Our story - told by Michelle.

The Meeting

Our wedding marks a decade of knowing each other (give or take a few days). We met in October of 2002, at our local community college. I was in my first semester and Adam was in his third. He approached me one day as I was on my way to math class. He stopped me by saying, "Hi Michelle." Yeah, creepy that he knew my name. I was fully prepared to blow him off. He proceeded to introduce himself and I quickly realized by his last name that I knew his younger brother who is in my grade. I told him, "If you're anything like Ryan I won't like you." (Sorry Ryan! You were a terror in high school!) Adam didn't let that phase him and continued on to ask for my phone number. I responded with my brand new blow off tactic that I was eager to practice, "How about I take yours?" The ever smooth (haha) Adam quickly told me, "No, I'll take yours." Defeated, I gave him my number. I then walked to math class where I realized Crystal (the MOH) and a group of guys from our high school had been watching the whole exchange. They teased me and told me that Adam was one of the good ones. That was the first thing that piqued my interest. 

The Pursuing 

Adam called sometime later and invited me to a party at his house, I declined. We then ran into each other at a Halloween party. Aarika (my good friend, and the best man's now wife) and I were dressed oh so hotly as boys in baggy pants, jerseys, and baseball hats. I recall somewhat blowing him off, but he confidently told me that "I would go out with him." I think from there he called me a couple times but I either didn't return the phone call or came up with an excuse for why we couldn't meet up. Then one day in ealy November I was standing outside class near the parking lot by myself and guess who strolled up. Adam. Let me tell you, he's hard to turn down in person and next thing I knew he had a lunch date planned for Thursday. 

The First Date

I met Adam for our first date at his parent's, Sandy and Jack's, house, which I foolishly thought was his own place. You know, being that he was an older man and all. We ran into his brother Ryan while we were sitting in the living room deciding where to eat. That was awkward. We decided to go grab lunch at Cabo Cabana, where we ran into his dad. That was even more awkward. Talk about some pressure on a first date! We had a nice lunch. I recall that I was quiet and he was polite and courteous. It was a very casual and quick first date. We both had classes to get back to. We must have made somewhat of an impression on one another though, since we ended up on a second date. Although he did wait FIVE long days to call me after the first date. Jerk.

The Second Date

Something about Adam made me VERY nervous for our second date. It didn't help that he drove by my house and then didn't show up at the door until 45 minutes later. He got held up talking to a neighbor of mine that he knew while turning around in the cul de sac. I wore those awful platform sandals that were in style back then and a long black coat. He met my parents and we went to dinner at Papalino's. I used to always get lasagna at Paplino's, but I would always split it with one of my parents. So I was in quite a conundrum when it came to ordering. It felt weird to 1. ask a second date to split a dish with you, and 2. eat a giant plate of lasagna in front of a second date, so I ordered a salad and was later pissed at myself and hungry. We got frozen yogurt after dinner (thank goodness!) and ended up going to Pamplico park to eat it on the swingset (my idea). He later told me he thought that was weird. I think by "weird" he really means "endearing." From there we went back to his parent's house and watched a movie. He pulled all the moves that guys do when you are on a couch together and eventually we shared our first kiss.

Love: Take 1

From there we saw each other often and made it "official" on December 11th 2002. He gave me great Christmas presents and I knew this guy was for real. We continued to date and fall in love, officially saying "I love you" over spring break in Lake Havasu City. I said it first while very drunk. He said it back and followed it up with a very heart felt letter a few days later about how serious bringing the love word into a relationship is. From then on we were pretty inseparable. When it became time to transfer to a university we started looking at the same schools. After a lot of talk and a tough time, I accpeted my entrance to Chapman University in Orange, CA. Adam was all set to go to UCSD until he finally got his acceptance letter to Cal State Fullerton, only 8 miles away from where I was going to school. Adam decided Fullerton was a better fit from him and I moved into the dorms at Chapman and he moved into an apartment in Fullerton. We made it about a semester and half and decided to part ways in February of 2005. It was hard, but I think we both agree it was for the best.

