We were both having one of those Friday nights where we wanted to just stay home. Lucky for us, we each had a friend that dragged us out to Sundance, a country bar in Fort Collins, for a night out. Little did we know, those friends were trying to set us up. Joe was being quiet and shy in the corner all night. (Hence no picture of us together; however, the picture is from that night.) Now, Stephanie knew she was being pushed in Joe’s direction and while her friends were off dancing, she took it upon herself to go and try to be social with this guy. He was cute and she was told he was weird, in a good way, and a really awesome guy. But, Joe continued to be shy and quiet. After they went home for the night, Joe told his friend that he wasn’t interested in a relationship right now. (Turns out that was a lie!)
They ended up at the Holiday Twin, a drive-in movie theater in Fort Collins, a few weeks after they met so their mutual friends could hang out together. Joe says that was the night he fell in love with Stephanie. That night Stephanie also realized that she loved this guy too as he fed her a pretzle, even though she wouldn’t admit it to herself for a few months.
In early July, their mutual group of friends and them went to the Aaron Watson concert at the Greely Stampede. Stephanie and Joe had enough liquid courage to come out of their shells. As Stephanie was leaving, Joe ran up to her, threw his arm around her and said, “You know what I think? I think you need to give me your number!” Stephanie responded with, “Duh!”
Joe was hanging out with some friends in his garage fixing his derby car. Joe texted Stephanie asked if she would like to come hang out and have some beers and maybe go on an ATV ride later. Stephanie had nothing better to do so she said, “Sure! I could never turn down an ATV ride!” For some reason, everyone thought it would be a good idea to go out four wheeling after it got dark. While on their way to the trail head, Joe was asking Stephanie the usual “get to know you” questions like, “What is your favorite season?”, “Do you like pasta?” (As an Italian, this is a very important question!), and “Why do you talk so much?” When they reached their destination, they took off into the night, beer in hand, with their friends following behind them in their Jeep. Every time Joe and Stephanie got far ahead of the Jeep, their friends hoped that they had pulled off the trail to make out in the woods somewhere. When they finished their late night adventure, Stephanie looked at her phone to see a text from her mom saying, “Make sure you get a picture with this guy! What if something happens and you can show it to your grandkids in the future?” Guess she was right because now it can be posted on our wedding website!
A few weeks after he got her number, they went on their first, official, date at the Charcol Broiler where they talked for hours. Well, more like Stephanie talked for hours and Joe listened for hours. When Joe dropped Stephanie off at home he asked her to be his girl friend. Stephanie, being the person who over thinks everything, said she needed to think about it even though she wanted to say yes. She called her mom, told her about her night, and her mom basically said she was stupid for not saying yes and “that poor boy must be shitting his pants right now on his way home! You call him and tell him yes!” Meanwhile, Joe was basically pooping his pants the hour long drive home wondering where he went wrong. So, an hour after being asked, she called him back and said she would love to be his girl friend to which he responded, “oh thank god! I just got off the phone asking my sister what I did wrong!” The rest is history I guess!
Joe and Stephanie's first major vacation together was Stephanie's final Spring Break trip to Jamaica! They drank and ate and played in the ocean for days on end. They even got to ride horseback in the ocean! Conveniently, they were there over Stephanie's 22nd birthday. Joe decided to make one of her dreams come true to celebrate: swimming with dolphins! They had such an amazing time that they decided to make Negril, Jamaica their honeymoon destination!
Joe called Stephanie in the middle of the day and asked her if he could take her on a date that evening because they haven't been out in a while. Excited by this idea, Stephanie said yes and began to plan what she was going to wear. When Joe came home that evening, they hopped in his truck to head somewhere, Stephanie didn't know. Before they drove off, Joe threw a t-shirt in Stephanie's face and requested that she blindfold herself while he drive. Once they reached their destination, Joe helped her out of the truck and led her down a path. Suddenly Joe told Stephanie to drop the blindfold and she realized that they were at Horsetooth Reservoir. There was Joe on one knee on a blanket holding a wooden box and surrounded by champagne, strawberries, and cheese and crackers. Then he said, "Will you mawwy me?" (And no, that is not a misspelling, that is how it came out lol) Stephanie peered into the box and saw.... a ring pop surround by jelly beans. Stephanie gave a disappointed chuckle assuming this was all a joke that Joe was pulling. She pulled the ring pop out of the box and exclaimed "Oh! It's sooooo lovely!" Joe proceeded to ask, "Don't you want a jelly bean?" Stephanie refused because it was cold out which clearly meant that the jelly beans would be rock hard. Joe begged her to have a jelly bean. Knowing something was up she dug through the candy and found the most beautiful engagement ring. She yanked it out of the box and exclaimed, "Wait! Are you serious?" to which Joe responded, "Yes, I'm serious!" Stephanie of course said yes and gave Joe the biggest hug. While they embraced, she heard the clicking of a camera. She turned to find her best friend, Sydney, capturing the whole thing on camera! It was truly a night they will never forget! It was absolutely perfect!