How We Met

We were supposed to meet on the first day of lockdown in 2020. We had been chatting on a dating app for a few weeks and had made plans to meet up in Prospect Park. The day before the meetup, things started to get "weird" in the world (as everyone remembers all too well). I lived alone at the time and was down to risk it, but she lived in a communal living house with NINE other people. They had a house meeting and made the call that nobody was allowed to meet up with new people for a while. So we decided to postpone the date until things blew over. Obviously that didn't happen, so two weeks later we had our first Zoom date, which turned into 10 Zoom dates, which turned into 3 months of Zoom dating. We went to an online rave, played Oregon Trail, watched movies, and pretty much everything else you could possibly do on Zoom. Then we started leaving bread for each other in tupperware containers in Prospect Park and dropping a map pin so each other could find it. We finally met up after 3 months (also in the park) and have barely left each other's side for 3 years. ⁠

⁠The Proposal

For the proposal, I knew I had to do it somewhere in nature, so I planned a weekend trip for her birthday up to Kingston, thinking she'd never know what was up (she knew). We went on a hike, went the wrong way and got lost, and suddenly found ourselves at the foot of an abandoned mining facility in the woods. We climbed (in hindsight, very dangerously) up the side of it to the very top, and came to an absolutely gorgeous view looking out over an entire valley. When she turned around, I was on my knee with the ring. And I don't remember much of what happened after that!⁠

About The Rings

We asked our parents to all contribute an old piece of gold jewelry so we could melt it down into the bands (her engagement ring and my wedding band), and it worked perfectly! The ring came out so beautifully, and I can't wait to see my future wedding band.⁠