J. ANNE

It isn’t a secret that I enjoy writing.  It is fun for me to lay out my thoughts, banter with the internet, and throw out my version of events through my words.  Usually when I meet a couple, we will chat about how they met, how their relationship unfolded, and how the proposal happened.  I can then take that information and create a blog post using their information and my words.  So you know that it is rare that I just copy and paste an email to share with you all.  But that is exactly what I am going to do, because John’s story of how he met Tara is both endearing and beautifully written.

So here’s the story, written by John:

Tara and I met while attending Albion College in Albion, Michigan. While it might have been easier for me if it had been “love at first sight”, it really wasn’t. But that makes for a better story. (By the way, this is John doing the story telling, so forgive me if some details are embellished or skewed.)

Our relationship started off with less of a bang and more of an implosion. I had loosely known Tara since freshman year but didn’t work up the courage to ask her out until near the end of our sophomore year. That didn’t go so well. In fact, it went so poorly that I refused to talk to her for the rest of the semester and did all I could to avoid running into her for the next several months.

It wasn’t until the next fall that some of Tara’s sorority sisters (the same ones, in fact, who had encouraged her to rebuff my prior attempts to take her on a date) decided to play matchmaker, gave her my phone number, and coerced her into contacting me.

Tara and I got to talking thanks to these girls and it wasn’t long before we had our first real date. I picked the restaurant (Outback Steakhouse — cut me some slack, we went to school in the middle of nowhere) and Tara picked the flick (Quentin Tarantino’s latest at the time with an uncouth name and a barbaric premise — I should have known she was a keeper on the spot).

We made our relationship official a few weeks later but didn’t realize we had something special brewing until I met Tara and her family in San Antonio to watch Sparty play in the Alamo Bowl. We celebrated New Year’s Eve together in Austin that weekend and agreed that it would be the first of many.

The summer after our junior year at Albion we both worked as interns in the metro Detroit area and became each other’s support system while adapting to a new environment with our families far away. That fall, Tara was named Sweetheart of the Alpha Pi Chapter of the Sigma Chi Fraternity claiming the hearts of all of my brothers as well as my own. After graduation, we made a long distance relationship work while I was living back in metro Detroit and Tara was back home in Spring Lake until she set out to move closer by me and continue her education.

I decided that it was time to “put a ring on it” late in the summer of 2013. I told my parents my plans, asked for her father’s blessing, found a ring, and made a plan to propose in just over a month. I popped the question on our four year dating anniversary and she said yes!

When Tara and I first started to plan her engagement photos we were planning a trip out to Red Rock Canyon. But then she shared her Pinterest board with me for her wedding and everything was very glam with soft blush pinks, gold glitter accents, and beautiful soft elements. Immediately I knew that we had to throw Red Rock out the window in order to really create something that represents Tara and John. A rooftop champagne party is **much** more representative their relationship and personalities. Thank you for trusting me to steer us into this direction, Tara!!

A girl with an affinity for gold bows… is a girl going right after my heart.

A little night time Vegas photo was definitely in order for this glam of a couple.  The photo below is one of my all time favorites!!

Tara and John are getting married really soon… October 4th to be exact.  My birthday.  I joke that they are throwing me a really expensive birthday party, but in all honesty, I am so so so excited to spend my birthday celebrating the first day of their marriage!!