The First Date
Katie and Paul met waaaaaay back in 2000.  At that time Paul was a co-worker and friend of Dave Cotton, Katie’s house mate and good friend.  Paul and Dave became business partners as well and Katie and Dave liked to throw parties.  Somehow as Katie likes to say, Katie and Paul got to talking, which led to spending time with other friends such as Lisa and Brandon between business meetings and house parties.

Their first official date however came during the Fourth of July weekend when Paul chose the movie (Chicken Run) and Katie chose the dinner locale (Jupiter Brewhouse).  Clearly neither thought the relationship was going anywhere!  Luckily however, they were pleasantly surprised by each others company and now have six years together to draw from and challenge themselves with each and everyday. Paul likes to keep Katie guessing, Katie likes to keep Paul on his toes.  They have a pretty good thing going on, and it seems to be getting better with time – aging like a fine wine or some yummy stinky cheese, two of our favorite things; right up there with baseball, music, and entertaining others.

 

The Engagement
"The engagement story" as told by Katie, with a little help from Paul. 

It was really sweet and emotional - Paul proposed marriage on our five-year anniversary, July 3rd, 2005 - and I said YES!  Eventually…

We had a great day planned for the Big Five: An afternoon at the Chicago Botanic Gardens and dinner at a vegetarian restaurant called Green Zebra.  I knew there was no way Paul had a ring to propose with, so I had resigned myself to making the most of this milestone anniversary, and just enjoying the day.  As it turned out, we had to collect my mom from the airport (on her way to Ireland from Oakland) that day (which in the end was the second best part...).  We took her to the botanical garden visit and left her at the house for the dinner.



My mom though, always on my wavelength had brought the family ring I had been promised for Paul to propose with, a not so subtle hint. The hinting taking place during the car ride to the gardens unbeknownst to me. When we got back to the house, again without letting on, Paul alleviated my mother's worries by showing my mom his own family heirloom reset in a ring for me.

I gave Paul a really lovely book about Sake and all the breweries in Japan, as we share a love of Sake and we had talked about someday (maybe, hopefully) going to Japan for our (someday, maybe, hopefully) honeymoon.  He loved it, and we still like to take it shopping with us!  Then he asked me if I wanted my present.  I replied that dinner was my present, and I was enjoying it.  Then I noticed that on top of the book was a small square black velvet box…

Oh. My. Goddess.

Basically I cried in the restaurant for like three minutes before he could even get the lovely little black velvet box open.  Then I cried some more when I saw it and was finally able to choke out: "Does this mean you want to marry me?"

He responded: "Yes, I want to marry you, will you marry me?"

I hiccupped out "um, OK?"

To which he responded, laughing, "OK?"

And I got out in a mixture of laughing and sobbing, "yeah, OK, Yes!"

The couple at the next table clapped and we kissed and he put the ring on my shaking hand and it was beautiful and ridiculous and wonderful and I am still so flipping happy!!!!

So then we had a wonderful meal full of fantastic wine and yummy vegetarian creations. We missed the fireworks show we were planning to catch after dinner but had a good time in downtown Chicago calling our families and friends and telling them in the festive, sulfur air of the missed show.  Secretly, the best part was actually getting home and being able to wake my mom to show it to her and tell the whole story over again. 



It was an amazing night, as the photos relate in some degree. The ring is exquisite, the marquise diamond having belonged to his Bubbie.  Obviously, his family is over the moon about having me really and truly in the family and they were all too ready to let Paul have that family diamond to give to me, that's love!