We're Getting Married!

I first saw MacKenzie in an Addison High School production of Little Shop of Horrors in eighth grade. I remember a lot about that night. I remember she had a sky-blue dress on that matched her eyes and the rest of the night was… I guess I don’t remember as much about that night as I thought. We became friends early on in high school. She says she wasn’t a huge fan of me at first, but if you’ve made it into this website, you know she came around. I made the biggest sacrifice of my life to spend more time with MacKenzie our second year of school when I joined the swim team. That may not sound so bad, but if you saw my swimming, you would understand. After two years of that, we were quite the item, so I felt comfortable hanging up the fins, but it was a night at the pool when I knew I wanted to marry this girl. It was her senior night, and she led the ceremony as the captain of the team. Instead of having the focus on the seniors, they had decided to give a small gift to each member of the team as a thank you for being great teammates. MacKenzie, with her co-captain Ben, picked a small gift for each person on the team. You could see each team member's eyes light up when they received their gift, knowing someone actually knew them and cared about them and for some of the kids on the team, you could tell they really needed that in their life. To see MacKenzie’s creativity and heart for others captured mine. I say our first official date was prom later that year. She didn’t think I was going to Prom at all so surprising her with a Prom-posal was not too hard a challenge. She took a trip to Spain and France with a school group that year over Spring Break, and I took that as my romantic opportunity to send her with a few “Open When” letters. I really only wrote the others to throw her off the scent of the letter marked for the top of the Eiffel Tower. The first time she said yes.

The next adventure was college. Separate schools, different schedules and just growing up which may have taken me longer than it took her, which gave us plenty to work with during this stage of our relationship. It was always a blessing when we could see each other and let the stress of school take a back seat for a moment. During our first year, we went out on a double date for Valentine’s day with my friend Ryan and his girlfriend at the time. It was our first real valentines date where we dressed up and had the classic date and dinner. Our date started with a trip to the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester which shows how committed we were to the traditional valentine’s day of the romantic carriage ride or walk along the canal. It was just fun and still our favorite type of date today. The dinner… a story I think I have tried to keep between me and MacKenzie to this point. We ate at a fancy beef and bistro restaurant. The food was amazing, and we had a great time with Ryan and his date. But the bill... it was a little more expensive than I had anticipated. I looked at MacKenzie and gave her some look that she understood as “please discreetly slide me some money under the table so my friend does not know I don't have enough” a look I try not to make a habit of. She obliged and kept it between us. This was another moment where I saw her support for me no matter what, that we were on the same team even if I come up short and that I could trust her when I need her help. When you find someone like that, you don’t let them go.

With MacKenize in her final year of her master’s degree and me already having a job at Kodak, we were both ready to take the next step in our relationship. On a clear night December 13th, I asked her to marry me on a bridge overlooking Rochester. We were both so awkward and nervous; we were lucky to get the one or two good photos we got that night. Getting engaged seems like a normal part of life and society but asking someone to spend the rest of their life with you is anything but that. My favorite part of that night was, even though we both knew an engagement was in our plan, we both stopped in that moment and appreciated what I had asked of her. Spend the rest of your life with me, always be team together, no matter what life may bring. She said yes.