I knew I I wanted to marry Ryan. There are countless moments where I knew he would be the person I would spend the rest of my life with. I made a habit of jokingly asking when he planned on proposing and was not subtle about sending funny memes and tiktoks of weddings and rings. It became a running joke in our friend group. It’s also important to note that I hate surprises and consider myself to be very observant…I’ve guessed my birthday present correctly three years in a row and ruin the surprise every time. Despite my relentless nature, Ryan truly swept me off my feet and caught me off guard the day he proposed. If I’m being honest, I was picking up on little things throughout the summer that led me to believe it was happening soon. However, the week leading up to the proposal really threw me for a loop. All of our closest friends were posting pictures of themselves out of town and our families were acting so nonchalant, I convinced myself this wasn’t the weekend. We had plans to celebrate our 3 year anniversary as we always do, reminiscing over a bottle of wine in Central Park. The morning of we decided to head to the park early as the weather forecast was showing signs of rain in the afternoon. At the park, we fell into our normal flow of conversation until he interrupted me mid sentence and got down on one knee. This is when I completely blacked out. He asked and I said nothing…I just cried. Then my two best friends appeared out of nowhere with a photographer to capture the moment and as you could have guessed… more tears. The pictures truly capture the authenticity of the moment, ugly crying and over-cheesing. After taking some pictures, we made our way back into New Jersey where our families and friends were waiting. I was once again surprised by all of the people who came from near and far to celebrate with us. It was the most perfect day and night, down to every detail…including the weather as it never ended up raining!