Anthony and Stephanie met at the ripe old age of 11 at Discovery Middle School. Although they had different friends, both sat at the same lunch table throughout 6th grade. When 8th grade began, Anthony and Stephanie were partners in their American History class. Anthony often got into trouble for talking to Stephanie in the middle of class. He even got called up to the teacher's desk and got asked if he had a crush on Stephanie. He denied it as any 14 year old boy would. But that was a lie. Stephanie had a boyfriend and did not consider the fact that Anthony might have a crush. As Anthony would come to later put it, he was "friend-zoned."

High school followed shortly after and seeing as though they combined into one single high school with thousands of other kids, Stephanie and Anthony quickly lost touch. Stephanie went on to become yearbook editor in chief and student body secretary while Anthony focused on lacrosse and the athletic training program. She got accepted to Florida State University four hours away from home while he got accepted to University of Central Florida just down the road.

Throughout their college experience they every so often would "like" the other's pictures or posts on Facebook...until they graduated....

After graduation Stephanie moved back to Orlando for her several month gap before starting dental school. One morning she was hanging out with her friends and somehow brought up the point that she wished they all still talked to Anthony Catoni from high school because she thought he was so cute. That same night she went downtown with her friend Katelyn. At the end of the night she received a Facebook message from Anthony asking if she had moved back to Orlando and would like to meet up for lunch. Stephanie, after confirming that Katelyn did not tell Anthony what they had been talking about earlier that afternoon, messaged Anthony back accepting the invitation. (The conversation can be seen in the image under "Photos" tab). Anthony's version of the story is a bit different...

Anthony was also at downtown Orlando that night with his friend Nick. As two single boys often do, they got to talking about girls. Anthony had seen a recent Facebook photo that Stephanie had posted earlier that day and showed it to Nick. He told Nick about his crush that he had back in 8th grade. He went on to tell Nick that he did not know if Stephanie lived in Orlando again and that nothing would probably ever come of it. Nick then did the thing that changed the lives of both Stephanie and Anthony forever... he dared Anthony to message Stephanie on Facebook and ask her out.

The two met at Starbucks the following day and stayed there for six hours talking and catching up about college and life. The day after that they went to happy hour at Bahama Breeze and stayed through the second happy hour. After that the two were inseparable. Flash forward three years and now they have both made the choice to spend forever together.

For over a year Stephanie had been waiting for this moment. Anthony had scheduled every detail down to a T. She had no idea. He had even mapped out distractions to throw at her the week before the proposal such as asking her if she wanted to go ring shopping (so she would think he did not have one already bought.) Stephanie had finally come to the conclusion that they were not getting engaged any time soon.

The following Tuesday afternoon the pair were supposed to be attending a banquet through the athletics department at Anthony's work. He convinced Stephanie to buy a new dress and get out of clinic early to get ready. He even had her afternoon patient moved so that she would be free to leave school early. Anthony was running late that afternoon so getting to the "banquet" was very rushed. Anthony kept his cool and played along with the banquet story the entire way there, saying things like "the email says we have to go all the way to the end and that the banquet is on the back terrace," and as they were approaching the terrace, "oh no, I see someone in basketball shorts, do you think we're over dressed?" As the two approached the terrace at the mansion of the Ringling Brothers Museum, it was completely empty aside from one girl sitting at a table. Stephanie suggested checking inside the mansion for the rest of the group but Anthony insisted on crossing the terrace to check the other side. After getting to the very center of the terrace, Anthony stopped and pulled Stephanie's hand so she faced him. He looked at her and asked, "do you know what today is?" She replied with "August 7th?" He then said "today is the very first day that we started 8th grade together..." and then he got down on one knee, told her how much he loved her and wanted to spend forever with her and asked her if she would marry him. She stared at him completely shocked before saying "of course!" That random girl at the table was a hired photographer and caught the entire thing in a series of photos which you can see under the "photos" tab.