Amanda and Chris took their first trip together to Chicago for Richard and Ana Duffy’s wedding, an event for the ages. Between the open bar, revelry, and one of Chris’s infamous trips to White Castle, the couple knew they had found their other half: a couple that can travel together can stay together. Amanda also got the treat of meeting several of Chris’s college friends, who lived up to the hype. The couple even managed to make time for amazing Italian meal from Gene and Georgetti’s, a veal parm Amanda is still trying to replace to this day.
Not long after the couple returned from Chicago, it was clear that it was time to take the next step, moving in together. Unfortunately, their was one small, furry hiccup...
Chris had never had a dog. Growing up he was told he had allergies. Otherwise, he wasn’t opposed to dogs, but he was far from overjoyed with their presence. The sum total of this did not quite make the open invitation Amanda had hoped for.
For Amanda exact opposite was true. She had always grown up with dogs in the home and a very real pet allergy. However, she would rather pet a dog and sneeze for a couple days than let a tail wag for no reward (Luckily, allergy shots are a thing so suffering is minimal).
Due to her love of floppy eared, fluffy, four legged creatures, Amanda had rescued a small puppy while in graduate school before her move to Dallas. Living together for years and then relocating to a new city, Amanda thought of her dog Rayae as more family than pet.
When Chris proposed moving in together, he also proposed a change to the dog’s living situation: “maybe she could go live with your parents.” Flabbergasted, Amanda explained that her and the dog were a package deal. So a deal was struck: Amanda would bring Rayae over to stay for a weekend and the couple would see how things went.
When Amanda and Rayae arrived for the fated visit, Rayae bolted from her leash to Chris’s lap where she has remained almost everyday since. Chris and Rayae bonded over their mutual love of string cheese and Masters weekend.
Amanda and Rayae officially moved in a few short weeks later, although Rayae was a permanent resident from the moment she stepped in the door.
In March of 2019 the couple ventured to the Big Easy for a fun-filled time of music and cocktails. Amanda had experienced the city several times over her childhood and college years at The University of Alabama.
The couple took the trip to show Chris’s sister, Meredith, the city for the first time but as an ever changing city does, New Orleans was full of new experiences for all. The group took in the French Quarter and its many artisans, had beignets at Cafe Du Monde, and gathered some vintage books from the William Faulkner house book store.
One of the highlights of the trip was discovering Cochon Butcher nestled behind legendary restaurant Cochon, which even the Uber driver remarked “only locals know of this place” and was dismayed at the group’s knowledge of local cuisine. The Le Pig Mac, a pork version of the American classic the Big Mac, coupled with a healthy portion of chili-infused, caramelized Brussels Sprouts is dish that even the most Cajun connoisseur would put down their spice to enjoy.
The couple also enjoyed visiting the iconic Carousel Bar at Hotel Monteleone where they listened to sultry jazz, went to uptown New Orleans for a Po Boy at Domilise’s, and imbibed French 75 cocktails at Arnaud’s. Soon after the trip Chris took a new job with all of Louisiana as part of his territory and has been living it up around New Orleans ever since.
