I HAVE TO TELL YOU A STORY. 📜

IT’S A STORY OF LOVE AND SERENDIPITY. 💞

My boyfriend, Scott, and I met as roommates in 2012. This was the kind of set-up where Craigslist-style we move in with each other without knowing who the other person really is. We had previously met because we worked at the same bar, but we didn’t really know each other beyond that.

We each had our own room in our apartment, and when it became clear to both of us that we were gonna DO THE DAMN THING, we started requesting “sleepovers” in each other’s rooms. Super cute, I know.

Fast forward 6 months and we’re OFFICIAL. I’m head over heels in love 😍 with this boy and I’m thinking to myself, “well damn, that was easy, all I had to do was start doing his laundry!” 😂 That’s actually a slight exaggeration because I was also cooking, cleaning, treating his dog as my own, and being the natural BOSS that I am.

I digress. In the next 2 1/2 years, we went on to move into a house in the county that we’ll eventually buy, and we got two more dogs together (the first sign of commitment, ladies!!! Get yourself a dog with your man!), and we were making strong moves towards a future together. BUT STILL, I wasn’t expecting anything from him Any. Time. Soon.

A little back story: My Birthday is 12/21, and his is 2/22. Since our birthdays BASICALLY sandwich Christmas, we started celebrating our birthdays with EXPERIENCES, rather than gifts, pretty early on. Caps games, spa days, ballet plays, and special dinners were the norm for these. So when he told me in 2015 to have a bag packed and ready to go for my birthday, I had NO IDEA what he was planning.

The morning of my 28th Birthday, we get up early, and he drives us to the train station. We walk in and go to the desk, and he hands me TWO TICKETS TO NEW YORK. Instantly, I think, “Oh heck yes, we’re gonna go see the Rockettes! Or maybe Rockefeller Center and the tree! Oh it’s gonna be so awesome!!”

We arrive in NY in about 3 hours and walk to the nearest bar for a beer. He tells me “no matter what, you can’t black out, that’s the only rule today” as he smiles and gives me a kiss. I’m like, “uhh, ok”. (We’re both bartenders and do quite a bit of drinking at work and home, so it wasn’t a completely ridiculous request, I was just more puzzled at what we were going to do!)

He had reserved an AirB&B; and for some reason, it fell thru. The lady kept saying she was a couple minutes away and then got hung up...whatever...so we stopped for froyo and took a cab to Central Park. 🌆

We hop out of the cab and start walking through the Park. Side note: we were in the process of opening a bar in Baltimore, so while he took a call from one of the plumbers for the bar, he assigned me the task of finding a hotel nearby.

I’m just in a blissful state of mind. This is my day! And ooh ooh my man that planned this whole day out!

As we kept walking through the park, he hung up from his phone call and pulled me off of my hotel search to tell me we were walking through “The Mall” in Central Park, where a lot of movies are filmed. I’m taking it all in and looking at the vendors on each side with their pieces of art...AND THEN...sitting on the bench on the right hand side...I SEE SOMEONE I KNOW. He’s one of Scott’s friends, and he’s holding a Bluetooth speaker. Now as I’m starting to walk up to him, I hear music.

“Don’t you dare look back, just keep your eyes on me, I said you’re holding back, she said shut up and dance with me!”

Aww, it was our song! ...but why?? THEN I TURN AROUND.

Scott is on one knee and PROPOSING ON MY BIRTHDAY!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEEEE!!! Still wearing our backpacks because we hadn’t found a place to stay yet, but I just got lost in that moment. Luckily for me, and very smartly of my NOW FIANCÉ, he had his friend snapping pictures of the whole thing.

How awesome is that!!?

I even got emotional for a little bit, because the ring is very special to me. My great grandmother left me her engagement ring 💍 which is a solitaire from the 1930s, and for years I’ve gone to my grandparent’s house and asked to try it on, just imagining the day that I’ll get to wear it.

Now I get to look down at it every day. 💞 I was so impressed that Scott went to my grandparent’s house to get the ring, and ask for permission to marry me!!

PLUS, Scott’s reason behind proposing in Central Park was that it changes with the seasons. We’re travelers and we like to see new places, but here, he thought, we could come back in the spring, when new life is budding on the trees, or in the fall when all the colors are changing, and we can take new pictures! I absolutely LOVED that idea...What about you ladies???

BUT. THIS IS ONLY HALF THE STORY BECAUSE I HAVEN’T TOLD YOU HOW I GOT HIM BACK!!

💍✨💍✨💍✨💍✨💍✨💍✨💍✨💍✨💍

SO, I MENTIONED BEFORE that Scott and I celebrate EXPERIENCES for our birthdays, because they both fall close to Christmas, and I prefer to collect moments over things. Now I’ve been put in the hot seat. Scott went ALL IN and proposed on my birthday...so What. In. THE. Hell. Am I going to plan for his, in just a mere SIXTY-TWO DAYS.

So I get to thinking, right. And I’m driving along in my car with my sister on the way to the gym, and all of a sudden —IT HITS ME—

I grabbed a notebook from the backseat and throw it in my sister’s lap: “write all this down”, I said.

Ok, so it wasn’t a ton at first, but I had the idea. And it was a crazy one. Since Scott had proposed on my birthday (as a surprise), I was going to get married on his birthday...as a surprise.

Now before you write me off and call me crazy, let me take you through my thought process so you can see how it all transpired....

ORIGINALLY, I thought of the obvious Court House Wedding. It’s cheap, easy, and gets the job done. No fuss. In and out. I could invite his family and we could have a decent ceremony. I actually went with that idea for about a week, and started planning things around it, but something just didn’t feel right.

I kept thinking back to Scott’s Central Park proposal, and how it was in such a beautifully scenic setting.

Something about the courthouse bugged me. I put my thinking cap back on and it dawned on me: Federal Hill Park in Baltimore.

Scott and I met in Federal Hill and shared our first apartment there. We walked our dogs in that park daily while we lived there and often stopped to look at the Inner Harbor from the top of the Hill. It was also a location, I thought, that changes with the seasons, and a place I’d be proud to return to and reminisce about how bold and crazy I was when we were young and in love. 💞

So I’d decided it. A wedding on top of Federal Hill.

*AHEM* A SURPRISE WEDDING on top of Federal Hill.

Now I just needed to figure out how to pull it off.

First things first, I’m doing this on Scott’s actual birthday, so I’m going to need to a) fool him into thinking I’m taking him out for his birthday and b) convince everyone else to keep their mouths shut.

HOW I DID IT:

My first course of action was to create a “Surprise Birthday Party for Scott” event on Facebook. I invited his friends and family, and decided to conveniently host said “party” AKA OUR RECEPTION at our newly opened bar, Das Bier Haus, just a few blocks away from Federal Hill Park. I spoke with Scott’s business partner about shutting down the bar on that Monday, 2/22 and just hosting the private party. I asked our chef about food options as well. At this point, the bar had only been open for three weeks and we were in the middle of a snow storm trying to plan out details.

My second course of action was to create an “S&M; Wedding on the DL” event on Facebook, and invite close family and friends- about 25-30 of them. What was remarkable to me was that no matter the distance: college roommates from Ohio, high school buddy moved to Vermont, Fed Hill friends moved to New York, they were all ready to travel in a heartbeat. Everyone was responding yes (AFTER CALLING ME CRAZY) with just about a month to spare!!

LADIES!! To all of you who have followed this story...THANK YOU! Unfortunately it’s too long and I’m unable to add any more to this thread, so please find my TWO comments below where I’ve continued! The plot thickens!! 😉