We're Getting Married!

John and I met on Saturday, October 1st, 2016 when I was working as a server at Victory Brewing Company. He came in with a really large group for a friend’s birthday party. I wasn’t supposed to be their server, but the coworker who was supposed to be didn’t feel like taking a group of 30+ at the very end of the night. Almost all of them were difficult, they’d order drinks from me and then disappear, and a few of them were rude. John was one of the few people in the group that was so nice and pleasant the whole time, thanking me for everything I was doing for the group. When they were all leaving, I noticed a pretty nasty note on a receipt that belonged to Jordan Battaglia. On another receipt, there was another note, but this one was so nice - and it was from John Battaglia. The next morning, I found John on Facebook and simply sent him a message thanking him for being so nice and pleasant the night before, and added that not everyone in the group was as kind as he was. We started chatting casually, and eventually he asked me to get coffee with him sometime. He said he knew of this super cool underground coffee shop called Starbucks. That week was my birthday, and we had made plans on my birthday, but I chickened out and postponed. We rescheduled for Saturday, October 22. We went on our first date at Stroudt Preserve in West Chester, PA and then got coffee and pizza afterward!

It took very little time for me to realize that John was the guy for me. I probably would've married him three months into our relationship. What truly solidified those feelings, though, was almost three years ago. John and I got to spend constant, extended time with each other in 2020 because of a certain global pandemic. I had already known that I loved him and wanted to be with him forever, but getting all of this time together made me realize just how badly. Due to the circumstances in the world, we had to entertain ourselves and each other, and we truly made the best of it and we grew as a couple during that time. Also worth noting - I always knew that my life partner needed to get along with my family. He needed to be someone that my siblings could bond with, and John became exactly that. My siblings, parents, grandparents, and entire extended family adore him, and that was really important to me.

Me and Kelly have been together for close to 7 years now. We’ve spent a lot of time together especially during Covid and enjoyed every second of it. I feel like I find new reasons to love her everyday. She’s selfless and caring and always there for me, no matter what. One of the kindest things she’s done for me was at a time when I was really sick, I had terrible vertigo and couldn’t move without the world spinning around me. Kelly’s car was in the shop and she couldn’t drive my manual jeep at the time so she took her bicycle out and rode it to the nearest pharmacy to get me medicine. She’s always there to make sure I’m cared for and loved and I couldn’t imagine being with anyone else.

John works for his brother, Andrew's, masonry company and they get to work some pretty cool jobs. In May of 2022, they were sent to the beach in Avalon, New Jersey to work on John Middleton's beach house for a week. Andrew decided to make this a little vacation for us. John and I spent that week with Andrew and his wife Steph, and their kids Sophia, Gianna, Bria, and Andrew as well as their brother, Jordan and his wife Melissa, and their kids Adriana and Roman. While the guys worked during the day, Steph, Melissa, me, and the kids would go to the beach or relax at the house and play with the kids and just hang out together. John and I made plans to spend some time just the two of us on Wednesday night. We'd go out to dinner and then sit on the beach and watch the sunset in Cape May, and that's where he planned to propose. Wednesday evening rolled around, and everyone is on the beach, fishing, throwing a softball, finding seashells and sand dollars, and just having so much fun. I suggested that we just go into Cape May the following night...probably killing John inside, but he had to act cool. On Thursday, everyone was saying how tired they were and that they just needed a relaxing night. Basically just making the house seem so boring and uneventful, just to make sure John and I actually went to Cape May (they knew the plan.) We had a really nice dinner at the Ugly Mug, and then drove to Sunset Beach. Before we could pick out a spot to set our blanket up, I stubbed my toe so hard on an anchor that was for some reason buried and sticking up from the sand and the pain immediately took my breath away, so that was a good start. We made our way down the beach, set up the blanket, and watched the sunset. John started saying all of these sweet things, telling me why he loved me, what he thought was so great about me, etc. and he ended his really nice speech with "...and I've waited long enough to do this." He pulled out the ring and asked me to marry him. It was perfect.