Connor ♥ Vickie  

His Story

I distinctly recall receiving the first message from Vickie almost two years ago. We were both trying to meet people, looking for that special someone online. She sent me a message introducing herself, and asking me for my thoughts on world travel. It was cute and just a little bit silly – two traits I’ve come to very much love about her.

Apparently I answered correctly regarding my desire to see Paris and Venice, because about a week (and many messages) later we met at Bravo! Cucina Italiana in Whitehall. I was definitely excited going into the date; while I previously had very mixed results with such online ventures, everything about Vickie seemed perfect -- as she is, by the way. Every conversation with her was fun. Before we even met in person we had already invented the word “capron” (an apron you wear backwards like a cape, obviously).

The night we met came about fairly quickly. While I can’t speak for Vickie, I have to admit that I had a fantastic time (and not just because of the amazing gnocchi). We talked for a couple of hours about our interests, our passions, and a number of decidedly-goofier topics. Lines were definitely drawn regarding turn-of-the-century pop music, but despite this “tension” it was a great evening.

I think we both left that night hoping we’d be seeing more of each other, and luckily we did! It was a hectic time of year (I was working in retail at that point, and the holidays were rapidly approaching), but we managed to get together again about two weeks later (at which point we discovered that she's significantly better at bowling than me). By the end of that second date we shared our first kiss together. Everything to follow was history; I fell in love with the girl of my dreams, a year later I gave her a ring, and, most excitingly, she said “Yes!”

Her Story

Little did I know that one day in mid-November 2013, during a search on OKCupid, I would stumble upon a guy whose eyes pierced my soul. After reading through his profile, I knew I had to break the ice. Rather than just opening with the overly used “Hey, what’s up?” (which in my experience, never leads to a meaningful conversation with a stranger), instead I asked “If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be?”

We bonded over our shared desire to visit both Paris and Venice before then delving deeper. I remember everyday coming home from work and excitedly checking email because Connor made me laugh and feel great. I knew that I had to meet him in person since he seemed too good to be true!

We settled on meeting at Bravo! at the Lehigh Valley Mall in late November 2013. I felt a connection with him as soon as he walked in the door. So much so, that I hugged him. I realized during the hug that while I might be comfortable hugging people, I had no idea if he was! After feeling like I had made things awkward within the first two minutes of the date (he swears to this day he thought it was cute), we ate dinner and talked about everything!

Time flew, and before we knew it, it had been three hours. We walked to our cars and we had our first disagreement (on the best boy band of the 90s). He thinks it was N*SYNC. I know it was The Backstreet Boys. ;)

I remember coming home after the date and wanting to send him an email expressing how much fun I had with him. But I decided to wait for him to contact me (since that’s what every romantic comedy of the 80s, 90s, and 00s told me to do). Fast forward a few days to Thanksgiving, and Connor was working at Target for Black Friday. I decided to text him as much as possible to cheer him up since he was working on a major holiday. Apparently, that made an impression and he asked me on a second date. We went out for pizza and bowling (where I unabashedly beat him) before sharing in our first kiss together.

In short, I found the man of my dreams, fell in love, he asked me to marry him, and I am so THRILLED to be spending the rest of my life with him!