We're Getting Married!

We met freshman year at UMass Dartmouth while we were both having lunch with some friends. He introduced himself and made some jokes I pretended not to fall for. I didn't think much of it until a group of us went to the movies later in the week. James tried to reach for my hand as if we were in junior high. I fell for it, and the rest has been history. Seven years later, and somehow we are planning a wedding!

I had the whole thing planned for about a month. We had talked about getting married multiple times throughout our relationship. It happened exactly 4 years, 1 month and 1 day after we started dating. Mini-golf was our "thing" and no matter how hard I tried, Ashley beat me almost every single time. Our anniversary is on April 11th, so the plan was for my friend to arrive to the course just before us and place the empty ring box in the eleventh hole. When we got to that hole, I was going to completely surprise her. But of course, my friend showed up a little late. I had to stall, without it being too obvious, by putting up 10 shots on hole #2 just to give my friend enough time to cut in front of us. Ashley was so embarrassed and knew something was up. We let my friend and his group play ahead of us while I continued to miss shot after shot. Eventually they were well enough in front of us that I continued to play the best I possibly could. It still wasn't enough to catch up to her. When we came upon hole #11, I saw my friends on the next hole which happened to be elevated and looking down on us. Ashley went first and then ran ahead to finish off the easy putt. When she tapped the ball in and reached down, she saw the box and turned bright red. I was waiting on one knee with the ring and Ash grinned from ear to ear. I asked, she said yes, and we were engaged! We are so excited to celebrate this next chapter with you all!