Wedding Date on Nov 10, 2018

Meeting Your Mate Mike and I met at Front Page in Washington, D.C. I went out with my girlfriends Sarah and Elizabeth (both in the wedding party) and he was out with his guy friend Patrick (also in the wedding party). We were sitting at a table, and when the table opened up beside us, Mike and Patrick sat down. I was on the opposite side of our table so Mike started talking to my friend Elizabeth, but by the end of the night, it was clear that we had a "thing." Mike and Patrick bought us SO many fireball shots which is probably why we decided to get late night dinner with them. We went to a place nearby, had some burgers and fries, and then Mike asked for my number before we left. The thing I remember the most about Mike from that night is that as we were saying goodbye, he picked me up and spun me around -- I thought that was the sweetest moment from our first night. The following day, the girls and I drove to Georgia, where I spent my summer interning after my first year of law school. Mike told me that when I got back to D.C. in August, he would take me out. BUT he didn't text me until December!! I got a text from him, "Is it too late for that drink?" and of course, I said, "No." We went on our first official date, and it was amazing! We drank wine, talked a lot, went out for a night on the town, and it was so much fun! We decided a few months later that we were going to do this for real, and it was the best decision ever! Falling In Love: Aspen -- I tell Mike all the time that the summer after we started dating (summer of 2015) was the best summer of my life. We constantly hung out and we started bringing each other around our friends. We would go to concerts, go out to restaurants, hang out with friends, do outdoorsy things, watch TV and movies, everything! So for me, I fell in love that summer because I learned so much about him. When we first started hanging out before we got serious, I didn't think he had a sense of humor, but I was sooo wrong. I learned that summer that he can make me laugh harder than anyone and that he was the biggest love bug in the world! I learned how much he loves his family and friends (and the Philadelphia Eagles), and he never made me second guess falling in love with him. I think that's why it was so easy. Mike - Aspen had my attention from the night I met her. I know it took me a few months to text her, but she would come up in conversation and I was still secretly plotting our first drink. After our first couple of dates it was clear we had an amazing connection. I was blown away by how effortless she made law school look. We started to take each other seriously in the summer. My brother and guy friends came over for an afternoon rooftop barbecue and Aspen came over dressed to the nines looking HOT! I was so proud to introduce her to my friends and my middle brother Kevin. That night I told her I saw a future with her, a very serious future. There's one weekend in particular that stands out to me when I knew I was completely in love with Aspen. July 4th of that summer, we spent the whole weekend together and by the end of it I knew I was going to keep this girl around as long as she'd let me. Popping the Question: I had a vacation planned to Canada in June 2017. Before my trip, Mike wanted to take me on a date, so we planned our date for the Saturday night before I was scheduled to leave. That Saturday morning, I woke up, walked to the kitchen to make my coffee, and there was a post-it note by the coffee maker where he had written about how excited he was for our date and that he loves me, etc. I was in a terrible mood all day and told Mike that I didn't want to go on the date and that I would rather stay home. He told me that we are going, so I snapped out of my bad mood. I knew something was up when he was ready a whole half hour before I was. Typically, he is still scrambling to get ready at the last minute. He called an uber, and when we got in, he told the uber to go an unusual way into the city, and at that point, I knew that something was happening. He had the uber driver drop us off at the Netherlands Carillon in Arlington, which has an amazing view of the city. We walked up the pathway by the bell tower, and he dropped to one knee and asked me to marry him! It was an amazing moment! He had a photographer there to capture our special moment, and we had a mini photo shoot right after he proposed. Later that night, we went to dinner and stayed at a nice hotel in the city. It was a perfect night!