We're getting married!

Like many couples in today's digital world we met online! On a random Thursday in early April, Michael got a new message request in his OKCupid dating app. Hayley decided to message Michael "because he was cute and he looked like a good person based on his profile". Michael accepted the message request and explained that he was in Manhattan with his brother and wouldn't be able to respond quickly and that he was sorry. Later on in the early stages of the conversation, Michael really wanted to talk to Hayley outside of OKCupid and bravely asked for her phone number. Hayley never gave out her phone number right away, but she felt different, like she already knew that he was a great guy. Hayley and Michael had their first date 10 days later on April 17th, and after a couple of more dates, Michael finally asked Hayley to be his girlfriend, complete with chocolates and a stuffed bear. The rest is history!

Michael knew from about 2 years in that he wanted to marry Hayley. But because of their age difference and with Hayley still being in school, he wanted to wait until she was done. In the early stages of the preparation, Michael wasn't sure how he wanted to do it, but he knew he wanted it to be a family affair. See, when Hayley was younger, she was very close with her cousins. But life, and later a pandemic, got in the way of them seeing each other. One activity that Hayley and her cousins used to do when they were younger, with the parents too, was apple picking. Michael had the idea that they should do it as a family and he would propose during it. When Michael approached Hayley's cousins with the idea, they were thrilled and wanted to help as much as possible. The idea of apple picking was brought up at a family holiday dinner and Hayley was none the wiser! As the weeks and then the day grew nearer, Hayley noticed that Michael was going out during the day on the weekends to "fix computers". But little did she know, Michael was actually purchasing the ring and scoping out the perfect place at the orchard to propose! On the day of apple picking, it was previously set that only 2 out of the 5 of Hayley's cousins would be showing up - the other two, as well as her aunt and uncle "made up" excuses on why they couldn't come. Apple picking started as usual, and towards the end, the members of the family that were there wanted to take some pictures because of how nice the scenery looked. When it was Hayley and Michael's turn, they did get a few "normal" pictures in, and then Michael told Hayley how much he loved her, got down on one knee, and asked Hayley "will you marry me?". Of course she said yes and then two more of her cousins popped out of apple trees where they were taking pictures and also surprised Hayley. After many pictures were taken of Hayley and Michael, with Hayley's ring and other members of the family, Michael explained to Hayley that the fun was not yet over and that they were going to celebrate at the cousins' house near the apple orchard.