It was a midsummer evening in Manhattan. In fact, it was Manhattanhenge where the sun sets on the Hudson River perfectly aligned between the city street coordinates. Ben was awaiting my arrival in his classic "Ben uniform" (black t-shirt, jeans and sneakers), and of course 20 minutes early. I was relieved by his casual and lighthearted demeanor, and struck by how darn good looking he is. Almost immediately, there were fireworks between us and my friends advice of, "just meet him for one drink" quickly faded as we watched the sun set. We both knew that something special had been sparked.

Only after this trip did I realize just how different our expectations had been. Leanne revealed that she fully anticipated this to be our "first and last trip together", as she had been informed that skiing is the cause of some the more passionate holiday arguments. Thankfully, this wasn't the case for us and we have been fortunate to spend much of our time together exploring the world. Leanne quickly became the perfect foil for me; she's relaxed, caring, positive, care-free and creates just enough mess for me to clean up. It could have been very different, however. We arrived at JFK the morning of our flight in the middle of a harsh Nor'easter snow storm. We figured out that we were 1 of only 2 flights, that would get out that day. Despite Leanne's concerns, we didn't argue and I learned to manage my inferiority complex developed from her snowboarding ability and fun loving nature. We love traveling together and wish to bring some of that passion to all of our guests throughout our wedding weekend.

As two people with a bit of a wanderlust, we quickly discovered that South Africa had been top of our bucket lists for years. We spent the better part of 2018 day dreaming up our holiday of a lifetime - full of everything we love the most; wine, animals, and adventure. The second day of the trip, Ben had appeared as cool as a cucumber on the outside, but was full of nervous excitement on the inside. After wishing the day away to get to ‘the crunch’, he was put on edge when arriving at the winery to find that they had no record of a reservation or special arrangements that had been carefully coordinated. Eventually, the venue found our booking and led us out to a stunning private terrace overlooking the Stellenbosch vista. There were a few painstaking minutes of Chenin Blanc ordering and fidgeting before Ben got down on one knee... Before he could ask the big question, Leanne crouched down, hugged him tight and said yes, over and over again.