Matt and I met - officially-  on November 7th, 2006. We both remember this day, because it was two days before his birthday. We both remember this always, which is surprising for two people who cannot even remember to take out the garbage. We do, because it was two days before his birthday. Unofficially, we had met about two weeks prior on, of all places, OKCupid!

I joke that I met him because, while drunk on cheap rum and living in my mother's spare bedroom, I declared to a friend, that I needed to meet someone new. ANYONE that was new. His profile was witty, he could spell, and he lived within 10 miles of my zip code. It was someone new. I sent him a one-liner message and he responded days later and I finally got back to that message. Somehow we ended up exchanging email addresses, then names. A flurry of emails were sent back and forth. Somehow we exchanged phone numbers also.

We met at Hops. He was adorable and dressed in the only nice shirt he had prior to us. We drank three beers and before he could leave the parking lot without kissing me, I kissed him.

After this, we spent nearly all our free time together. Then suddenly, we were in love.

Fast forward another year and change. After plenty of kisses, fights, I love yous, talks of children's names, trips, cakes, presents, we made a somewhat impulsive decision to go to IKEA.

We talked about going to IKEA again for ages, but since it is such a drive to Orlando, we kept putting off. We both wanted to look at shelving and a few other random things. We decided that with our schedules and plans, that it was either July 18th, or possibly not until August. He insisted we go early to beat the crowd, which I agreed to.

So, we set out a little before 9, deciding against breakfast until we got to Orlando. We ate at IKEA, shopped, and left the store in under two hours. (He rushed the entire time and made multiple bathroom breaks. I honestly thought he was sick.)

We were driving for almost an hour, when he rather suddenly took an exit off of I-4. It took me about 15 seconds before I started nagging at him for following the GPS instead of knowing that he should have just stayed on I-4. He kind of shrugged, showed me that the GPS said we should go that way, and said it was probably a short-cut. I rolled my eyes, but at the same time, was a little panicky. I knew that the Bok Towers were close to the exit we had gotten off at.

We drove for a while and all the roads for Lake Wales eventually became familiar. I started getting very panicky (and I'm not sure why I say panicky, but it was how I felt) and cried. I cried until we got the the towers. When we finally parked, he said it was a surprise visit. Then he dug in his backpack and said, "since we were so close by, I thought we would stop and take pictures". Then he gave me ... my birthday present, a new camera.

At that point, I was utterly confused and hurt. I had to make a brief visit to the bathroom, where I had to bring myself down from whatever I thought was going to happen.

We walked around and took photos. I made a point to keep wandering away, because I was rather irritated.

Then, he took my hand and said he wanted to get photos closer to the towers. We walked for bit, and he found a clearing underneath some trees that arched.

Suddenly, it dawned on me, that it was that moment.

The carillon bells began chiming, he got down on one knee, and said (this is paraphrased, because by then I was crying):

I love you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?


There was a lot of crying (from both of us) and kissing and at some point I said yes.

He had the ring out, when he proposed, but it literally took me a few minutes before I looked at it.

It is beautiful, more than I could have ever wanted.
1.54 carat asscher cut center stone with 1 carat of square diamonds on a platinum band. Just beautiful.

After, we sat on a bench in the shade and I cried and took pictures. Then that was that. His mother was the first to hear on my side. My mother was the first one mine.