Jesse and I met around Halloween during our senior year at Endicott College. First came a failed attempt to win Jesse's heart when I asked him to come to a haunted house with me. He politely declined. It was then that I learned he doesn't love ghosts like I do (almost a deal breaker). Thankfully, soon after, Jesse made his move and asked me out on what would become our first official date! We had dinner at a cute little Italian restaurant in Salem called Bella Verona. The date went exceptionally well (aside from Jesse getting pulled over by campus safety for speeding) and the rest is history!

Jesse had asked me to take a random Thursday off from work so that we could spend the day on the North Shore together before he left on a week long training for his new job. I was a *little* suspicious, because if you know Jesse, you know that he is not typically the one planning our dates (much less a day date, mid-week!), but I brushed it off as me overthinking things and thought it was sweet that he wanted to spend the extra time together. Waking up to rain on Thursday morning, Jesse was visibly frustrated (adding to my suspicion), but we got into the car and started our drive up to the North Shore. We stopped at a lot of our favorite spots - drove through Endicott, stopped at Singing Beach in Manchester-By-The-Sea, (pouring rain the whole time, by the way) and eventually found ourselves on this rocky private road with a beautiful little cove. The beach was empty and the rain had stopped. We got out of the car and I grabbed my camera to take pictures because the lighting was just right. I walked towards the water and I felt Jesse come up behind me. He put his hands on my shoulders and turned me around to face him. He started to talk about our life together and how you can't always plan for the perfect day but that somehow, because we're together, it always ends up being our own version of perfect. It's about at this moment that I started to black out/cry hysterically because Jesse was down on one knee and IT WAS HAPPENING!! He asked me to marry him and through my happy tears and shaky voice, I said yes. I've never been so sure of something in my life.