Late summer of 2014 I had no doubt that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with Siobhan Ford. I love her. My family loves her. Mr. Elwood (my dog) loves her. We have so much fun doing nothing and everything together, and I have been so impressed with her as a brilliant and talented person- and of course she’s stunningly beautiful. My sister had been teasing me for months that I better lock this down before Siobhan realizes she has all the options in the world. I figured she was right, so I began to list all of the things I needed to do in order to properly ask her.

Over the next few months, everything fell into place. After looking at the jewelry she wore the most I started looking at various engagement ring designs and was not finding anything that felt perfect. Then my sister recommended I look at our mom’s grandmother’s engagement ring, and it turned out to be exactly what I had in mind. It’s a late 19th century European setting that looked similar Siobhan’s favorite ring. It is from the period that is both of our favorite historical artistic period and it was also a way for me to share my grandparents and family with her despite the fact that my grandparents are no longer with us. I have greatly enjoyed spending time with all of her grandparents and this way to share my family and heritage with her. I couldn’t think of a better option so I brought it to a jeweler to replace the stone and clean it up, and it wasn’t until he returned it to me that I was certain it was perfect.

Now the time had come to ask her parent’s permission. I had two fathers to get through before I could start to plan how I was going to do it. I have had the opportunity to spend time with both of them but had certainly spent a good bit more time with Mr. Cammer than with Mr. Ford. This is probably why I was much more nervous to call Mr. Ford. However when I did, he was very welcoming and genuinely happy about the idea and put me at ease immediately. Mr. Cammer had much more fun with the processes. His initial response was “I’m not going to say no, but I have some things I need to talk with her mother about before I would answer either way.” Five hours later Mrs. Cammer called to say how excited and happy she was while Mr. Cammer was having a good laugh in the background. He got on the phone next and said he was going let me wait till tomorrow, but Mrs. Cammer wouldn’t let him do that to me. He had a good time teasing me throughout the planning process that “this is all assuming that she says ‘yes.’” My father really appreciated Mr. Cammer’s sense of humor when I told him all of this. They have the same sense of humor.

By now it was getting close to Thanksgiving. I had given a lot of thought to where and when the best time and place would be. When Siobhan moved to Baltimore, she told me I wasn’t allowed to propose until she had made a few friends to celebrate with, which she certainly had. But I knew how important her family was to her and how much she loved home, and I felt that there wouldn’t be a better place to do it. So I coordinated with her parents to get her do it while she was home for Thanksgiving. The plan was to drop her off at the airport on Wednesday, put Elwood in the car and drive down to be there Thursday Morning. When Wednesday morning came, it brought with it 3 inches of snow and more to come. Siobhan rescheduled her flight to an earlier time to make sure she could make it home for the holiday, and I tried to not let on how much stress this was all causing me. I put Elwood in the car, picked Siobhan up from work to go to the airport. She was under the impression that I was going to drive up to NY to see my family and tried to talk me out of it because of the weather. It ended up working out perfectly.

I dropped her off at BWI and kept driving south for the next fourteen hours. Mr. Cammer called to check on my a few time throughout the night. At one point, Siobhan called to say goodnight. I pulled off the highway and parked behind a dark hotel to keep any noise from driving from giving away the fact that I was not at my parents. I arrived in Charleston around 2 AM, found a hotel that let me bring Elwood in and got a few hours sleep. I was surprised how calm I was throughout it all. I wasn’t the least bit nervous about asking her until 10 came around, and I was cleaning myself and Elwood up for the event. It all hit me at once, and I couldn’t stop shaking. I managed to iron the shirt and jacket I bought specifically for the event. I had the ring in a box ready to go. Then I practiced in front of a mirror in my room for the next hour and a half.

I received a text from Mrs. Cammer on the exact time to come to the house. I parked down the street so she wouldn’t see my car. I walked Elwood around the block a few times waiting for a text from Mrs. Cammer with the go ahead to come to the house. When it finally came, I opened the front door and slipped Elwood into the house. A minute later, Siobhan came to the front door looking absolutely beautiful but very confused. She said, “you’re supposed to be in New York”, and I told her that I had something I had to ask her and I had to ask in person and couldn’t wait any longer. I told her “The past year and a half we’ve been dating has been the happiest time of my life. I respect you so highly and love you so deeply, and nothing would make me happier than to spend the rest of my life with you.” She was already smiling ear to ear and nodding her head up and down in short quick little nods. But I managed to get down on one knee with the ring and ask “Siobhan Ford, will you marry me?”… and she said “Yes.”

The rest of the day we got to see a lot of her family and feast on multiple Thanksgiving meals and tell the story again and again. It couldn’t have been any more perfect.

It was the week of Thanksgiving and I had booked a flight home to Charleston for the night of the 25th. I had booked my flight for that night and planned on working a full day and then leaving, but then the snow came. Worried that my nighttime flight would be canceled I decided to fly out around 3:30pm. Joe was glad about that so that he could drop me off at the airport and drive up to New York to see his family. The snow kept coming, but Joe got me to the airport and I said goodbye and to say hi to all of his family in New York for me.

Joe called that night to let me know that he was safely in New York – we didn’t talk for as long as we usually do and he seemed a little stressed on the phone. I figured that was from his long drive. My mom kept asking me what I was going to wear for Thanksgiving and didn’t seem overly excited when my response was “Probably a dress that I can eat a lot of Turkey in”. She also mentioned something about the color of paint on my nails… weird, but I thought nothing of it.

I woke up Thanksgiving morning to a text from my brother, Jordan: “Siobhan, I’m hungover. What time do we need to be to Grammy’s house for Thanksgiving?” I told him that I was told to be ready by 11:45 so probably around noon. I then went downstairs to the kitchen where my mom was finishing cooking. She seemed a little panicked and said that we couldn’t leave yet because the green beans weren’t cooked all the way… I wondered what kind of green beans take more than an hour to cook, but didn’t ask questions. Jordan texted me again: “Renee says we don’t have to be there until 1:00, why did you say 12:00?” I responded “Oh that’s what she told me, she must be confused”. I said to my mom: “You told Jordan and I different times, you mixed them up right?” she responded very quickly “Oh yes!! I must just be confused! I have to keep cooking the green beans!”.

A minute later, a fuzzy white flash ran into the kitchen from the front of the house. “Mr. Elwood?” I asked. I looked at my mom and Trey and asked “What is he doing here? He’s supposed to be in New York with Joe”. They both stared at me and shrugged silently and looked towards the front door and then Trey hurried out of the back door (to take photos). While mumbling, “I’m so confused” I walked to the front door. When I open the door I saw Joe standing there, looking very handsome in a suit and a red shirt (weird for him, he usually wears black).

At that point I realized what was going on and apparently I immediately started nodding before he had even started speaking. Honestly, I blacked out the rest because I was so shocked/nervous/happy. I know that a proposal happened and that he was on one knee at some point. Luckily, Trey had set up a camera that recorded the whole thing so that we could look back at it. We spent the rest of the day visiting my family, eating Turkey and re-telling the story a million times. I loved the way that Joe knew that I would want to be in my home town around family on such a special day. I also loved that he completely surprised me! He had been dropping hints, but I had no idea that he would drop me at the airport and then drive 9 hours just to show up on my doorstep. It was a perfect weekend and I can’t wait to marry my best friend and become Mrs. Fioramonti.

Woof.