The Interim

During the five, yep FIVE, years that we were apart we both experienced college, life, careers and grew to become the people we are today, while still never leaving behind the core of who we were when we were first together. We saw each other about once or twice a year, when I would flit back into Adam's life just to see how I felt only to disappear again quickly there after. I'm sure he would have more to say about that but it probably wouldn't be all that romantic so we'll just leave him out of this. Instead I'll share with you the most romantic part of those five years, and the one thing Adam claims not to remember. In the summer of 2007 right before I moved to Studio City I saw Adam, a few days later we had a breif phone conversation where I basically said, "yep, it's still not our time." He responded, "We are going to end up together. I just know it." I said, "I guess we'll have to wait and see."

Getting Back Together - or as Adam likes to call it "When Michelle Came Crawling Back"

After 2 years of not seeing each other or even talking, Adam and I ran into each other at Aarika and Evan's son's first birthday. And when I say "ran into" I mean, I was clearly aware he was going to be at his godson's birthday party and I did my best to look damn good. He ignored me. But not for long, because I marched right up to him and said, "Do you really think you can just ignore me?" From there we got to talking and really hit it off again. It just felt right. That was mid December 2009. By Valentine's Day we were dating again and by March 14th, 2010 we were officially back together. 

Love: Take 2 

From the moment we started dating again I knew this was it. This is the person that I'm meant to be with. Everything about us felt right. Adam told me he was going to marry me before he even said "I love you" this time around. So I said "I'm assuming that means you love me?" and he said "Oh yeah! I hadn't said that yet!" But I think we had never stopped loving each other and we were just falling back IN love. It felt natural, wonderful, and perfect. It felt adult and real.

The Engagement

Oh, the engagement. All through February and March of this year I was on pins and needles wondering if this weekend, this day, this moment would be when he would propose. We had been talking about getting engaged and getting married for an entire year. I thought he would propose on many different occasions, but most of all I thought he would propose when we were on vacation in New Orleans in the beginning of March. But he didn't. He later said he would have, but he did not have the ring yet because it wasn't finished. The morning of March 17th I woke up and thought I'll know if it's going to happen this weekend. I suggested we run some errands and then go out for Saint Patrick's Day. He didn't argue and didn't suggest we do anything special, my heart sank and I resigned myself to accepting that it wasn't going to happen this weekend. I eventually decided to ditch the running errands and said  we should enjoy St. Patty's Day by going to the Irish bar across the street from our house. Adam suggested we walk to Beachwood BBQ, our favorite restaurant, which is located in Seal Beach - 2.5 miles from our house. It was a very rainy day and walking 2.5 miles in the rain was not high on my priority list of things I wanted to do that day. It was also a little strange that he wanted to walk there since this was something we had never done before. Why start doing in on a rainy day? I suggested we ride our bikes and after some back and forth that is what we ended up doing. It was actually a fun little bike ride. Lunch was nice and we had a couple good beers. Liquid courage he said after. I noticed that Adam patted his jacket pocket when we got to lunch, as if he was checking to make sure something was there. I tried not to think too much about it. After lunch and a few beers, Adam walked me down to the pier. I thought this was a little curious. We made it about halfway down the pier and then it started really raining and the wind kicked up so we turned around, but he continued to wander along the path by the beach. I thought it was strange that we were wandering aimlessly, and in the rain, but I figured Adam was having an adventurous streak and I should just roll with it. We ended up at a little park looking out at the ocean. We stood there for quite some time making small talk. Things like, "Wow the ocean looks stormy." Finally when I figured nothing special was going to happen I said, "Let's go, it's cold." And he said, "No." So we stood. I started to think this must be it or he's just really trying to torture me. Finally after at least 5 more minutes of standing around, he says "Sometimes you have to ride your bike in the rain to walk in the sunshine." At that moment I knew that this was IT. He continued to say other things, most of which I don't remember because I started doing mental cartwheels of excitement. And then he said, "which is why I want to give you this..." and pulled out the ring (from the pocket he patted earlier). I'm not even sure if I looked at the ring. He was on one knee, I fell down to both knees an started crying and said "YES!!" It was perfect.

Now we are getting hitched and we can't wait to see you at the wedding!!