Our Story

How We Met:

I asked Colin to write his version of how we met.  Since then he has been asking me questions constantly.  "Did we meet in 2001?" "No, 2003." "Oh right."; "Why was I home from school, was it a weekend?" "...";  After a few more questions: "This is supposed to be your account of when we met" "It was 9 years ago! I don't remember!"  Men.  Anyway, here's how we met (each of our versions), I helped him fill in a little bit of the missing details verbally, but it's all his written words.

Meghan's Version:

There are two distinct memories I have from when I first met Colin.  One involves the Y-Chromes the other includes pool noodles, Walmart, and a lobster tank.  Yes, you read that correctly.  One of my first memories of Colin has to do with a lobster tank and pool noodles that we referred to as "Mullets".  Actually, I think I have pictures somewhere, I may need to go dig for those...

Anyway, the first time I met Colin was at a Y-Chromes concert in 2003.  I was visiting my cousin Becky (Matron of Honor) and she invited me to go see an a cappella concert with her up at University of Delaware.  My Mom and I were spending the weekend at her house because  my Mom wanted to look at buying a house there (Yea right Mom, we are NOT moving there).  Nothing special happened that night, we just met in passing really.

Fast forward a month, I now live with Becky.  I know, I told my Mom we weren't moving there, boy was I wrong. Oh well.  So I guess one night we were bored and Colin decided to come over.  We (Me, Colin, Becky, and her then boyfriend, Denny) came up with this brilliant idea that we would get pool noodles and use them in the hot tub.  So where else would you go to get those, but Walmart!  We also called Walmart "Mullets" for some reason, so we started saying we were going to Walmart to get Mullets, which really meant noodles.  Too much detail? Ok, moving on.   We picked up the noodles and then Colin and Denny started to ride them all over walmart.  You see these noodles had finding Nemo characters on the ends, so the boys decided they were like those horses on a stick you ride around when you are little.  Then they used them to taunt the lobsters in the lobster tanks.  Poor lobsters.

Back then we didn't even think of dating.  It wasn't until my 2nd year of college at University of Delaware in 2006 that we started dating.  We had stayed friends between 2003 and 2006, and once he found out I was single and back on campus, he called me (within 3 hrs of being back) to hang out and the rest is history.

Colin's Version (Extended Edition):

It all started back in 2003.  I was a 21 year old undergrad at University of Delaware and Meg had just moved to Delaware to live with her Aunt Helen and Uncle Cliff.  Cliff and Helen’s daughter (Meg’s cousin), Becky just happens to be one of my best friends.  I had just gotten accepted into the YChromes - Delaware’s all-male a-cappella group - that semester and Becky wanted to make the trip to Newark to see me in my first big concert at the end of the semester.  She asked me if I would mind if she brought her cousin along and I said, “sure, the more the merrier!”  “There’s just one thing,” Becky began, “...she’s 16.”  I replied, “well I guess you’re not going to the after party then are you?”  The night went fine, Meg and I were introduced and got along fine, but there weren’t any sparks to speak of, her being 16 and me being a high and mighty college junior.  I saw her a few more times with Becky throughout the summer she lived in Delaware and we always had a good time together.  My first impressions were that she was a very fun, intelligent girl with a great sense of humor (she laughed at most of my jokes).

Skip to a few years later and my college career was finally winding down.  I was still living in Newark, working full time, singing with the Y-Chromes and taking the last few courses I needed to graduate.  I had seen Meg a few times at holidays and randomly if she was in Delaware visiting Becky (she had moved back to New Jersey at this point).  Becky called me one day and said, “Guess what?  Remember my cousin, Meg? She got accepted to Delaware and I think she’s going to go.”  She then asked me to keep an eye on her 18 year old cousin and make sure she was making friends and generally having a good college experience.  I got her number from Becky and gave her a call shortly after the semester started because the Y-Chromes were having a party and I figured she would want to come.  I had a girlfriend at the time and Meg had a boyfriend in New Jersey, but she came to the party and we had a platonically good time.  She got along with my friends really well and seemed to enjoy herself, so I kept inviting her to parties and she kept coming with me for some reason.  The girlfriend and I broke up that January and Meg was a great friend afterward, always there when I needed to get out of the house and hang out. Meg went home for the summer and I went on with work and paying bills and generally becoming an adult.

That summer saw Becky preparing for her wedding with Greg and me driving down to Felton to see Becky’s dress and take some pictures of her in it.  Meg was there and we talked for a while.

