Though we had met in passing our first proper introduction was at an Ugly Sweater Party thrown by a mutual friend. Olivia and her twin brother Oscar were throwing their own holiday party a couple days later so Olivia did the only proper thing to do and invited Alexander to their "Ugly Sweater" Party. Needless to say Alexander showed up proudly wearing his brand new light up ugly Christmas Sweater. Alexander quickly told everyone just to call him Alex. Alex immediately hit it off with Olivia's dad as he was manning the grill...little did he know in years to come he would be the one cooking up the meals for us. At some point during the night a group picture was taken and Alex, not wanting to miss it, high jumped over our basement couch. In the process he smashed his head on the ceiling and to this day there is still a dent. When Alex asked Olivia out on a date several days later she couldn't say no. It takes dedication to sore over a couch with so much power that you leave a dent and still make it to the picture(to this day no one actually knows who has the picture). As they say the rest is history.

It was a Saturday morning, THREE days before Alex was packing up everything he had in a Uhaul truck and moving 800 miles south to NC. Olivia was quite concerned that Alex had approximately ZERO boxes packed. She also woke up with no voice and even after drinking the tea Alex made her could hardly say hi. So as one can imagine when Alex suggested they go on a trail ride, Olivia disagreed(maybe for the first time ever on this topic). After some extra coaxing Olivia agreed to go. It started rough as Casbah(Olivia's horse) was recovering from an injury and hadn't been ridden in two months. Casbah was pretty sure the bike pump was going to eat her, then the benches were coming after her, there were a lot of benches....This whole time Alex is on his trusty stead Forensic with a ring stuffed in his cowboy boots. Though there might have been some doubt Alex stayed positive that Casbah would get it together. As they turned for home Casbah had calmed down and Alex informed Olivia he had a surprise for her. Alex said, "I hired a photographer to take pictures of Casbah and you, she's just up ahead. Olivia responded with, "What?! I didn't clip her hair, she doesn't look good enough!!!". As they got closer the photographer had them pose for several pictures. When Alex decided he needed to get off for a picture Olivia knew something was up. The photographer then told Olivia to get off of Casbah too and to look into the distance. Alex got down on one knee behind Olivia and pulled out a ring. Olivia looked back and patiently waited for Alex to say something, remember she has no voice. The conversation went like this. Alex: Blank smile looking up at Olivia with a ring in hand Olivia: Smiles back and tries to talk Alex: "I told you I had a surprise!" Olivia: "Yeah, are you going to ask me something?" Alex(nervous and not actually sure what Olivia said): "It's a surprise!" Olivia: "Okay but if you want me to answer you need to ask a question!" Alex: "Oh, Will you marry me?" Olivia: "Yes!" ~We can not wait to celebrate our special day and dance the night away under the shadows of the Shawangunk Ridge.~