Engagement Pictures... for real this time

Okay everyone... here is a link to our engagement pictures. We took all of our pictures by our apartment - the first half by the bay and the second half on the beach... the very last couple are on a park bench on our street.
Enjoy!

Engagement Pictures

The title of this post is probably a touch misleading... you probably saw it and thought, "Wow, I know exactly how I'm going to kill the next 1/2 hour at work." Well sorry gang... I only have one little teaser of a picture for you that the photographers just posted on their blog... you can't even see our faces. Sorry.

The "Big" Question (from Kevin's perspective)

The Question. Well actually it’s two questions starting with asking the father then asking his daughter. After exchanging a few emails with Anne’s Dad we agreed to speak over Easter Weekend.  Now this seems easy enough, but let me tell you it can be a bit stressful. Fortunately, all went well and I received the green light to ask Anne.  I had originally planned to speak with PK (Anne’s Dad) over Easter then surprise Anne a few weeks later, however, in light of my recent success with PK and having the ring in hand (courtesy of Derek’s “Diamond Guy” who is phenomenal) I had the urge to be spontaneous. A bit of advice to guys who find themselves in a similar situation and are reading this; make sure your ready to pop the question in front of her ENTIRE family. As I mentioned this was a family weekend filled with family events so my proposal was not on the official agenda. I finally found a window of opportunity between Sneaky Pete’s, which is a story for another time, and bedtime.  Anne was distracted in our room when I turned her around and dropped to my knee. Now I know there was no band, champagne glass, or clever gimmick, which is nice, but what I had worked out just fine; a ring and the element of surprise. And Let me tell you she was surprised! She didn’t believe it was happening until the ring was on her finger. The conversation we had will remain a mystery because she apparently had a conscious blackout and I’m keeping that hilarious gem to myself. What transpired after was your normal wake up the parents and sister routine to tell them the big news as I hang in the corner hoping they’d invite me back next year. I guess everything is ok with them because they treated me to breakfast the next morning!  

(*picture from right after it happened to follow sometime next week!)

It all started when...

I guess we should start from the beginning...

We met the summer going into our senior year of College. To be more specific... we met July 3, 2007.
My cousin, Jacqueline, had dated Kevin's cousin, Drew, at the time and they had a 4th of July party to go to in Red Bank (shout out to Grace!) to watch the fireworks. As it turns out - Kevin and I were both dragging our feet... but Jacqueline promised me that Drew's older cousin was cute... so I agreed. As I recall, Drew had to do some persuading himself to get Kevin to attend the party too.
The actual moment I laid eyes on Kevin are documented. See below for the progression of  pictures... and please note Jacqueline standing next to me.

We had the best night ever together... and just clicked the moment we spoke to each other. We love to retell our own versions of that night (who spoke to who first, etc) but it definitely set the groundwork for what would happen exactly 2 summers later.
We went out a couple more times that summer of '07- Kevin is from Barrington and I would visit PC - but eventually Kevin had to go back to school and so did I.

One day in May 2009 I got a message from Kevin looking to catch up.  I was surprised but so happy to hear from him.  We exchanged emails a couple of times before we took to the phone.  We were worlds apart - Kevin in Corpus Christi, TX and me in SoHo, NYC - but we had more of a connection than ever.
Kevin decided to come visit for the same 4th of July party and things got very serious very fast.
See below for the pictures from the same party - July 3, 2009 (check out Kevin's awesome patriotic shirt):

I visited Kevin in Corpus 2 weeks later and the rest is history! We visited each other every 2-3 weeks and Kevin even lived with me and my lovely roommate, Ali, for the month of November.
Kevin popped the question in the wee hours of April 4th, 2010... but I'll let him tell that story!