In July of 2017, I was celebrating my 24th birthday with friends on my rooftop in New York City. I had lived in NYC for a bit by then, so I had a great group of friends I loved bringing together. One friend and colleague, Lizzy, had attended Fordham and had a crew of friends living and working in the city, so I told her to bring them along! I had met most of that group before - but that night a new face showed up: Miles.

In the summer of 2017, my friends and I were riding the Metro North into the city when I got a text from my friend Lizzy inviting us to a rooftop birthday party for one of her friends in Midtown East. I didn't know the birthday girl - Alex - but as soon as I got to the party I knew I wanted to get to know her.

It was the classic trope of right person, but not yet the right time. After dating briefly, we decided we were better as friends - but we always kept in touch. Through NYC in 2018 and 2019, to Covid sending us home to Pennsylvania and Florida in 2020, and new adventures in 2021 - including Alex's move to Tampa!

In the late fall of 2022, we reconnected via social media (as modern millennials do). That December, Miles came down to Tampa and that was the trip that changed our lives forever.

So began our long-distance chapter, though we rarely went longer than two weeks without seeing each other. Racking up some serious airline miles, we spent the entirety of 2023 flying back and forth between Tampa and New York City. While we looked forward to living in the same city one day, we thoroughly enjoyed our year, playing tourist in each other's cities and cherishing our long weekends together.

In the first year, we celebrated each monthly anniversary so as we approached our 11-month anniversary, Miles said we'd celebrate at Lilac, the restaurant at the Edition (hello, foreshadowing!). He flew down from NYC for the weekend, and as we got ready on the evening of December 1, 2023, I noticed he was quieter than usual - though those that know me well know I happily just carried the conversation for both of us. On our way to dinner, he suggested we stop on Bayshore to take in the water views before our reservation. Once we were out there, we walked until Miles stopped me, turned around and got down on one knee.

After plenty of happy tears and photos from the photographers who'd been hiding nearby, Miles mentioned my parents wanted us to stop by before we headed to dinner. As we walked up to their gate, I start to see familiar faces - and the tears started all over again! Surrounded by our families and closet friends, we spent the whole night on Cloud Nine. The best night of our lives... up until that point!

I knew early on that Alex was the one, so after just six months of dating, I bought her ring and I was ready—and incredibly nervous—to ask her to marry me. In addition to the surprise of a proposal, though, I knew I also wanted to surprise her by bringing our family and friends together to celebrate her that night so with help from her mom, Silvia, we worked to make it all happen and keep it from Alex (a difficult task, she is very hard to surprise).

On December 1, 2023, with the ring safely secured in my jacket pocket, the drive to Bayshore felt like a complete blur. I was so intensely focused on the next ten minutes that I barely registered a word she said on the way. When we finally arrived, Bayshore was incredibly quiet, completely empty compared to its usual crowds. It felt like the world stopped just for us.

I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me while a secret photo team captured our perfect moment. After snapping a few more photos, we headed to our next stop, where she walked into the surprise engagement party surrounded by all our loved ones. It was truly one of the best nights of my life.

It's been over two years since our engagement, here is what we have been up to. In January 2024, we decided to wait to plan our wedding until we were no longer long distance and could enjoy our engagement together. Miles moved to Tampa that July, and we enjoyed a wonderful summer and fall, until Hurricane Milton left our house with flood damage that October. Rather than picking out new floors and floral arrangements at the same time, we decided to wait to plan our wedding once more, this time until our home was complete. In October of 2025, almost a full year later, we moved back into our newly renovated house. We love our new home and enjoyed the holiday season here this year.

Enough family and friends asking "wait so when is the wedding?" and "wait I thought you two were already married?" told us it was the time for us to bring our family and friends back together again to celebrate our marriage - in the city where we are building our lives and future family. We are absolutely thrilled to celebrate this weekend with you all!