Vince and I met in 7th grade band class, but didn't really get to know each other until high school. We had mutual friends and started to hang out the summer after our freshmen year. We continued to hang out as friends throughout high school and even went to Senior Prom together. I had a huge crush on Vince but never told him. Vince joined the Army after high school and I went out of state for college. We stayed in touch and hung out whenever we were both home. Vince moved home when he got out of the Army in 2012. When I moved home in 2013, we started hanging out regularly and Vince asked me out on our first date. I said yes and we have been dating ever since.

We were preparing for Christmas and I told Vince how stressed I was, so he offered to plan a "date night" before all the Christmas festivities began. He told me not to worry about the details but told me we were going to drive around to look at Christmas lights at a special place he found, then go out to dinner. On our way to the special "Christmas light place", we drove past his old apartment and reminisced about hanging out there when we first started dating. Then, we drove through a neighborhood where all the houses had very elaborate Christmas lights. On the way to the surprise restaurant, we stopped by our first apartment and talked about living there together. And finally, we ended up at one of our favorite restaurants, Haiku. We sat down and almost immediately Vince told me he loved me, got down on one knee and asked if I would marry him. Of course, I said "YES!" then quickly followed up with a "Thank you!". He planned the whole night, including purposefully driving past places that were important to us. It was very special and totally unexpected (looking back, I don't know how I didn't see it coming). But it was perfect!