I said, “yes” as I grabbed the ring off the table and looked at it.

We lean in to kiss each other. At that moment, I did not care he did not get down on one knee to ask me. I knew he was the one after two months of dating. It did not matter we have an eleven-year age gap between us. I was just so happy for my best friend asked me to marry him.

I remember going to church with his mom and sister. His nieces Christa and Caitlin would always ask me if I was going to marry Johnny. I would reply, “If he asked me I would say yes, but he has to ask me first.”It filled me with so much joy how much his family loved me and cared about me. Even though Johnny did not know it then, I already felt like part of the family, and I just held on to the hope that one day he would ask me to marry him.

I call my mom and tell her the news, while Johnny pays for the check. She is all excited, and told me Johnny asked her for her permission. I also talked to his sisters. When I told his sister Suzanne, she replied, “That’s amazing, Andrea, I always hoped we would be sisters one day. ”It made me feel amazing to feel so accepted by his family, well now my family since I was marrying him.

We went to the movies after dinner, and his mom called me during the previews, so I took the call out into the lobby. “I would have made him get down on one knee,” his mom says. I told her how I did not care about that. It would have been nice, but I am just so excited to be engaged to him. Nothing could change that excitement. Once I got off the phone, I returned to Johnny.

The following weekend we visited Beaufort, SC where is mom and sister lived. We went to his parent’s house first. His mom looked at my ring, “It is so beautiful. We have to go show Tara!” She grabs her purse and keys and grabs my arm while she says, “Let’s go.”

“Wait, where are you going?” Johnny asks worried where I was going.

“To Tara’s to show her the ring. We will be back.” I give him a kiss.

“Be careful, and text me.”

On the way, his mom asks, “What is with Johnny? He doesn’t want you to leave his side. He has changed so much, I can see it. He loves you so much.”

“I do too!”

“I was shocked when he told me he was going to move to you and then asked you to marry him. He told me that he was done with this relationship, and I yelled at him. ‘what do you mean, you are breaking up with Andrea, why?’, he told me no, I am quitting my job and moving to be with her.”

“Really? That is so sweet. He means the world to me and I am so excited we are getting married.

Later on that trip, Johnny and I were discussing dates, and at first September 2013 was thrown out there. The more we talked, the closer we brought the date closer. We moved it from September 2013 to September 2012, to August 2012, then we jumped it to June. We looked at dates and I asked, “23^rd or 30^th?” He replied “23^rd” and that was the end of discussing. We told his mom and she instantly freaked. “We do not have enough time to get everything ready. We are going dress shopping in the morning.”

What turned out to be a shopping trip to look at David's bridal ended up being a surprise in itself. I chose several dresses, but when I went to try the first one on, I lit up. I had a feeling it was the dress. Since I was there, I decided to try on others, and I refused to come out in one dress because it was horrible. I put the first one back on and decided it was the one.

On the tag, it was showing marked down from $1,000 to $350. We got to the front of the store to check out. I was about to pay, and it rang up to $240. His mom helped pay for part of the dress and the crinoline. It was amazing. For only going there to look and get ideas, I found the perfect dress. Now I had the perfect dress to go with me marrying the love of my life.Life is perfect.