Cathasach

How it started… We met in September 2005 when we were both assigned as designers and attended a read-through of the show. He was doing lights and I, costumes. Over the next two years, we ended up designing five shows together which we didn’t realize until the fall of 2007 which is when we started talking and hanging out more outside of design work. We had both just come out of long term relationships, I had just suffered a very traumatic death in the family and we bonded very quickly over these events. We started spending more and more time together outside of our theatre world which is something I didn’t do very often since I was in Graduate school. More often than not, I found myself going over to his apartment almost every single day after classes because I felt relief getting out of my apartment where I had spent my time wallowing from the death in my family. Tyler became my breath of fresh air. When he wasn’t around I wanted him there and when he was there I didn’t want him to leave. From the start of the relationship, very few people knew about us and did us the favor of keeping it quiet. We had our personal reasons for the big secret. It wasn’t revealed until we had been together for almost two months and even then it spread very slowly but was kept on the down low [for the most part] for the rest of the school year. We ended up graduating together in May 2008; he got his Bachelors and I got my Masters. For the summer, I was back home in Austin working while he remained in Oklahoma but we spaced out a few visits in the couple of months and then ended up moving to New York City together where we currently live with a friend of ours. The Proposal… For Memorial Day weekend, Tyler and I flew out to Oklahoma to be with his family since his brother was shipping off to boot camp on the 27th. On Saturday the 23rd we went to a graduation party for one of his cousins but took a separate car from him parents since we were meeting up with some OU friends later that evening. We left around 7ish and went to Reeves Park where we had some photos of us taken last year. We went straight to the tire swing and just enjoyed out time there together swinging and spinning. Tyler got up for a moment to let me adjust and we were doing our usual “I love you more” battle (I know, I know… gross) and as he was saying it for probably the third time, he was getting down on one knee and handing me a little maroon velvet box. I was still in some denial that it was even happening that it wasn’t really real until he opened the box and asked me to marry him. Was I surprised? More than you know! Did I cry? Yes! Tears filled my eyes and I said “I love you” immediately followed with “Yes, of course!” I think I cried for a solid 10 minutes as I was calling people to tell them the news. Afterwards, we went to meet up with our friends, where I had to keep my left hand hidden (often in my back pocket) until everyone arrived so we could tell them the news. It was somewhat torturous over the 3 hours but once the news was out, everyone was shocked and excited. Honestly, I couldn’t have asked for anything better.