Nonstop Lies & Deception
The final piece of the puzzle to get us here to HappilyEverAlbright.com, is of course, the engagement. Once Chris (I) knew it was time to buy the ring, I had to lay out an involved, highly secretive plan that Amanda would never see coming. We had visited a jewelry store one time so that I knew the band and shape of diamond that she liked. I complained afterwards for weeks to keep her expectations low, and to think we weren’t anywhere near a proposal. Then I went back to the store to have the sales person start looking for a diamond to my specifications and let me know when they found what I was looking for. I also let them know to order the band she had fallen in love with for the ring. I purchased the diamond and band after telling her I was going to meet Groomsman Todd Range out that afternoon to watch the Manchester United-Manchester City match (March 30th 2019) and I demanded the jewelry store turn the game on for me while they took all their time with the paperwork. I left the jeweler that day with a loose diamond to hold onto until the band was created in about 6 weeks. I was now tasked with finding a hiding spot for the shopping bag, GIA papers and the diamond. I chose above the medicine cabinet in our first-floor guest bathroom as it was at least 7 feet in the air and invisible for anyone to see unless they were on the ceiling. I would check on it from time to time, and even showed my parents when they came to visit while Amanda was on a different floor of our townhouse at the time. Next item of deception was to fly to Birmingham to ask her parents for her hand in marriage. I messaged Jim and Monica to let them know I was flying into Birmingham for business and would like to have lunch with them to talk about Amanda and to please keep it confidential. I also changed their names in my phone so that any texts from them wouldn’t set off any alarms to Amanda, so Mike Kingberry and John Applebee were born! I took a flight in the morning landing in Birmingham at 10am (May 22nd 2019) and met Jim and Monica at Dreamland BBQ, one of Amanda’s favorite places for lunch. I let Amanda know I had to go to Houston for the day to make my early departure in the morning and later arrival home at night seem normal. Upon meeting with Jim and Monica they let me know they figured that there were only two reasons for me wanting to meet with both of them; to either ask for permission to marry their daughter, or for help in getting her moved out of my house. I let them know, that unfortunately for them it was the former, and that I had planned on asking for Amanda’s hand in marriage and had purchased a ring. While they grilled me a little on my request, they wanted to make sure we were making the right decision. In reality, I truly had ulterior motives on what I needed to sell them on at that lunch, coming to Dallas for the night of our engagement, which I knew would be a big ask.
The Big Reveal & the Rise of a Supervillain:
Jim and Monica gave me their blessing and let me know that they would find a way for someone from the family to make it for the engagement on July 5th. Now I had to move on to the plan for the actual proposal. Around the same time, Groomsman Shea Laffere was dating his future wife Lisa, and was just itching to propose to her. It was at this time, I saw an opportunity to use Shea’s relationship/upcoming proposal as a ruse to set up my surprise proposal. In mid-June I started discussing my plan with Shea, he was totally on board with the idea. We let Amanda know we would be attending a dinner on July 5th at Terilli’s (one of our favorite places and site of our rehearsal dinner) for Shea’s engagement party and to keep his upcoming proposal quiet from Lisa. Around late June, (maybe June 30th) I spoke with Shea who said he definitely wasn’t going to propose to Lisa anytime soon and her twins were going to camp for a month the first week of July and he wanted them to be there for his proposal. Fast forward to three days later…July 2nd, Shea called and informed me he had proposed to Lisa and she had said yes! While happy for the couple, I thanked Shea for jeopardizing my entire plan and we discussed Lisa and Shea blocking Amanda on all social media so she wouldn’t see that the engagement had already happened. The plan worked, Amanda had no idea what “all around bad guy” Shea had pulled, LOL.
