The first time I saw Samantha was our freshman year of high school at Houston Christian. She walked across the stage during a freshman class introductory event and immediately made an impression on me. It wouldn't be until two years later that I got to really know her, but from that first moment I knew she was something special.
- Sam
On June 12, 2015, Sam took me to the Downtown Aquarium. I had no idea if it was meant to be a date, but when Sam put his arm around me at the top of the ferris wheel, I instantly felt butterflies. He lucked out that it was also salsa night and he taught me how to salsa dance, one of his many hidden talents. When he dropped me off, he kissed me goodnight, and I was confident this would be the first of many dates!
- Samantha
When you’ve known someone since high school, you naturally accumulate a list of shared locations and experiences, especially after you start dating. However, it was always clear to me where I should propose to Samantha. Prior to our junior prom, one of two high school dances we attended together, we took pictures on the steps of the Houston Museum of Art, and it was there that some six years later I would receive the most joyous of yeses and enjoy the happiest day of my life. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though. Before all of the bliss could occur, there was a journey of a fake date, an almost crippling mishap, and perhaps the least smooth thing I’ve ever done.
Anyone who knows Samantha would agree that she does her research, and she plans meticulously. Surprising her is not the easiest thing in the world to do. I had asked her to go on a trendy date for drinks and appetizers (a rare date format for us) to a restaurant we’d never been to, Lucille’s, that we found out later wasn’t even open that day. It was the only restaurant I knew of in the Museum District area, and conveniently, our moms had gone there together for lunch recently. It was during the car ride that the real, unplanned misdirection came into play. I was wearing a very crisp, freshly dry-cleaned Astros themed guayabera shirt. It’s a shirt that is apparently not the quintessential engagement shirt in Samantha’s mind. I’d later come to find out that as soon as she got in the car to go on our date, she texted her mom saying “He’s wearing a guayabera, it’s not happening today.” I’m sure if you asked her she would happily admit that her being wrong was the best-case outcome. I for one thought it was the no brainer pick for this occasion.
As we pulled up to the museum, I turned on my hazard lights and saw Chase Wertheimer stick his head out from behind a tree right on queue to take my car away so that it wouldn’t be sitting on Main Street. In my excitement of finally arriving at the destination, I almost did the one thing that I told myself all day would be the one thing I could do to derail the whole thing: leave the ring in the car. Naturally, after picturing how I would fluidly grab the ring box out of the door as I got out, I brazenly walked around towards the front of my car intending to head to the museum steps and propose the way I’d imagined a million times over. However, after about three steps, it dawned on me I was getting a bit ahead of myself. I turned back towards the car door and reached in to grab the ring box. I looked up and said to Chase (who had made his way to the car unbeknownst to Samantha at this point) “Whelp, that could have been bad.” It was then, after surviving the mini heart attack of almost leaving the ring, that I took Samantha by the hand and walked her towards the steps that mean so much to us, sat Samantha down on the bench that Kennedy Uptegraph had so kindly set up for us, and took Samantha’s hands in mine. I spoke about all that we had been through in our four and a half years of dating through college and into the working world. I reminded her that she was my best friend, my favorite person, and I told her she was the only person I could see myself conquering life with. I wish I could say that I remembered everything that I said to her, but the truth is that I spoke from the heart and before even I knew it I was down on one knee holding out that ring box. That’s when the second blunder of the day occurred.
A little piece of advice for all the guys out there: pick a ring box that has a top that doesn’t look absolutely identical to its bottom. Girls can be hard enough to predict in general, but I would say being met with laughter at opening the ring box and having the ring pointing straight at her rather than it sitting facing up was a moment I’ll remember and cherish for the rest of my life. Luckily, I have excellent hand eye coordination and was able to flip the box around before there was any photographic evidence. I continued where I left off and asked Samantha to spend forever with me and be my wife, and without hesitation she said yes.
She pulled me up off my knee and I picked her up off her feet, and after a flurry of hugging and kissing had ceased, I happened to spot where our families had been watching at a distance and pointed it out to Samantha. It was easy to see her face show a new level of joy at the realization that her family and soon to be new family were all together in the midst of our special life changing moment. It was a smooth and complete end to a rollercoaster of a proposal, but I wouldn’t have traded a single second of it for the world. I’m excited to be able to say that Samantha Moore is going to be my wife, and I’m so honored and excited to be her husband!
-Sam
On June 6, 2020, almost 5 years after our first date, Sam asked me to marry him! We had always planned on getting engaged one year after graduation, so I had been counting down the days to "proposal season" this summer. On the day of the proposal, I had a feeling he had something planned. He asked me to get drinks and appetizers at a restaurant our moms had gone to lunch at a few months earlier, a date I would never expect him to take me on. In case my feeling was right, I wore my favorite white dress and made sure my nails were ring ready!
When he picked me up, I opened the door and was surprised to see he was wearing a guayabera (a shirt I've complimented him on every time he's worn it, but not what I had expected him to propose in). I immediately texted my mom and told her he wasn't proposing. Ten minutes later, we pulled up next to the Museum of Fine Arts, the building we took Junior Prom pictures at 6 years earlier and one of my favorite buildings in Houston. As soon as I saw the beautiful setup, I started to cry. After recapping almost five years of our lives together, Sam got down on one knee and said the four words I had been dreaming of hearing for so long, "Will you marry me?"
The excitement continued when Kennedy came out of the bushes, Chase came around the corner and Sam pointed to our families watching from the Hotel ZaZa patio across the street, where we'll celebrate our wedding on May 1, 2021! We then spent 2 hours discussing every detail that had gone into planning the perfect proposal before joining our families for dinner.
A second major surprise came when we finished dinner and headed to our engagement party where 50 of our wonderful friends were waiting to celebrate with us! In the midst of COVID-19, I had fully accepted that we likely would not be able to have an engagement party; however, Sam and my mom knew that the day wouldn't be complete without our people, and worked hard to find a safe and beautiful place to continue the celebration!
Two weeks before Sam proposed, my mom asked me what my dream proposal day would look like. I told her I didn't want to answer because I didn't want to have any expectations. On Sunday as Sam and I watched a slide show of all of the pictures from the day before set to Ben Rector's "White Dress," I thought back to that question. If I had given her an answer, I would have described exactly what Sam had pulled off. Everything about the day was perfect in every way, and truly portrayed how well Sam knows me. I can't wait to become his wife on May 1, 2021!
- Samantha