Ours is a tale as old as time…
Global pandemic shuts the world down, forcing two singles who have no idea when they’ll be meeting new prospects again into downloading dating apps as the future is plunged into uncertainty.
Bo threw an alley-oop up on Hinge when he came across Meg’s profile, which she cashed in around early June 2020. After having to follow up with her when she left him on ‘read’, they quickly found that they were aligned on many of the hot-button issues of the time.
Because of logistics relating to the lockdown, they didn’t get to go on their first date until mid-July but that seemed to be the perfect chance to take things slow and truly get to know one another. Their first date was a pickup order of burgers from Good Measure (RIP) and a picnic in a park near Moody Bible Institute, just down the road from Meg’s apartment. It was going so well that they ended up not checking their phones for hours, leading some of Meg’s friends (shoutout to Jackie and Rachel) into full panic mode as her “Find My Friends” location had been unmoving for far too long. Upon checking her phone later in the evening, she was treated to a stern (but fair) talking to (read: shouting to) for inadvertently leading them to believe all of the horrible things coming to mind after not checking in for a long while.
August saw them celebrate each others’ birthdays with one another, but September is when it became ~official~. After a late night, fully imbibed, they got on the topic of which way Meg’s Claddagh ring was facing (a topic broached by Meg)… one thing led to another and Bo asked the woman before him to be his girlfriend.
CUT TO present day*
Numerous road trips, holidays both hosted & attended, and surprise date nights later, they’re tying the knot to celebrate their love for each other. Winter in Chicago seemed like the perfect time and place to do just that!
*No one likes long, boring blocks of text where people talk about themselves, but below is an extra section for the story of the engagement itself
the engagement
Hi, Bo here - no longer using third person as in the above story, since it felt really weird to use that throughout.
Meg and I had obviously discussed getting engaged leading up to the ask, where she was even involved in the early stages of crafting the ring itself (is she v particular? nooooo, whaaaat?? Leo’s, ammirite?). With her already knowing a ring was in swing, I wanted to make sure my ask of her hand in marriage was a good blend of special & surprising.
I had everything ahead laid out as perfect as possible. Friends in from out of town, the location, timing on multiple different stages of the day - the works.
There were no issues until two days before the big day, where I realized the Knicks had a playoff game in the exact time frame I wanted everything to go down. I did my best to convince Meg that we could go along with our plans (a trip to the Art Institute) but still watch most of the game. Nope, and I quote, “I’m not missing a minute of the game.” I covered my ass by making up a story about how I changed our ticket-time to an earlier block and then made sure to get with the girls, who were headed into town, along with the photographer, to confirm scheduling given this new wrinkle. Crisis averted.
Nic was the first to arrive in Chicago (followed by Mags & Gab) so she went to go check out the South Garden of the Art Institute. It was the specific spot where I had planned to get on one knee, and she figured she’d get a sense of where she & the girls could be to not give up the surprise of their being in town. Upon her arrival, we had a NEW crisis: the South Garden was CLOSED indefinitely for maintenance. We settled on using the North Garden much to my dismay, as Meg and I had never even stepped foot in that one.
Ok so we’ve now sidestepped two potentially cataclysmic problems and seem to be back on track.
But WAIT,
Friday night before the big day, Meg and I are laying in bed, winding down and she turns to me to ask if we can just go to the Art Institute on Sunday. I did my best to play it cool & said I’d really rather stick to the plan that I laid out for us. We went to sleep without further incident, thank goodness.
The next morning as we are stirring, once again Meg turns to me, probing my thoughts on going to the Art Institute tomorrow (Sunday) instead. At this point, I put a puppy dog face on and effectively communicate that this is not an option (which I did to the best of my ability without giving anything away).
Ok so crises 3 & 4 averted, somehow.
As we’re getting ready I experience the following:
Meg: “Hmmm I want to wear sweatpants but don’t want to be too hot in the museum. What are you wearing?”
*I explain that I’m going to wear the same outfit to dinner (something she was aware we were going to do) so I have her pick out my shirt for the day so she can get a sense of my outfit*
Meg: “I don’t know if I want to wear makeup…”
*I advise she should wear at least a LITTLE makeup, like the BASE amount of makeup*
I’m fully ready much sooner than she is (I mean, I really just had to put my clothes on) so I’m chilling on the couch rehearsing what I’m going to say to her. As I’m doing that, I glance outside to notice that it starts to drizzle. At this point in my head I think to myself “Omg of course, why wouldn’t it start to rain?” As Meg is in the other room getting herself together, I’m on the couch cursing the skies and do my best to zen out in preparation for asking her to marry me.
She finishes getting ready but before we leave I sneak the ring box into my ~sock~ which seemed like the only place to effectively hide this VERY noticeable mound that would be on my person.
We get to the Art Institute and show up to the South Garden (with me fully knowing it would be closed). As we roll up to the closed gate, I pull the whole “Oh danggg, welp let’s just quickly go to the North Garden instead” thing, which is probably the only moment Meg was thinking “Wtf is this guy doing.” As we leave the South Garden and walk the single block to the North Garden, I give the girls/photographer the heads up and from there execute the H*CK out of the proposal.
In classic fashion, as I get down on one knee, Meg somehow loses an earring. She goes into a full-on blackout, trying to get on the ground WITH me as I’m proposing, and is just generally in another world (understandable).
One thing I have to note is that she said yes before even looking at the ring, which was encouraging. After she saw the ring? It might have been a(n internal) ‘fuck yes’ haha.
Obviously all in all, despite the last minute snags, I’d say 10/10, would propose again.
