We're Getting Married!

The first attempt: We joke about who noticed who first but agree it was on the docks of Toms River Yacht Club in the spring of 2010 during weekly Wednesday night racing for high school sailing. Taylor was taking selfies with her best friend (and future maid of honor) on the dock instead of watching races and figuring out tactics for the next race. That's when Steven said he noticed her and said he fell for her carefree attitude and laugh. Steven was with his teammates, watching the races. When the rotation was up, they bumped into each other, and she instantly fell for those blue eyes and his smile. There was the traditional "talking," and we texted on flip phones. The "first date" was at the Manasquan inlet, but we couldn't make it work, we were 15 years old. Second Attempt: Fast forward to 2014, we are juniors in college. We went to each other's sorority and fraternity socials, visited each other's schools, and played very competitive mini-golf games in the summer at home in Jersey. Steven was in Pittsburgh, and I was in South Carolina, and again we couldn't make it work. We were 20 years old. Third Attempt: 2016, Taylor left to volunteer in India for a few months after graduating. Steven made the first move to respond to one of her snap chat story while she was in the Dubai airport on her way to Bangalore. For the entire time she was in India, they talked and caught up. When Taylor got back, they went on their third "first date," and from there, they've been together ever since. We joke that 3 is our magic number, but it's not really a joke when you look at our history and how we always found our way back to each other. The third time is definitely the charm.

A trip was scheduled impulsively to go see one of Taylor's childhood friends who was stationed on the island of Oahu. Well, that's what she thought. On the other hand, Steven was carrying the ring through security and fighting with the front desk at the gate on checking his carry on bag. We island hopped to Kauai to explore and instantly fell in love with the island. Steven decided that he needed to propose there because it would give us a reason to come back. We woke up early one morning to watch the sunrise on the beach and enjoy our last day on the island before having to leave later that day. We got breakfast and coffee and started driving north on the east side of the island. We looked up waterfalls and read reviews about how hard it was to get to the waterfall and picked one. It was hot and humid, we were in flip flops, and it was 11 AM, and we needed to check out at 1PM, but the one review from a woman with 5 small children said the hike was easy...well, she lied. Our end goal was to get to the waterfall at the end of the trail to go swimming. We made a wrong turn somewhere and ended up at the top of the waterfall instead. It was past 12PM, and there was no way we could go swimming at the bottom and check out on time. Taylor was tired, hungry, hot, and now upset they couldn't swim and was sitting at the edge of the waterfall watching the people swimming below. While her back was turned, Steven wedged the GoPro into some rocks to take a picture of them in front of the waterfall. He walked over to her and asked her to stand up. She refused and said, "Why can't we take a picture sitting down?" He said, "Tay, just get up please" Taylor got up to stand next to him and pose for a picture, he then dropped down to one knee. She turned and went, "What are you doing? Get up. We are taking a picture" he smiled at her, pulled out a wooden box, and asked her to marry him. Kauai will always have a piece of our hearts & hopefully, next time, we can swim in the waterfall.