By Bolaji
Back in 2015 two of my childhood friends were getting married, and I had the honor of being a groomsman in both of their weddings. At the first of these two weddings, Yele introduced me to his wife to be, Sika. Sika told me that I know her cousin, Dele, from our time at the University of Michigan; and that I’ll be paired with Dele’s younger sister, Bukky, at their wedding. Fast forward to the second wedding.
Unfortunately, I had to miss the Yele’s traditional wedding(May 2015) due to my final exams. When I finally made it to the hotel to meet the other groomsmen, they kept telling me how the young lady I was paired with in the weddings was upset with me for missing the first day. The next day, sure enough, Bukky gave me a hard time for missing traditional wedding and had 101 questions for me. I remember laughing and thinking “who is this?” And yes, the picture for this section was taken at the wedding reception. I’m pretty sure I blew her away with my dance moves and told her to do her best to keep up with me on the dance floor. I don’t think she took me seriously but that’s a different story for a different day. We became fast friends at the wedding, and we kept in touch afterwards.
As we we started dating(July 2017), I thought that we could have a long term future together because of how much our relationship had grown. I enjoyed every minute of getting to know her, from the silly moments to the the serious ones. We could keep each other laughing or have very frank and honest conversations. By the time we started the process of planing the formal introduction of our families(Christmas 2017), Bukky had become my best friend and she was pushing me to grow in ways that were making me a better man. I was sure that I had found a life partner, the future mother of my children, and the woman that I wanted to grow old with.
I asked Bukky to marry me on January 1st, 2019 at the same restaurant we had our first date as a couple 18 months earlier. The first time I met Bukky we walked down the aisle together as strangers at our friends’ wedding. Now I can’t wait to look down the aisle at our own wedding to find my beautiful bride.
By Bukky
Bola and I first Started dating July 1st 2017 which made January 1st 2019 exactly 1 year and 6 months since we began dating. To celebrate NYE we were with Bola's brothers and co-workers at a party thrown by his work and it was so much fun. The next morning we had planned to go out for both of our favorite meal of the day: Brunch! I am not sure what I was thinking about that morning but it for some reason was most definitely not that I was going to be engaged later that afternoon (although I woke up to texts from several friends and siblings inquiring if we had gotten engaged the night prior at midnight - all to whom I responded no :( )
I am normally a very inquisitive person and ask lots of questions - I think I asked maybe once where we were going and he said "its a surprise" - I let it go because Bola is pretty firm about keeping surprises a secret despite my best efforts. We arrived at Basin (which - I did not immediately connect when walking in but was the place where Bola and I had our very first date!).
We walk in and immediately run into Tomi (Bola's younger brother) who was eating with a classmate. They were seated at a table for 2 so at the time, I genuinely thought we had literally just coincidentally ended up at the same place at the same time. We decided to join them. The waitress comes over, takes our drinks order, leaves, then returns holding a set of menu's close to her chest. She then says "I hear it your Anniversary, we have specials for anniversaries!" (which in hindsight my first thought should have been - "How did she know that" but it wasn't I was more thinking about what this special was going to be - I was hungry lol). We said it was, she then turned the menu's around and she was holding a sign that said "Will You Marry Me" (pictured). I was completely shocked. It took me almost a full minute to process what was happening. I turn to Bola who is down on one knee, I look at Tomi who seemingly out of nowhere pulls out his big nice photographer camera and was taking pictures, his classmate filming the whole thing. I was so confused.
I said "Is this for real?" Bola said "I love you will you marry me" I said "Of course Yes!" -- then I realized everyone in the restaurant was watching, then clapped and cheered (one patron actually pulled out her iPad and filmed the whole thing as well!). It was the best moment and the easiest most comfortable decision I have ever made in my entire life.
We continued on to have brunch and an interesting twist - the couple behind us (and the lady who had also filmed it) had been married for 20+ years and the husband was an Orthopedic Surgeon. They gave us great advice about being married, medicine, and career advice. It was a cool twist to an already awesome moment.
We celebrated. We took more pictures. I Facetimed all 7 of my family members at once to tell them. Even as I write this now I still have the biggest smile and I cannot wait to make more memories with surprises, love, family, friends, and interesting plot twists as we look towards our future together