Believe it or not, Stevie and I met from connecting on an online dating site. The irony behind that is, we previously had mutual negative opinions towards online dating.

For me, you could call it stubborn or expecting Prince Charming to fall out of the sky; clearly, we both caved and tried it on a whim. By mistake, I had initially sent him the wrong phone number. I’m so happy we corrected that.

Our first date was at Sesame Burgers. I didn’t know what to expect. How can you when you’re shopping for your potential future husband online? 😂

When I walked into the restaurant, he was standing there waiting for me and gave me a hug, I thought that was really sweet. I noticed he was tall and had pretty blue eyes. He was on time, and I was running only a couple of minutes late, to begin with, then a little more late because I got stuck behind a train. He didn’t seem to mind, though. 😆

When we sat down, we talked and talked, and the waitress had to come back two more times until we were ready to order. Something about talking with him felt very comfortable and natural. I noticed that I could read his characteristics and personality almost immediately and that those pieces of him were genuine and authentic. He told me that he was nervous, which made me like him even more, I admired his honesty and vulnerability. Of course, I was very nervous, too.

It was entirely unintentional, that we ended up ordering the same exact thing. 💗

I realized, “I’d love to marry this man,” when we boated back from Virginia to Charleston. Stevie had bought a boat in Virginia that had needed a bit of work. I braved that storm with Stevie’s Dad, brother, and his best friend Jonathon. Yes, the only girl.

There were complications, and I admired how he handled stress and executed problem-solving. He remained a patient and resilient sailor through the blinding downpour of pelting rain and mechanical problems, to name a few occurrences.

On October 4th, we boated from Charleston to Beaufort for the Shrimp Festival. I was running the annual Run Forrest Run 5k, many scenes of Forrest Gump were filmed here. After the race, I didn’t stick around for the awards because I couldnt find Stevie. However, a bit later, I would find out why.

Stevie and his best friend had “signed us up” to participate in a “raffle” to win prizes. In front of a crowd of people, my name was called. I truly and honestly thought it was just a medal from the race, but didn’t receive it because I left.

I walked onto the stage and won the best medal, prize, and award this world has offered me. Stevie snuck behind me, got down on one knee and asked me to marry him, in front of family, friends, and plenty of strangers.

I was on a cloud of bliss, and I know he was, too. Holding hands and strolling around Beaufort, I’d look up at his face sneaking glances, he had the sweetest most sincere smile on his face, which made me smile even more. That was the happiest day of my life. We have many more of those days to come.