we quickly made plans for our next date. We went on 9 dates during the 14 day countdown until my departure. When I arrived at my new South American apartment I couldn't wait to FaceTime Scott to give him a tour of the place. This happened to start a daily FaceTime ritual between the two of us where we'd spend hours each day getting to know more about each other and laughing at my "worldliness" and most commonly used Portuguese phrase "Desculpe, eu não falo português" which translates to "I'm sorry, I don't speak Portuguese." Scott and I didn't want to wait until I came back home so we planned a trip to meet halfway. We decided on Buenos Aires, Argentina: a 3hr. flight for me and 11 hrs for him. We've both been lucky to travel the world before meeting each other, but have never felt more fondly about a place or trip to date. Exceeding both of our expectations is an understatement and I'm so grateful we traveled to see each other during my time abroad.

We decided to sneak away from lower Manhattan on a gorgeous Sunday morning for a picnic in the park amid the COVID pandemic. We rode bikes up the West Side Highway path to a fully bloomed Central Park after stopping by our first date spot on the way. During our walk through the park where Scott was uncharacteristically quieter than usual we made our way to the Conservatory Garden, a place I'd seen in pictures and was dying to visit for the first time in person. After wandering hand in hand, it was just the two of us alone in the garden, surrounded by trees in full bloom and their petals covering the path near an empty bench and Scott shocked me by getting down on one knee. It was the sweetest, most intimate moment of my life. After I said yes, I was able to wait all of 5 seconds before FaceTiming my mom bursting into happy tears to tell her the best news! We realized weeks later that the spot where Scott proposed, also happened to be the same spot I visited on my very first trip to New York City 8 years before. That spontaneous girls' trip was when I first started to fall in love with this city and a small idea to move there started to take root in my mind. That chain of events that initially felt so serendipitous now feels like His intentional, sweet plans for us all along.