Time to Ball with the Brodys!

It all began with an ambivalent right swipe. Freshly home from the UK and having succumbed to digital dating, Michelle found a self-described Mezcal-loving CEO with two handsome photos and two questionable ones. Deciding to take a chance despite the asynchronous photos, Michelle and Brody quickly entered into a comfortable and steady banter. That is - until Michelle learned that she had, unbeknownst to her, also been simultaneously speaking with Brody's employee. Though it did not seem that way on the surface, an internal competition raged on for the first date. [Spoiler Alert: Brody won]. After a wonderful first date at Cienfuegos, chosen by Brody because of Michelle's love of rum, Brody continued to curate endless exciting dates that not only helped reintroduce Michelle to a city she had forgotten after six years abroad, but also to a kind of love Michelle had all but given up on. Despite a brief Friends-style break, Brody quickly realized that there was no one else he wanted to watch movies with in full recline, and the two have been inseparable ever since.

After more than a year and a half of endless trips, accidental (and then purposeful) cohabitation, inside jokes and full on love, Brody finally decided to put the ring he had purchased 10 months earlier to use. In true Brody fashion, he planned a surprise getaway for the two of them, crafting it to suit Michelle's preferred aesthetic (kitschy, charming and full of wine). Taking her to the quaint town of North Fork, Long Island, he arranged a day of winery hopping and a lunch at the aptly-named Lover's Lane. It was at the second winery, Mattebella Vineyards, nestled into a private leafy nook that Brody got down on one knee and launched into what was sure to be a romantic and thoughtful proposal - but was promptly interrupted by Michelle's proclamations of "oh shit!" and effusive crying. [Spoiler alert: Michelle said yes.]

Though Brody & Michelle are both somewhat ambivalent about the concept of fate and destiny, they can't help but think there is something to it given the course of their relationship. Though Brody had imagined his life would take him down the proverbial forever-bachelor route, prior to his & Michelle's first date he distinctly remembers telling two of his coworkers: "you're not going to believe me, but listen to this and hear me out, I'm going to call it like Babe Ruth - the girl I'm going out with tonight, I'm going to marry." It was only five minutes into their first date that Brody recalls smiling and thinking to himself "you called it - this is the person you're going to marry." And as Brody is rarely wrong about his instincts, well, it clearly came to be.