“I knew he was the one…”

“There are a million moments I could attribute to being “the one” when I knew Ben was the one.  A lot of those moments could be when other people said he should be the one, including my sister the Christmas after Ben and I started dating (we had only started dating the spring of that year).  My sister had had a few cocktails and suggested we get married.  Ben and I weren’t phased by her comment…perhaps another sign.

The real moment I had that “feeling” was the next spring, about a year after we’d been together when I called him to see if he wanted to help me move a friend into a new house at 6am one Saturday.  Ben was in law school spending long weeks studying and not super inclined to wake early on a Saturday.  However, he is someone who finds a lot of joy in manual labor so I thought I’d at least ask. He responded with a genuine “I would LOVE to help them,” like that’s the only thing he would want to do that day or any day for that matter.  I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised because of course Ben would want to help – I learned that about him long before this moment.  But I remember thinking that time, “This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.  I want to spend it with someone who gets so much joy from helping others.”

I think even when I tell Ben that story, he kind of rolls his eyes like “there has GOT to be some other moment,” but I honestly knew right then.  However, to appease anyone else that rolls his or her eyes as well, I also knew because when he looks at me, from the day I met him and even today, I know I’m special.”

- Shelby

“When Mark and I planned a vacation to Hawaii in late 2009, I had a feeling that he might pop the question as we had been dating for five years at the time and he was acting a little strange the month before our trip.  Since I thought this might be a possibility, I made sure to pack some cute outfits for the trip so that I would be picture ready when the time actually came.  We were in Kauai first and it didn’t happen.  Then, we went to Maui for the last four days of our vacation.  By the time it started getting closer to our trip’s end, I decided he wasn’t going to propose, so I put away all my cute outfits and broke out the old tank tops and shorts from my suitcase.

The last full day he insisted that we go on a sunset sail and I told him I preferred to just lounge around, but he really acted like his heart was set on the sunset sail so we went.  At the end of the sail, we got dropped off at the beach.  After the rest of the crowd left, he started acting very nervous so then I knew he was about to do it.  I later found out that he had been carrying the loose ring in his pocket the entire trip waiting for the right moment.  I did wonder why he wore the same pair of shorts the entire trip, but then he explained that they were his only shorts with very deep pockets.”

–Abril

–Jenn

“Most of all, I remember…”

“Franklin and I were set up on a blind date by a mutual friend. I went for a free meal and nothing else, and came home after the date and told my mom that I was going to marry him. It really was love at first sight… And I thought it didn’t exist!

Two years later, Franklin took me to the place where we went as a part of our first date… to the bar at the historic Driskill Hotel in Austin! We were supposed to meet up with his sister, who said that she was running late, so we sat on the couch in the bar and just talked. It was such a relaxing moment. So you can imagine how surprised I was when he looked at me and said “was this the one you wanted?” and just flashed me the ring… It didn’t hit me that he was actually proposing to me at that point. I reached for the ring to see it, and he pulled back saying that he needed to do it the right way. He pulled out the ring box and began moving towards the floor and then it hit me–It was actually happening! I IMMEDIATELY began to cry as he got on one knee!!! The whole bar (which was filled with SXSW go-ers) started cheering and clapping for us!! After about five minutes of crying, hugging and “oh-my-gosh”-ing, I realized I hadn’t actually said yes yet!! (which I immediately made sure of!!)

I had no idea that any of this was planned, of course, which is why I was wearing a sequined top and jeans!! (I thought I was going to a comedy show for SXSW and we were meeting friends at the bar for drinks beforehand!)

After the proposal, we went to the Austin Club for dinner with our parents. We talked about how we were eating at the place where my parents had celebrated their wedding reception, and after we put in an order for dessert, my mom suggested that we walk upstairs to the ballroom to look at it as a reception venue for us! When I opened the door to the ballroom, all our friends and family were there to celebrate with us!! It was a perfectly magical night and I could not be happier! I GET TO MARRY MY BEST FRIEND!! I’m the luckiest girl on Earth!!!”

–Chandler

“After having been a couple for 8 years and completing a cross-country move together, Rod and I knew it was about time to get engaged.  Rod, a romantic, had often hinted that we “had to go to Ireland together.” I finally realized that this was where he wanted to propose, and that we needed to make this trip happen.  I recalled that years before we were watching television when a scene of green pastures and dramatic rock cliffs prompted Rod to ask me, “do you know where that is?  Those are the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland, the most beautiful place on earth.”  And so, on July 7, 2008, as we deplaned from our transatlantic flight and headed for our first stop, the Cliffs of Moher, I was sure my moment had come.  We climbed out of our tiny Irish rental car, and I could even see the outline of the small box in my boyfriend’s pant pocket.  But the Cliffs of Moher had changed since Rod’s previous visit over eight years earlier.  Instead of an unfrequented, mystical landscape dominated by the sounds of the wind and sea, there was now a steady influx of big diesel tourist buses, a bustling gift shop, and even a fence keeping visitors back a safe distance from the full beauty and danger of the cliffs.  As I said, Rod is a romantic, and there was no proposal that day. To say that I was disappointed, frustrated, and confused that we had come all this way for nothing…well that would be an understatement.  And our next day in Galway was—strained.  But unknown to me, Rod actually had a Plan B.  Two days later he drove me up the remote, northwest coast of Ireland to County Donegal, where we found what is truly the most spectacular place on earth.  The cliffs of Slieve League are three times higher than those at Moher and almost completely uninhabited, except for a tribe of adorable billy goats.  Rod made us climb, and climb some more, all the way to the top, which we finally reached as the sun was setting over the North Atlantic, and then finally, finally….”

–Gabi

“Harris and I met in college at UT. Very common. Except, I was in my junior year and he was a freshman; not so common. Our friends would make fun of us for flirting, but all we knew is that we had fun hanging out together. He decided to take me out for Valentine’s Day and when we got to the restaurant there was a long stem rose and cake that said “Kristin, Will you be my girlfriend? -Harris”.

He turned about as red as the rose and just kept blurting, “I didn’t do this. I promise, I didn’t do this.” After a great and awkward dinner we found out that my sister and a couple of friends decided it was time for us to start dating. They had claimed to be helping their baby brother out when they brought the cake in earlier that afternoon. Needless to say, we started dating the next day. Thanks to the cake and some very intuitive friends!”

–Kristin

What Jennie remembers about meeting Robert:

“Robert and I met Labor Day weekend of 2008 at the Blue Moon, in Ft. Worth, Texas. We both noticed each other from across the bar. What caught my eye was Robert’s black cowboy hat (I have always loved cowboys.)

After several minutes, Robert came over and we ended up talking the rest of the evening and before the night ended, we exchanged phone numbers. After commuting back and forth between Waco and Dallas for 6 months, I knew that this was the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.

After a year of dating, he proposed on July 3rd, 2009 at my family’s ranch in Creede, Colorado. Our wedding will take place May 1, 2010 at the Driskill Hotel in Austin!”

–Jennie