Engaged: July 14, 2007

We both were living in New York and Tyler had just graduated and I still had 1 more year left to go. At the beginning of the Summer we both went home to see our families. After 4 weeks I came back to NY because I had signed up for summer classes so I could graduate on time. Tyler stayed home for a few more weeks. A few weeks later, Tyler was coming back and I was excited to see him again and spend the rest of the Summer together. His flight was not coming in until around 11 that evening so I hung out with Nicole at our apartment until it was time to go pick him up. My Mom was texting me constantly asking me when I was going to the airport, if I was already there, to tell Tyler hi, to ask if I was by myself or if Nicole came with me. I thought it was a bit weird since it takes a while for Mom to text me back. I ignored it and just answered all her questions.

I was at the security checkpoint gate waiting for Tyler to arrive. As he arrived, we went to the baggage claim. I kind of noticed he was quiet since he’s usually excited and catching up after being away from each other for a while. I didn’t think much of it though because I knew it was late and he was probably tired. We got 1 of his bags and we were waiting for the other one and he seemed to be focused on waiting for it to come out. I saw a duffel bag come out and only caught “Steph V” on it and I immediately thought it was cool that this bag belonged to another girl here with the same name as me and I looked around then back at Tyler to find him on his knees. Right there it clicked in my head that the bag was Tyler’s. He asked me to marry him and of course I said, “Are you serious?” over and over and he assured me he was serious! I said Yes!

As we were walking out to the car, I texted my Mom and then realized that’s why my mom was texting me earlier because my family knew. Tyler called my Dad the night before to ask for my hand in marriage, and my Dad said he would love to have him in our family. I’m surprised my Dad didn’t tell Tyler No as a joke since my Grandpa told him No when he asked him if he could marry my Mom. My parents had to threat my sister not to tell me and that if she did she would be in trouble. It was nice to come home to e-mails from relatives and my Grandma congratulating us since my parents had called everyone.

Engagement Photos by Jason Gervase

We got married on November 24, 2008 and I’d do it all over again if I could.