Dhrupa and I met for the first time at a party during college she was introduced to me as Harshal's sister. Over the years we continued to randomly meet but Dhrupa never showed any interest in me. A couple years later Harshal invited me to his housewarming party. I got to meet her whole family but still didn’t get to know her. A couple years later we continued to randomly text and attempted to hang out but those were fails.
A couple years later, I am attending my cousin’s engagement party and notice a familiar face, it was Dhrupa’s dad. I ended up grabbing a drink and a selfie, little did I know that this was the first of many selfies that I would be taking with my future Father-In-Law. I ended up sending the selfie to Dhrupa, of course she was surprised I was hanging out with her dad. We began texting back and forth nonstop for the next 2 weeks. Dhrupa continues to drop hints but I am just thinking she’s being really nice. It finally clicked that she might like me.
Finally, she convinces me to do my birthday at Tinsel, a random Christmas popup bar and we decided to have our first lunch date at Honeys. Unfortunately, we found out they didn’t serve drinks and shifted the date to Silk City. We eventually meet up with all my friends later at Tinsel and eventually end the night at Iron Hill Brewery. That night was memorable and I knew Dhrupa was special in her own special way. I ended up going back to Harsh’s and told him I was going to Marry her. Two years later here we are planning a wedding.
So basically, Ronak ran into my parents at his cousin's engagement party. He, like the smart man he is, grabbed a drink, took a pic with my dad, and then sent it to me..
The rest is history.
Thanks Dad, who knew you going to that party would change my life forever -
Two weeks prior to November 13th 2020, Ronak asks me if I want to go to North Carolina for his cousin Pratik's "surprise birthday party". Immediately, I am like sure, why not - I love weekend trips. He knew that right away I would start asking a million questions, making a google spreadsheet for the itinerary, carefully planned out like we do for every trip, and his most dreadful part of our trips -- the shopping that happens for new outfits.
With the help of his cousins, they made a fake invitation and event list for the weekend. On Saturday, the invitation said that we were going to surprise Pratik at the Biltmore Estate and we were dressing really fancy and the day prior we would be hanging out with his sister Aesha/brother in law Amit.
In the upcoming days, he took me shopping for this "fancy outfit", which is the dress that you see in the proposal pictures. He had my friend Amanda take me to get my nails done without me having a single clue. I tried on outfits for him, asking his opinion, which I happen to never listen to. So, basically, he picked my entire outfit for the proposal which is funny.
We arrive to North Carolina, I am super conscious of what I am posting on social media because I did not want to ruin Pratik's "surprise". On Friday, as we are heading to our hotel in the mountains, Ronak had no idea that the perfectly planned proposal was going to be harder than he thought (lol, woops!) So, I had a phone interview with a job which was going well until I lost reception multiple time because there was no service in the mountains. At this time, I was extremely upset, and of course, blaming Ronak for something he had no control over. The rest of that car ride was pure silence as I was irrationally angry. We get to the hotel around 2:30pm, I make him do a workout with me (yes, even on vacation, we had to work out). Knowing that he was proposing this night, he wanted to keep things as normal as they could possibly be. After the workout, I start to get ready for our dinner date with his sister and brother in law. Ronak tells me, last minute, that they are almost at the restaurant already. This meant that I had to rush through my hair, make-up, etc. which seems to always happen. I was furious with Ronak because he did not tell me the timing/plans beforehand. I kept telling him that I felt ugly and I'm annoyed at the situation (looking back, i was being a brat!). At this point, Ronak is panicking! Rightfully so!
By this time, we are LATE, the sun is setting, I am upset and he can't get in touch with anyone because there's no service. I just end up rushing to the car, putting the rest of my makeup on in the car, and we head out. Again, whole car ride is silent. Ronak loses service and we don't know how to get to the "restaurant" for dinner. He asks me to put the location in my GPS. He tells me to put in Dry Falls Brewery. Nothing pops up on my end. He then makes me put in Dry Falls Parking Lot. At that time I did not think anything of it and didn't ask questions because I was mad at him. We arrive to this parking lot, and we begin going down some stairs which are slippery and difficult to walk in with heels. He says, "I should have told you to wear your sandals". As we are walking down, I see a huge waterfall. He tells me that the restaurant is down by the waterfall. I am a sucker for chasing waterfalls!
As I am looking and walking toward the waterfall, I see rose petals and candles. I grab Ronak's arm and he smiles at me. I was like "no, stop, no, Ronak, wait, what are you doing?" LOL; He then gets down on one knee, I couldn't tell you what he said, I blacked out! I couldn't even say yes at that time, I was so surprised and full of emotions! So, Ronak asked me again, and after the second "will you marry me?" I said YES!
Side notes: There was no surprise party for Pratik but all his cousins (Harsh, Pratik, Moni, Avani) did a damn good job at faking this! Shout out to Aesha and Amit for helping arrange the beautiful set up at the waterfalls.