The Proposal
July 5th. Amanda’s parents and sister arrived in Dallas the night before as did my parents and sister, giving them a day to themselves before the 7pm reservation/reveal. I managed to sneak away for lunch, letting Amanda know I was going to a “business meeting” when in reality I was going to TJ’s Seafood (I had lunch at TJ’s the day of our first date) with my family for Lobster Rolls. At one point, Amanda called me with my parents in the car and we were trying not to laugh at the fact she had no idea what was about to happen. Finally, around six thirty that evening, I knew the time had come. For months, I had brainstormed how I would propose. My dad proposed to my mom in his car by hiding the engagement ring in his glove box inside of a Fabergé egg my mom had wanted that they had previously seen at an antiques dealer. I felt a car proposal could work as I had gotten my current car the first week we started dating, and on our second date, Amanda kept playing with a secret compartment in my car, thinking it was cool. This became the basis for how I would propose, putting the ring in the compartment as a surprise. We walked down the stairs as I told her to hurry as we would be late and it was supposed to be a surprise party. When we got into my car (which should’ve been a huge red flag as we always Uber for nights out) I went into a small diatribe about the little things you remember in the life and how some memories stand out no matter how big or small and started playing with the compartment in my car as she yelled at me to stop doing that. I kept it up, bothering her more as I said I think I see something in there. She said she didn’t care and I finally grabbed the box and revealed the ring and proposed. She was in utter shock. She put it on and I asked if that was a yes…. She said it was! I told her we should go back into the house and have a celebratory drink while we wait for an Uber, she asked if we would be late for Shea’s surprise party!!! I said no, it was actually later than that and gave us an extra 15 minutes as I was amazed that she thought the party was still a thing. Amanda called her mom, who was sitting inside a loud Saturday night crowd at Terilli’s as she ran out the back of the restaurant to take the call. Amanda told her mom on the phone that I had just proposed, and she asked Amanda how she answered, she let her know if was a yes and they had a nice moment discussing Amanda’s shock and excitement. Her mom let her know that she had to go as they were out for dinner. Finally our Uber arrived and on the short ride to the restaurant, Amanda tried to call her sister repeatedly who wasn’t answering, as I sat there, marveling at the fact that she was still thinking we were going to Shea and Lisa’s engagement party. Finally, we arrived at the restaurant and I just stood there, as Amanda saw my sister Package making faces at me from their table. Amanda looked at me and said “is that your sister?” I said, “possibly, let’s check it out” and as we walked to their table, Amanda saw her family also at the table with my parents and was overcome with emotion, it was a really nice moment as Amanda finally then realized that we weren’t going to Shea & Lisa’s engagement party!!! Thank you all for being a part of our love story and we can’t wait to see you soon.
-Chris
After their recent engagement, Amanda and Chris joined the rest of the Albright clan on a trip to a longtime family favorite destination Ocean City, New Jersey. In fact, Chris’s grandparents and later his mom, Susan, have been traveling to the beach side town and staying at the Flanders Hotel for over 75 years. Chris was excited to show Amanda around the quaint town for the first time. While there the couple enjoyed walking the boardwalk, playing mini golf, shopping in boutiques, and getting pizza slices, where Chris’s famous pizza review career was born (1/2) at Tony P’s.
For Chris’s 40th birthday the couple took a trip to New York. It was Amanda’s first trip to the big apple and Chris’s chance to scratch off a bucket list item: a dinner at Le Bernardin. The couple met up with Chris’s longtime friends Richard Duffy and John Caufield, and their wives Ana and Jen.
John and Jen recently moved to the big apple, and were amazing hosts. On the first night of the trip they treated the couple to one of their favorite neighborhood haunts, Vezzo were their two young boys love getting their favorite New York slice and Chris treated the group to a filming of one of his famous one-bite pizza reviews (2/2). On Saturday they took both couples on a locals’ tour of the Village complete with multiple bar stops and CBD gummies.
Friday night was reserved for the main event, Le Bernardin, were the group enjoyed a 10 course French meal by famed chef Eric Ripert and countless bottles of wine. The weekend ended on a high note with a legendary Sunday evening courtesy of Carbone’s, a New York must-do restaurant, but that is a story for another time, best told over martinis.
Starting in 2019, Chris and Amanda began looking around Dallas at houses casually to see what they may like as they began to plan the next step in their lives together. They originally planned to wait on buying a home until after their nuptials, however, after looking for several months, the couple started working with a realtor who told him he’d have them in a house in six months, prompting Chris to laugh in his face. It only took him two.
After touring several homes in the North Dallas area, the realtor convinced the couple to look further north than Chris ever thought he’d live, Richardson. Their the couple found the neighborhood of Canyon Creek with its nature trees, eclectic mix of vintage and modern homes, and Americana lawns. The first home the couple saw turned out to be a dream that they could grow into including two things Chris has always wanted: a dedicated office and a pool.
The couple closed on the home in April 2020. After overcoming the challenges of moving during a pandemic lockdown, Chris was trapped in a home for months with his beloved pool, a dream spin on a quarantine mandate.