For the rest of the summer I couldn’t get her out of my head and stop thinking about how pretty she looked that day.  Before that, she’d always been Becky’s little cousin, but something had changed.  By the time school started again, I couldn’t wait to see her AND I had found out she was single again, so I called her probably 5 minutes after she’d moved into her dorm.  We picked up practically right where we’d left off, going to parties on campus and hanging out almost every day, but now it couldn’t be denied, there was definitely a “spark."  Our first kiss came shortly after that semester started.  I used some lame tickle fight trick to pull her in close and planted one on her.  A few months later, I knew I was in love with her, even though neither of us had said it.  It had been on my mind though and one night as I was drifting to sleep I couldn’t hold it in anymore, I just had to say it so I blurted out “I love you, baby.”  She put her hand on the back of my head, gave my hair a little rub and said “I love you, too.” As I fell asleep, I must have had the biggest smile on my face because she’s never let me forget that moment since.

She still laughs at most of my jokes.

The Proposal:

Side Note: Before I get into the story of how Colin proposed, I would like to note that I thought I would know when Colin was going to propose to me.  We have been talking about it for a while and I knew it was only a matter of time.  HOWEVER, Colin still managed trick me, and I had NO IDEA he was going to propose when he did.  Well done sir.  Now, on to our story…

Friday, May 13th 2011: 

I received an email from one of those local discount vendors (i.e. Groupon, LivingSocial…) advertising for a discount at a local spa here in Albuquerque.  I forwarded it Colin saying that, you know, if he ever wanted to book me something like that I would certainly NEVER complain…  I didn’t expect him to buy that deal (although it was quite a deal), I was more just giving him ideas.

Well to my surprise, a few hours later I got an email back from him saying he had booked a spa night for us the very next night!!  We had talked a few weeks earlier about getting massages at the end of the semester (that was today) as a de-stresser, but I had forgotten about it and so had he until I sent that email.  He told me that we had an appointment for a couples massage at Ten Thousand Waves Mountain Spa Resort in Santa Fe, Saturday evening at 7PM. YAY!!!

Saturday, May 14th 2011:

We planned to clean all day Saturday because Colin’s family was coming to visit the following Tuesday.  We did some cleaning, but I think most of the day was actually spent with me sleeping on the couch and Colin sleeping in the arm chair with one of the Harry Potter movies playing the background.

Around 5PM we headed up to the resort in Santa Fe (~1 hr 30 minutes), the ride up was uneventful.  Once we got on to the road the resort was on, it was beautiful.   Huge houses in the mountains and the resort was hidden off to the left.  It was a good thing Colin was paying attention, because I completely missed the entrance.

When we walked into the spa, we were greeted and handed kimonos to change into.   The women at the desk went over our reservations for the night, a couples massage a 30 minute break and an hour and a half in a private bath house.  Wait, What?? Colin said we had a 7PM couples massage.  What was the rest of this reservation?? Colin’s first surprise of the night.  In hindsight, you would think I would have been a little suspicious that he might propose, but I thought it was just a nice surprise to celebrate the end of the semester.

So we go and change into our robes (The locker rooms are amazing!) and meet back in the main area.  This resort is half indoors and half outdoors.  It is very hard to explain, so I recommend visiting their website and looking a round if you would like to get a good idea.

We were met by our masseuses and went to get our couples massage.  The massage was wonderful, and my masseuse was really great.  After our massage we were told that we could walk around the garden and relax for 30 minutes while the private bath house was prepared.  There was a bench in front of a waterfall with a hot foot soak in front of it, so I decided to sit there and relax.  Colin had gone to the locker room after the massage to clean up a little.

Waterfall Colin proposed in front of. (Via Ten Thousand Waves Facebook)[/caption]

Here comes the big moment: 

When Colin returned he sat down next to me on the bench.  It was really nice and we were just taking in everything around us when he turned to me and said “Well I was going to do this in the bath house, but since these kimonos don’t have pockets…” He pulled out a box and asked me to marry him! before he even opened the box I had covered my face and started crying. He had to ask me if that meant yes, then he had to remind me to put on the ring.

I cried some more and we sat and talked to couple who had sat down next to us.  I went to the locker room to fix my makeup and clean up a little from the massage.  When I came back to the foot soak Colin already had the keys to our private bath house.  The bath house was amazing, we want to build one attached to our house when we build a house…. If you want to see pictures go to their website and look at the Ichiban bath house, that is the one Colin reserved.