We met in high school at Paul VI. Nick was captain of the football team and Riss was on the dance team. We went on our first date to Longhorn Steakhouse and despite the fact that Riss thought she wasn't going to like Nick, she fell head over heels. Although we parted ways in college, we reconnected at a Phillies tailgate a few years later. It took a few months after we re-kindled to finally go out on a date again. Riss was in graduate school and Nick was graduating from the police academy. Our adult lives were just beginning and we both knew on that date that this go around was the beginning of our forever. It is a full circle moment for us being able to get married at the place where it all began 10 years ago.

We were on a weekend getaway in Ocean City to celebrate Nick's birthday. We checked out of our Air B&B on Saturday and were "planned" to stop for lunch with a few of Nick's friends on our ride home. We went out to breakfast before leaving and what should have been a 30 minute breakfast turned in to an hour and a half event- little did Riss know it was because Nick was stalling for a perfectly planned proposal. Nick asked to go for a walk on the beach where we go for day trips during the summer. While we were walking up to the beach, a photographer was taking pictures and Riss had said that we couldn't go up on the beach because we couldn't ruin someone else's photography session. It was in that moment that she knew. We walked on to the beach to a perfectly set up proposal that Annette and Riss' best-friend, Gianna, had set up (and they watched hidden in the sand dunes as the proposal happened). We all celebrated on the beach together and drove to a surprise engagement party at Riss' moms house afterwards to celebrate some more! It was truly one of our best days yet.