July 23, 2011
at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church and River Oaks Country Club
“Most of all, I remember…”
“Lizzy and I met in Washington D.C. on our way down to do Peace Corps Panama in August 2009. It just happened that she was the first person I met during an ice breaker and then once in Panama, she and I lived next door to each other for the first 3 months. During that time we would walk to class together, do our homework and just hang out and talk. It was those first conversations and simple / amazing moments that started everything. We quickly became best friends and now I can say that I’m engaged and going to marry my best friend. Pretty cool, huh?
Anyways, after those first couple months of training and living right next door we both moved to our respective communities, which just happened to be 11 hours door to door away from each other. It just so happens that neither one of us had cell phone reception either…
So for that next year we spent in Panama we would both hike up our mountains (45 minutes for her, just 30 for me) to talk every other day. On top of that, every 10 days or so we would hike out of our sites (1 hour for her, 2 hours for me), hop on our respective buses and meet up in Panama City.
Aside from those times we also managed to spend many memorable moments together at Thanksgiving, Christmas, Carnival, Peace Corps Trainings and Seminars and vacations to the U.S. together. It was an amazing year leading up to one of the most nerve-racking and awesome moments in my life. But I’ll let Lizzy tell that part of our story.”
–Tom
“On the morning on July 1st, Tom made me breakfast, and we (ironically enough, watched The Proposal…he said that part was not planned, but definitely a nice touch). Then just causally Tom said, ” Lets do lunch in the city.” He told me that he made reservations, but I was just taking my time getting ready. I wasn’t even going to put on makeup because Tom said that it was just so casual (he was doing his best to throw me off, which worked because I HAD NO IDEA what was going on). He also told me to pack a bag because we would probably going out in New York with his friends and we would crash with one of them. So I grabbed a t-shirt and toothbrush…thinking we would be back the next morning. Tom causally said “you might want to bring more in case we stay longer.” I was still just taking my sweet time (Tom had made reservations 2 months in advance) and he was starting to get nervous. I had no idea why we were in such a rush. But I started to pick up the pace and packed a bag.
We drove to upper Manhattan to an amazing restaurant called New Leaf that is located in the Cloisters gardens (looks like Central Park put more flowers and less people). We had a great lunch, and then we took a walk through the gardens. The weather was BEAUTIFUL!!! It was sunny with such a great breeze. Tom and I stopped at this quiet spot. He gave me a hug and said “I want to do this forever”…I was still COMPLETELY clueless…I was like “Of course, me too!”
Then he pulled out the ring, and the sweet nervous Tom could only get out the words “will you marry me?”
I was in COMPLETE shock. I had NO IDEA it was happening now but of course, I said YES I WILL MARRY YOU! And so we were engaged!!!
Also, we weren’t crashing at one of Tom’s friend’s apartments, Tom had booked a hotel room for us at the Hotel Roger Williams. Everyone at the hotel knew what was going on and kept congratulating us. We get up to the room and there are bottles of my favorite champagne and dozen long stem roses. AGAIN, I was BLOWN away!! He told me that we had dinner reservations at 7:00 so we needed to head out soon. So we had a glass of champagne, and I changed into a party dress that Tom had packed for me. We were having dinner at La Lanterna Caffe. At this point, I had been trying to call my parents to tell them that we were engaged, but I could not reach them. Tom just blew me off telling me that we would talk to them after dinner. Tom and I walked into dinner and MY PARENTS were sitting at the table with Tom’s parents!!!! I just started crying. I couldn’t believe they were there. Tom flew them in and booked them a hotel room months ago. I was just so happy both families sitting and celebrating the engagement. It was great.
The next morning, my sister Lacey bought a ticket to come celebrate as well. Tom and I spent the day calling friends and just soaking up the special moment. Tom had also planned a small engagement dinner for some of his friends and family, and my family at Freemans. Tom’s best friend from New York put together a menu for the party and at the top of the menu it said “Congratulations Tom and Lizzy!” Tom had put so much planning into every moment of this weekend.
Saturday morning, Tom’s parents, brother, sister, grandma, aunt, and other grandma and my parents and sister went to Tom’s parents house in small town New Jersey for a catered brunch. It was so amazing to have all the families spending quality time together sitting on the porch.
Since November 2010, we have been back in the U.S. and after spending time with family in Houston, Memphis, Washington D.C. and New Jersey we have happily settled into our lives in New York City.”
–Lizzy























by admin
no comments
add a comment link to this post email a friend