It was the summer of 2014, and I (Shawn) had just begun my summer class while at UNC at Charlotte. I was hanging out at my buddies' house for the day when I got a notification on my phone from Snapchat, telling me that Brittany Graziano had added me as a friend. I hadn't seen her since my freshman year of high school, let alone talk to her, so i thought it was random, but I thought, "what the heck, let's see where this goes." When I went to send her a snap, i noticed that in my contacts list on Snapchat, I had two Brittany Grazianos. I wasn't sure which one she had just added me with! I sent a message to both contacts, asking "Sooo, which account is the real you? i have two here..." and about 5 seconds later I had my answer. We spent the next few hours catching up, casually chit-chatting about how life had been over the last few years. the conversation just flowed so freely that we moved our conversation to texting without skipping a beat. From there, texts turned into phone calls, days turned into weeks, and soon enough all I knew was that I couldn't wait to get back to NJ to begin dating this girl who had me wrapped around her finger. When that day finally came, i invited her over to my house the night I got home so we could spend real time together after weeks of nothing but phone calls. She pulled up to my house, I met her on my driveway, and when she walked up to say hi, I never even got a word out before I kissed her. it felt as though we had already been dating for so long, it was such a natural thing for me, and from that moment on, I knew she was the one.

We took a trip to Hawaii for his job and he was technically working but we had some off days as well. We woke up every morning to watch the sunrise at 6:30 am and it was such a beautiful and amazing island to be on and experience. He wanted to take some pictures of me looking out off the balcony with his go-pro (or so I thought he wanted to take pictures of me) and as he asks me to take them, I turn to him and go "Really babe? Can't we just do this tonight when we're all dressed up I literally just woke up." And he insisted that we took them. I had my breakfast in my hand, my hair up in a messy bun, and a big tshirt on.. Not my best look but hey, I really did just wake up a few minutes prior to that. He set up the go-pro on top of the chairs and had me look out over the balcony as he came up behind me and kissed my cheek. I truly just thought he was just taking a picture of us two at first until I hear from behind me "Hey babe.." I turned around and in a state of complete disbelief and shock, he was there on one knee. The love of my life, my best friend for the last 4 years was asking me to spend the rest of my life with him with my dream ring in his hand. I didn't even put my breakfast down, even when I said 'yes' and he went to go put the ring on my finger, I just moved my shake to the other hand. I was truly taken back. I had a feeling it was happening within the next year, I mean, as a couple we knew we were going to spend the rest of our lives together and we would randomly look at venues and rings just for shits and grins. I really had NO idea that this was the plan the entire time. I thought I was just tagging along on a work trip with him because it was in Hawaii and let's face it, I would have been pretty bitter if he went without me. So, here we are. Planning the wedding of our dreams with our closest family and friends. I couldn't be any happier.