We're Getting Married!
Went to Paris, got engaged
Went to Paris, got engaged
I love that this story begins, in multiple ways, in Paris. I share this mostly because I believe that real love does indeed exist and that even when you least expect it, a person can show up in your life and change everything for you so suddenly. They can bring you into their world; introduce you to some of your favorite friendships, experiences, and perspectives, and become your closest friend—and that is really beautiful.
I was reading through mine and Nick’s first texts to each other the other day from after we’d first met, and he finished a message with “we better stay in touch!”
It’s so funny to look back and read a text from the person you plan to spend the rest of your life with using a business-casual phrase to communicate hopefully seeing each other again.
Through a year of long-distance and a year of short-distance, (probably not a term but it’s fine), I couldn’t be happier that it’s him.
I’ve never met another man that lights up every room he walks into, makes everyone feel included and welcome, is full of so many genuine compliments to freely give, makes time for anyone who needs it, works as hard as he does to improve his life, and has so many revolutionary dreams for the future whether that’s through art or personal goals or business endeavors.
In April of 2017, we met in Portland: he was living in Texas at the time and had just helped a friend move up to Portland by way of a 3-day road trip. While he was in town, he was hanging out with a mutual friend of ours.
Our friend Laura is essentially Queen Matchmaker and very subtly told each of us about one another. She’d posted a video of him on Instagram that piqued my interest (I asked for the full rundown on him) and within the day, he reached out—kindly introducing himself as her friend and asking for coffee shop recommendations in the city, so I gave him my list and invited myself to show him around if he had any free time, which he did happen to have.
I wasn’t aware that he was already familiar with every third wave coffee shop in Portland, and that this was merely a clever intro and also a way to see what coffee I was into, which I appreciate.
We met up the next day at Heart (fitting) and I was so nervous that my lip was shaking nearly the entire time. *Ask me later for tips on playing it cool. Something about him felt so different right away and I knew that I would miss him when he was gone and I had barely even spoken to him yet.
Just one of those things.
At the time we met, I was at home for five days sandwiched in between two back-to-back photo trips to Europe. I’ll forever be astonished at the odds of us even meeting at all, but it’s clear that it was supposed to happen: against the odds and the jet lag.
We spent the afternoon together walking around a park that we now love, exchanging stories, and then meeting up the following day with Laura and our friend Abby for drinks, ice cream, and a movie.
These are photobooth photos from this night. Very few things make me happier than the fact that we have actual photos from the day after we met.
After the movie ended, I drove him back to his Airbnb, we said goodnight and he thanked me for showing him around during his brief time in Portland. After we were both tucked in for the night, we later went on to confess the first thing we did were look up flights: me to Dallas and him looking to book one back to Portland.
I woke up to a text that next morning—he was thanking me again for a lovely time and told me that he left something for me in my car. I remember my heart racing a million miles a minute as I power-walked outside in my pajamas and picked up the sweetest little enamel pin of a rose that I’d commented on the night before.
I’ll be bold and say I knew right then. The sweetest, simplest gesture that somehow held so much weight.
The non-stop texting and phone calls and FaceTimes subsequently began and I headed out to London to meet a friend, and to Paris for some photo jobs a couple of days later.
While in Paris, I sat in my hotel room and casually mentioned booking a plane ticket to Texas for a couple of months from then, after I’d be home from a bit more non-stop travel that I had previously booked. I went for it and bought the ticket and that evening in Paris, it all began, again.
From our first day together in Texas :’)
Fast-forward two years, give or take a week, and we got engaged in Paris. Truly didn’t see it coming and it was the happiest surprise of my life for so many reasons.
After a few days of lost sleep and around 20 hours of travel, I arrived in Paris at 8 am. I was exhausted and Nick had a car waiting for me: like - a man standing with a sign with my name on it at the airport when I arrived - kind of car. It didn’t take me by surprise because he’s the most thoughtful person I know and he’d do something like that pretty much at any point just because. My driver took me straight to my hotel and my room was ready early which could not have been better.
I slept for several hours, then started slowly waking up and getting ready since Nick was supposed to get in around 5 pm. I hadn’t seen him for a week since he’d been in Germany with our friend Andy before he came to meet me.
He’d sent his flight number and a photo from the tarmac and it didn’t look like anything was delayed. I was waiting to hear from him on a game plan for after he got in but figured he was dealing with customs and everything.
There was a knock on my hotel door and when I opened it up, I witnessed an incredibly vibrant bouquet and immediately noticed a piece of what looked like Nick’s notebook paper (that he often uses to write notes) tucked inside. As I brought it into my room and pulled out the note, it had that day’s date on it. I instantly began to wonder how he got it there: did he mail it in advance?
It had a few brief instructions and told me to meet him at an address about an hour before sunset that was about a 20 minute walk from the hotel. I still had a couple hours so I took my time getting ready, wandered around the neighborhood I was staying in, (the 10th Arr., a true fairytale), got a snack, went back to my room to wrap up some work and then I headed out.
As I walked, I wondered what was about to happen but couldn’t be sure of anything. It was so beautiful out, the sun was setting, it was warm, and each street I walked down was prettier than the next.
That last ten minutes of the walk I began to get a little bit more nervous as I routed to this random address that didn’t seem to be marked as a restaurant or a shop or anything. I didn’t know where I was going to end up and I remember starting to shake a little bit as I reached the last 100m of the walk and as I looked up, there was our friend Andy.
He was leaning up against a wall and I was fairly dumbfounded as I got to him. I think I asked him what he was doing in Paris because as far as I knew, he flew back home to Dallas the day before.
He hugged me and silently led me through a doorway and told me some numbers to punch into a lockbox. I opened the last door in the hallway and there was a staircase lined with tea candles. At this point, I was starting to get tunnel vision.
Andy told me which door to walk into and I rounded a corner, down a hallway, into the most beautiful room full of candles and flowers. As I stepped into the room, a camera started going off and suddenly Nick was there and he was taking my coat from me and leading me into the center of the room.
He said a handful of very logical, sweet things and by the time he was on one knee, I was on the floor too. I think I was hugging him as he was asking me.
I was so shocked. Some resounding cheers were coming from the corner of the room and it turned out Maresa, my SIL to-be was there taking the photos. That’s a whole story too, but essentially all of this had been in the works since December and Maresa had been planning to be in Paris the entire time and had to keep it a surprise. Never would have known: she kept it so casual. Her flight was leaving from the gate next to mine at the airport at 6 am a couple of days prior, and she was three people in front of me in the TSA line—she got through and hid in the bathroom, and I never saw her, probably because I was half asleep, haha.
Nick and Maresa had actually gotten to Paris a full day before me to get everything ready, had researched a flight number to send me for the day of, and the pictures from the tarmac were from Nick’s flight the day before which were all part of the plan to throw me off. Truly the most well-executed surprise of all time, imo. I love these people so much and it felt like an actual dream. So happy about forever with the loveliest person I’ve ever met !
Had dinner at Buvette then ended the evening at an underground jazz bar : )
