I never imagined that the curly-haired boy I met when I was 12 years old would one day
be my husband.
It was 7th grade.
We just moved to the area.
I had just come to come from public school.
Kind of ended up on separate sides of the bleachers.
Eventually we became pretty close.
We just always had this connection.
For a long time we were each other's shoulders to cry on and the dates to date-less normals.
That sort of thing.
I knew I really liked her and good luck convincing her of this but I really knew I liked her
in middle school.
I was pretty convinced there was absolutely zero chance of getting this girl to go out
on a date with me.
Senior year of high school, we both had plans for college.
I was going to go to Liberty University and she had plans to go down to the University
of Central Florida and I was still somehow convinced that if I tried hard enough I could
get her to date me.
I was always constantly begging her to go out on a date with me and finally she agreed
to.
Just a dinner and a movie.
That was it.
Well I had liked him for a long time.
We kind of liked each other on and off throughout high school.
But towards the end of our senior year when he kept asking me to go on a date with him
I just thought, you know, I think we both thought it was now or never.
So we decided just to give it a chance and see where it would take us.
And I remember we were sitting in the Starbucks one day which I would never do for anyone
but her.
And we were sitting and she told me, you know, this can't happen, you know, we can't be
together.
I just said, you know, well, I really, really can't just let you go, you know, and I remember
telling her that no matter what it took I wanted to be with her even if she was going
to be a thousand miles away.
So the past three years now I'm a thousand miles apart seeing each other only, you know,
once every two or three months.
Here we are now.
So, you know, a year went by and I finally bought the ring and bought the diamond.
And then I was faced with the daunting task of figuring out how to ask this girl to marry
me.
So the night of I took her out to a restaurant called True Loves downtown.
And it was empty.
It was like he had paid to have the whole restaurant here.
Which I didn't.
It was just awesome.
It was just worked out that way.
And it was a beautiful dinner and, you know, I just thought it was a special date because
I was leaving for Florida in like two days.
So I just assumed that he was planning this amazing date for us.
And after that we get in the car and we start driving to Bridal Lake.
I recognized, you know, the route we were taking and I thought we would just have a
bonfire and that would be that.
When I got to Bridal Lake it was set up beautifully, there was a little campfire, a blanket, a
few glasses of wine, that sort of thing.
It was very romantic.
Matt, out of nowhere, asks me to dance and I'm like...
Which I never do.
I'm not a dancer.
First off, I'm eating my cheesecake.
Like, don't mess with me.
I just want to enjoy this.
Why do we have to rush this?
And...
And I couldn't help.
I just wanted to get to it.
I just left her there and all of a sudden I just went into the woods and she was just
thinking, what the heck?
So confused.
I come back with a stereo, I had it hidden in the woods.
So I put the stereo down and pressed play and we started dancing to Josh Turner's Why
Don't We Just Dance.
Out of nowhere, this huge bang went off and I freaked out.
I thought something terrible just happened.
I turn around so quickly to see what is going on and the sky is just completely lit up with
these beautiful fireworks like unlike anyone I've ever seen before and they're just shooting
over the lake and it's gorgeous and I turn back around to ask Matt like, what's going
on?
And I was on my knees and...
On his knees with the ring out, you know, and just automatically I started crying and
just blown away.
I just could not imagine things being any more perfect and, you know, of course I said
yes.
And that's how it happened.
