Adventures in Meeting Ryan

October 22, 2015

Adventures in Meeting Ryan

I'm marrying Ryan ONE YEAR from today (what? how is that real??) I thought I would post about how we met! If you know us in real life, stop now! Because we love to tell this story and so many people know it already. It's much more fun (and embarrassing) to tell when someone asks how we met and Ryan looks at me and says "can I tell the real story?" Because even though I like to pretend I am always nice...the first time I met Ryan I was not that friendly! Get ready to see a million pictures of us...and to see every hairstyle I've had in the past few years.

Our first (very beautiful) photo together

Exactly four years ago, I was living in a condo with one of my best friends, Ashley (I now live in that same building in Ryan's condo since he's moved to DC--crazy). There was a small fire on the floor below us one night when I was at work and Ashley met Ryan at the Dunkin Donuts on our block where everyone from the building was waiting it out. Fast forward two months and I was about to graduate and move out of the condo. Ashley invited Ryan over--and let me paint you a picture. I was recovering from a shingles flare up (I get them right under my eye), was drinking diet coke out of the 2 liter, and eating domino's pizza straight out of the box. Super gorgeous. And totally my typical state during that phase in my life (it's now hot Cheetos and diet CHERRY coke)!

Ryan's first trip to Omaha

He came over and I remember, after he left, telling Ashley that it was the first time I had laughed like that in a really long time. That night, I had off handedly mentioned I was moving the following weekend and Ryan offered to help. I immediately brushed it off.

Fast forward to the weekend...I graduated from Marquette and my whole family was in town. I was also moving into my first own apartment that same day. So that meant furniture shopping (see that gorgeous red couch below??) and while my grandpa and dad were huffing up the stairs with said red couch, my dad stopped and asked me if there was ANYONE that could help them. I begrudgingly told them about this boy but that I didn't feel comfortable asking him to help. My dad then asked the following questions, "Is he nice? Is he funny? Is he cute?" That followed by three yes's. And ten minutes later there was Ryan helping my dad and grandpa move all my furniture. And while he was in my new kitchen talking it up with my parents, grandparents, and sister my dad decided that he was a winner (I think my dad knew he was the one right in that moment, honestly).

About five days later, we were both going home for Christmas but texted the entire vacation. When he got back, he met my friends (and was such a champ), drank a lot of tequila (girls weekends are trouble with me), and kept winning everyone over (including me). We went on two dates before he asked me to be his girlfriend (mid second date). He got directly to the point! Poor guy, asked me out two days before my birthday!

Soon after, he told me a story (this is the part that makes me look bad) about how on the day he moved into the condo building he met me on the elevator and that I was completely rude to him. I immediately denied it (I know vaguely remember this moment...) but in my defense, no one in my building was overly friendly at the time and elevator chit chat wasn't a normal occurrence. He then told me that he texted himself when I got off the elevator that a cute girl lived on the 12th floor and when he got back in his condo his dad asked why he had texted himself and he told him. I totally thought this was just some exaggerated smooth story that he was using to whoo me (I thought he was a total BA when we started dating and was just beginning to really learn how much of a sweet heart he really is--he was an MMA fighter in college so I immediately had this BA perception---I now know he is a BA and a sweetheart :))

A few months later, his dad came to town for business and I was meeting him for the first time. Halfway through dinner, his dad stopped and asked if I was the cute girl from the 12th floor! My jaw dropped. I really hadn't believed that part of the story until that very moment. And I have to say, I immediately thought, wow if we get married this is the best story (I was in love with that boy pretty quickly)! And here we are, almost four years later with only one more year to go until I really do get to marry him!

Ashley and my dad totally take credit for this entire relationship. I feel like they definitely will be getting a shout out at the wedding! I hope you enjoyed our cheeseball story! Now, I may or may not be spending a good chunk of my morning walking around the area to see what I can vaguely expect what the trees/flowers will look like on this exact day next year!