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Kelly & Brian

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Brian Wessler

and

Kelly O'Connor

#toooldtohashtag

December 9, 2023

Smithville, New Jersey

How We Met

Atlantic City St. Patrick's Day Parade - March 20th, 2010

There was a lot of fate involved. The St. Patrick's Day Parade in AC was supposed to be 3/13/10 and I was not going to be able to go because I had to work. There was a Nor'Easter that weekend, so it was moved to the following weekend, 3/20/10, and I was off. My friends and I were on our way out of my building when my neighbor ran into us and said his friends were supposed to meet him at our building and walk down but they ran late and just said for him to meet them there. We all went down to the parade and he said he wanted to stop in Ducktown before it gets crazy and have a few drinks. I said I wanted to do that as well so I went with him. Not long after we got there, a boisterous figure with a foam beer hat and mardi gras beads darkened the doorway and yelled my neighbor's name. The figure came over and said his hello/how are yas to my neighbor. My neighbor said, "Brian this is Kelly, she's single." This was like 10:30am. He never left my side the rest of the day until he took me home around 2am. We went on a "sober" date the next night at Charlie's in Somers Point. We've been together ever since. We've always considered 3/21/10 our anniversary because our minds were made up within 24hrs of meeting each other. Just took another 13+yrs to get married.

The Proposal

Outer Banks, NC - August 22nd, 2021

We rented a house in the Outer Banks with Scott & Shelley and the usual cast of characters, a trip we've been on many times. Brian had been working in Cincinnati for 2 months leading up to this trip, so we were looking forward to some time together after being apart for so long. We were on the beach with everybody enjoying the day. Brian was kneeling on the sand with his back to me, in his tackle box messing with hooks, lures and weights...so I thought. He made a little noise like he had an injury and I said 'What happened?" He said "I got a hook stuck in my finger." I said, "Oh my God, lemme see!" He turned around with his hand open, palm up. He had the point of a hook with some fishing line attached, barely stuck in one of his many calluses. I took it out with very little effort and declared that he was a wuss. Once the hook was removed, the line went with it and revealed a ring. A ring I picked out in Cape May with Brooke 8 years ago! It took me a second to process what was happening and Brian, already on his knees said, "Ya wanna get maaarried?" I was shocked. My heart was beating a mile a minute. No one in the group knew he was doing this. Others were slowly figuring out what was going on when I said yes! and cried a little. So surprised and excited!

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