Give us the details! When? Where? How?
We had been dating for over a year in Baltimore, and he had to move to Buffalo a couple months before he proposed to start his residency so we were long-distance. I was flying up to Buffalo to visit for the weekend. Brandon had told me earlier in the week he read his schedule wrong, and actually had to work for part of the weekend so I was a little annoyed—which you can probably understand if you’ve been in a long-distance relationship because you have limited time together.
Based on this, my expectations (as far as a proposal) were low to non-existent. Brandon picked me up from the airport Friday evening and told me he had made dinner reservations for 8ish. We had a couple hours to hang before dinner, so he asked if I wanted to grab some wine and relax at his apartment until our reservation. On the way home Brandon needed to make a pit stop at the store to pick up some milk (so he said).
It is an amazing feeling to find the person you want to spend the rest of your life with, and spending forever with that person is what is truly important.
He purposely dropped me off at the liquor store close by to pick up wine while he went into the grocery store to buy flowers (which I wasn’t aware of at the time). After waiting for him at the liquor store for about 15-20 minutes I became a bit agitated. I didn’t know why it was taking him so long to get milk. When he picked me up I asked him what took so long, and he said, “Sorry. The line was long.”
I responded saying, “Jeez. I thought you might be doing something nice and getting me flowers.” (Half teasing of course. If only I knew!) We hung out and got ready for dinner at his apartment. Brandon showed me the restaurant we were going to on his phone, and casually mentioned it was pretty nice incase I wanted to dress up. I enjoy going out and dressing up for most of our dates, so I didn’t second guess him when he said that and put on a black dress.
We got to our reservations, but it happened to be restaurant week in Buffalo. The restaurant was super behind, and they weren’t going to be ready for us for another hour. The restaurant was really nice and generous—they comped all our drinks at the bar while we waited and ended up giving us the best seat in the house when they were ready. The table was dimly lit, private, and very romantic. We had an awesome dinner. The food was great, and of course the company. I even forgot that he had to work the next day for a little bit!
After dinner, I figured we would head home because he had an early morning ahead of him, but Brandon suggested grabbing one last drink at a nice cocktail bar we had visited once before and enjoyed. I didn’t have work the next day, so of course I was down! On our way to the bar, Brandon said he wanted to go for a walk to digest his food. I thought that was strange, because it was drizzling. I gave him a look and just said, “It’s raining dude.” He came up with something about how parking would be easier, so I just went with it.
I got out of the car and started walking along the Canalside, assuming we were walking towards the bar. Brandon suddenly stopped near a bench and started talking. I kind of blacked out for a little bit because I wasn’t sure if this was really happening or if I was dreaming. Brandon told me he loved me and couldn’t imagine his life without me. He said he originally was planning on proposing in Baltimore along the water and on “our bench” where we first said I love you, but he wanted to surprise me and figured that I would be to suspicious of that. He decided to propose in Buffalo on the Canalside where we could have “our new bench” in our new home. Sometime after realizing this wasn’t a dream and actual reality, I screamed, “Of course I’ll marry you!”
“Of course I’ll marry you!”
We stood there holding each other for a bit and sharing a couple kisses of course! It was dark and kinda chilly out, so we had the entire place to ourselves, and the light rain made me feel like I was in a romantic movie. Brandon and I started to walk back towards the car when he opened the trunk and pulled out the flowers he got for me when he was supposedly getting milk at the store. I was surprised again, and also felt kinda bad for teasing him earlier. We called our parents to share the good news, and drove to the cocktail bar where Brandon had one of his friends meet us to take some pictures! We spent the rest of the night enjoying being newly engaged!
What has been your favorite experience planning the wedding?
Haha this is a tough question. So far we’ve only decided on the venue, and I am in the beginning stages of putting together our website (with the help of Joy of course!) I think my favorite part is going to be picking out my dresses. (Yes, I said dresses.) Brandon and I are having an Indian/American wedding, so I’m going to have a traditional Indian dress for the ceremony and traditional white dress for the reception!
How do you stay sane under the pressures of wedding planning?
Honestly, just talking to Brandon, my family, and friends! Wedding planning is stressful, and I’m so grateful I have such a good support system!
What is your favorite part of using Joy for your wedding?
I love that it is a website and an app! Our wedding is going to be a long weekend event so having the “Schedule” section will be helpful for people to see the entire timeline of events.
What piece of advice would you give couples to ensure that they use Joy to its fullest potential?
To take advantage and use all the available sections and to share the App with your family/friends and encourage them to download it!
At Joy we believe that even though a wedding lasts a day, joy lasts forever. What does that mean to you?
It is an amazing feeling to find the person you want to spend the rest of your life with, and spending forever with that person is what is truly important.
