Our Story… or “How we fell in love”

How We Met (from the perspective of the Groom)

Once upon a crisp Saturday afternoon in late October… It was nearly Halloween, and I got a phone call from Kevin, a friend and former co-worker. Kevin told me that he was thinking about attending a soiree that I had been invited to a few weeks back by a coworker, Jason. It was a costume party being held at his (Jason’s) house. I came up with every excuse in the book not to attend the party. I had no costume, I didn’t feel like going to a party, etc.

Kevin can be convincing, however, and so we decided we would go look for cheap costumes and see what we could come up with. If we found something cool, we’d attend the party. If not, we wouldn’t. We went to Target, Wal-Mart (against my will!), and one of those temporary Halloween stores that get setup every year. At this point, only a few days before Halloween, all of the best costumes were gone, it was hard to find anything in our size, and anything that looked halfway decent was way more money than we were interested in spending to attend a party. It was also far too late to get creative and make something, only hours before the party, so we both decided not to go.

We called Jason to let him know that we would not be attending due to our lack of costumes, but Jason would have none of that! He told us to come on anyway, that lots of people there wouldn’t be wearing costumes. After some tough negotiations, and lots of back and forth, we finally broke down and decided to go, with or without costumes.

When we arrived at Jason’s house, we quickly learned that he had not been entirely correct that lots of people wouldn’t be wearing costumes. In fact, as I recall, we may have been the only ones without costumes. Either way, we resolved to have a good time, and that’s exactly what we did. Since Jason and I work together, I knew about half of the people in attendance through work. The other half, including my bride-to-be, Kelsie, were friends of Jason’s, most of whom I had never met.

Throughout the night, I met lots of new people, but one person in particular kept catching my eye. She was dressed up as an angel, and looked gorgeous! I wanted to meet her, but I’m a bit on the shy side, and had it not been for some great friends playing matchmaker, I may have never plucked up the courage to talk to her. Kevin and another friend, Sara, helped facilitate an introduction, though, and after talking for quite some time about everything and nothing, Kelsie and I agreed to go to dinner the following night.

The Next Day

I don’t know that I slept a wink that evening, excited and nervous about my upcoming date. I suppose I did go to sleep at some point, because I distinctly remember hearing my alarm go off, and the first thought that came into my mind was of Kelsie. Little did I know that this was the first of many days to come when Kelsie would be the first thing on my mind when I woke up in the morning. I went through the entire morning preparing myself for my date. A little past lunch time, though, I came to the realization that we had not arranged a time or place to meet, and in my excitement I had failed to get her phone number or give her mine. I went into panic mode for a bit, going through lots of worst case scenarios in my mind, until Sara bailed me out again by passing along Kelsie’s number.

After talking to Kelsie for a while, we agreed to dinner in downtown Knoxville, at what I now know is one of Kelsie’s favorite restaurants, Downtown Grill & Brewery, followed by coffee (apple cider for me) at a nearby place called Coffee & Chocolate. The weather forecast called for rain, so I went out and got an umbrella to carry around with us. Dinner went well, and I enjoyed our time talking to one another at the coffee shop afterwards, but I had been obviously nervous all night long, and I was quite sure that I had blown it and that she would not go out with me again.

We spent some time walking through beautiful Market Square (never using the umbrella that I was lugging around) and I eventually walked her to her car, as we both had to work early the next morning. We got to her car in the parking garage, and I had a million things going through my mind. I was pleasantly surprised when Kelsie suggested that we do this again very soon. I think I may have floated to my car after she pulled away, and I don’t really remember the drive home.

The Courtship

From that point on, we have been pretty much inseparable. We went out 3 or 4 more times that week, and have spent most of our free time together since that point. I got to take Kelsie on a great weekend trip to South Carolina, where she got to meet Memom & Papa Jack and experience her first Clemson football game in Death Valley. Unfortunately, we didn’t pull out a win, but it was a great trip all the same. We took several trips to Nashville, to see Cathy Rigby as Peter Pan (Kelsie’s favorite!), the Trans-Siberian Orchestra performed live, and we got to see a great show from the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus in a small, intimate venue. We had a great time with Kelsie’s wonderful nieces, Destani and Deana, at the Gatlinburg Christmas Parade. We also spent some time with them snow tubing and eating fudge!

Kelsie and I share so much in common, and it was obvious to both of us very early on that we were made for one another. I think it was obvious to the people who saw us together too how quickly and how deeply we cared for each other. I was so fortunate to have been able to have the opportunity to introduce Kelsie to so many members of my family despite the fact that my family is so spread out. She got to meet my grandparents on Dad’s side of the family, as well as my cousin Scott and his wife Megan, and their daughter Hailey, on the Clemson trip. Then she was able to meet my grandmother on Mom’s side, Nana, as well as my mom, my Aunt Joyce and her daughter Jennifer, on another trip to South Carolina. Everyone in my family that met her loved her immediately, and for good reason.

The Engagement

It did not take long at all for me to realize that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with Kelsie. We both believe in faithfulness and commitment, and I wanted to honor those beliefs by asking for her hand in marriage. I set out to find the perfect ring. I did a lot of covert studying whenever I had the opportunity, trying to learn what types of jewelry Kelsie liked to wear, how to choose the right diamond, and I put a lot of thought into what would work best for her. I knew that I wanted to find a swirl ring design in white gold with diamonds that were not raised too high off of the ring so that she would be able to wear the ring at work without having to worry about it getting in the way.

I spent weeks going to every jewelry store in town, in addition to doing tons of research online. I finally found what I felt was the perfect ring based on what I had in mind, and purchased it immediately. Up until this point, I had not decided exactly when I would ask Kelsie to marry me. We had our 6-month anniversary coming up in about 4-1/2 weeks, so I decided I would wait until then. This was a very tough month for me, as there were many times when I wanted to just go ahead and ask her. For our 6-month anniversary date, I booked a dinner cruise on a 100-foot yacht called the Volunteer Princess. This included a 2-1/2 hour ride on the Tennessee River, a 4-course meal complete with champagne and some of the best cheesecake I’ve ever had, and a commemorative framed photo for the two of us to keep.

Kelsie has often told me, though, that she doesn’t like to get a lot of public attention, as she gets embarrassed. She told me that I should never have the waiters in a restaurant come out to sing her happy birthday or anything like that, so I figured that proposing to her on the boat in front of the other people that were there would make her uncomfortable. Instead, I took her to one of our favorite places to spend time together, and privately asked her to spend the rest of her life with me and marry me. She said yes, and now here we are, planning a wedding!

I apologize for being so wordy.. for those who would rather have an abridged version of the story, here it is:
Step 1) We met at a mutual friend’s Halloween party
Step 2) We went out together a lot, and quickly fell in love
Step 3) I asked her to marry me.
Step 4) She said yes!
Step 5) Happily ever after begins..