Austin and I met back in 2008 in Gainesville FL. One of my friends was invited to a party Austin's friend was throwing and she invited me to go along with her. It was your normal loud and crowded college apartment party with plenty of beer pong. Austin was playing beer pong the ENTIRE night (nothing’s changed) and at one point someone told Austin he overheard me say Austin was cute. During a beer pong break, Austin came over to me and said "Hey, heard you think I'm cute". What a lame pick up line :) but it worked. We spent the rest of the night talking and exchanged phone numbers. We spent the rest of sophomore year traveling back and forth from Gainesville to Orlando to visit each other while creating tons of fun drama in each other’s lives :) Then the distance became too much to handle and we went our separate ways, not knowing if we'd cross paths ever again. (Side note: I also blocked Austin from all social media so we probably wouldn’t ever cross paths again.)

Well four years later Facebook settings change and somehow I show up on Austin's "people you may know". He decided to message me to see how I've been. It was all history from then! We started building an amazing friendship and would talk almost every day, but once again we were long distance, I lived in Miami and he lived in Orlando. This time we didn’t let distance get the best of us! Austin asked me to officially be his girlfriend on New Year’s day 2014 at our friends Dom and Susanna's NYE party; he said he did this so he could never forgot our anniversary and we would always do something fun to celebrate. During this time I had also applied to a few PhD programs and was waiting for acceptance letters.

We both knew long distance wasn’t going to work forever and I knew I couldn't convince Austin to make the move down to Miami (he's not the biggest Miami fan, in sports and in general) so when I finally got my acceptance letter from the University of Central Florida we were both beyond thrilled! Not only was the location convenient, I also received a full ride with grant funding to study Exceptional Education. This is when I finally made the move to Winter Park, FL and Austin and I were finally living in the same city!

June 1, 2017. I start the day by giving Austin a super cute social media shout out and share how this is the one day a year only about him. It's Austin's 28th birthday and for both of our birthdays Austin and I invite our parents to a fun German restaurant in Sanford. So we either go to Austin's parents’ house or our house before dinner for some drinks and to open gifts. Unfortunately, the weather was miserable! There were thunder storms and tornado warnings all up the east coast of central Florida. I really didn’t want my parents to drive up in this weather, so I kept calling my mom to check in and tell her she didn’t need to drive in the storms, but they insisted they were coming.

Due to the disgusting weather, I was going to throw on a pair of jeans with a casual blouse, throw my hair up in a sloppy bun and skip the make-up. Austin saw me and said "why are you dressed like that?" I quickly responded with "Excuse me?! It's pouring out what would you like me to wear?!" And to my surprise he knew exactly what he wanted me to wear and told me to do my hair and make because "you know someone will post a picture and you be pissed you didn’t dress up for my birthday". So I surprisingly agreed because really I was just being lazy. Once we were ready my parents came by our house to pick us up and drive us over to the Scruggs house. In the car I noticed a huge bruise on my grandma’s arm from an IV earlier that week and commented that my mom forgot to give my grandma her jewelry back (my mom always takes all of my grandma’s jewelry off when she is in the hospital). Little did I know this put everyone on edge which created a quiet rest of the ride.

When we got to Austin's parents’ house all of Austin's gifts were set up in the living room and everyone was there! Even Dylan's (Austin's middle brother) girlfriend, Jordan, was able to leave school early to make it and Evan's (Austin's youngest brother) girlfriend, Kendall, was there. While gathering around to watch Austin open his gifts Evan had a very specific seating arrangement, which I thought was odd but followed and sat on the couch designated to Austin and I. Everyone got a drink and Austin began opening his gifts. Austin's last gift was a necklace box and inside his mom folded a picture of a Texans Deshaun Watson jersey coming in the mail. So my mom, Austin's mom and I start a conversation about what a great guy Deshaun is and how he reminds us of Timmy Tebow :)

Then, I remind everyone to grab their last drinks because it's time to head to dinner. During this conversation I see what I thought was Austin fidgeting with the necklace box the picture was wrapped in. When I finally look over, I realized it's not a necklace box anymore, it's a ring box and OH MY GOD Austin is down on one knee! I have practiced my reaction to this moment since I was a little girl. It went something like "wow, it's beautiful, Yes! I love you so much" all with a picture perfect smile and a few glistening tears. Well that all went out the door. Austin said, "Angelica, will you make this the best birthday ever and marry me." I started completely ugly crying and shouting "OH MY GOD, NO, NO WAY, IS THIS REALLY HAPPENING, NO WAY". Then noticed Austin's look of confusion and realized OMG I'm not saying yes, I just keep saying “no”, in shock! So, I finally ugly cry talk and say "absolutely yes this is so perfect thank you!" With both of us shaking he puts this absolutely stunning ring on my finger and I realize it’s my grandma’s ring! The ring I have wanted since I was a little girl! The ring I have tried on and said I always wanted an exact replica of and this is why she wasn’t wearing it in the car, and this is why everyone became silent and awkward, and this is why Austin made me dress up, and this is why my parents drove up no matter what, and this is why Dylan had to sit on the ledge of the fireplace to record, and this is why Jordan got off school early, and this is why Evan had a strict setting chart, and this is why our friend Susanna made me get my nails done two days before and NOW IT ALL MAKES SENSE!!! Then, I found out Austin drove all the way to Vero Beach, while I was in school one day, to ask my dad if he had permission to marry me and my dad responded with "good boy" and a pat on the shoulder before breaking into tears. Austin took this as a yes :)

Austin did it. He pulled it off, when I was least expecting it, on the one day I allowed to be all about him, and he made it all about us! I had absolutely no idea and I was so oblivious to the signs, which made it all even more perfect. The most incredible part was that my grandma sat right next to me the entire time and once Austin put the ring on my finger he said, "now go thank grandma" and it was the most perfect moment ever!

Now here's to losing all of the letters and vowels in Fulchini and becoming Mrs. Scruggs!!!

#Scruggsandkisses

#Scrugglifechoseme