Kevin and Alexa met at Western Michigan University. Alexa’s RA was dating Kevin’s best friend from high school and she thought they would be a good match. “They invited him over one evening and we all talked and played games the whole night. I remember I was so nervous when he walked in the door that I just shook his hand, but conversation flowed easily between us and we soon realized we had a lot in common.” These two love to spend their time together traveling, “whether it’s a quick day trip to Lake Michigan or a month long vacation through Europe, we love exploring new places together. Somehow we always seem to have the same priorities wherever we go too; for example, we would both rather find hidden gems than the typical tourist traps.”
After three months of dating, Kevin had to leave for Germany for an internship. It was this trip that made their relationship grow stronger and sparked the thought of them being meant for each other. “ Before leaving, she wrote me a stack of letters to open at different times along the trip; when I first got to Germany, on my first day of work, when I missed her, when I had a bad day, etc. It was difficult, but I waited to open each one until the right moment. Each letter was a reminder of how much she loved and missed me, and how excited we were to see each other again. To this day it is still the most thoughtful thing anyone has done for me. A few weeks before the end of my Internship she was able to buy her ticket to fly over. I will never forget the look of shock on her face when I picked her up from the airport, not only from seeing each other again, but also in realization that she was on the other side of the world. We spent the next five weeks sightseeing and visiting friends and family through Spain and Germany. Having been born in Germany, it meant the world to me that she could enjoy and immerse herself in the culture and European lifestyle. I had found my travel buddy.”
Again, they found Europe to hold special meaning for their relationship. “The very first day we did some sight seeing around Madrid. Towards the end of the day we met up with some family friends for a walk around the King’s garden, Retiro park. We arrived at a greenhouse called Palacio de Cristal in front of a beautiful pond complete with water fountain. Thinking we were just taking a picture, we waited for the crowd to thin out a bit. Unaware anything unusual was happening, we finally got in front of the fountain to “take a picture”, but when I turned to smile for the camera and Kevin was still looking at me, I knew something was up. He started talking and I thought, “what are you doing? We’re supposed to be taking a picture”, but then it hit me. After confessing his love, he got down on one knee and pulled out a box with the most beautiful ring in it. He asked me to marry him and I managed to slip out an “”of course!” through the tears and huge smile on my face.”
“It was the most surreal moment realizing I was going to be marrying my best friend.”
