Dreams don't arrive like the tide, expected and steady. Ours arrived like the wind, beginning with the faintest spring zephyr, uncertain and gentle.

Bethany and Glenn met a short time after our separate arrivals in New York City. Bethany to pursue a graduate degree in Fashion at Parsons, Glenn to continue growing FaithStreet, a startup he cofounded.

Unbeknownst to the other, we each held an early interest in the other, but wondered and hoped from afar as we each launched new lives in the big city. For two years, we would bump into each other: at concerts; in passing when Glenn met up with Bethany's roommate, Jared; on weekends in various establishments around the Lower East Side. Always sparks, but never more. Until…

First Date

After a long time, in Glenn's words, he finally "got brave" and asked Bethany out, but our first date is most due to her Instagram game (which is strong!). We met for a 6-hour long, meandering stroll through Central Park, sometime in early April in 2015. Best. First. Date. Ever. "Is this real life?" became a frequent refrain in our early days of dating, each wondering how it could be possible to find someone as complementary as the other.

New York City is not the easiest place to build a relationship, but it does give out gifts from time to time. One of these serendipities would be the proximity of our offices, a mere two blocks away from the other.

Our summer and fall nights were spent wandering the cooling evenings, waltzing through the Flatiron District, taking the very long way to our respective trains home. We'd often retreat from long days at the office to Madison Square Park, just a few blocks away from our eventual wedding venue, and sit and talk for hours, until the last express train of the night arrived to ferry Bethany home.

When you know, you know

As early as November, the suspicion had taken root that we had found the real thing, the love that people talk about, too grand to be fully known, but too well experienced to be denied.

When you find this person and a life spent together appears as a path for your hearts' pursuit, a reasonable person can only do one thing—giggle in nervousness and begin to wonder at the possibility of the other feeling the same.

At this point you may be reading this with a kind of suspended disbelief. No way was it this easy. You'd be right, but wrong at the same time. It took focused effort to carve time into our lives for each other, to be open and vulnerable, honest and empathetic as we talked and listened. It took an immense amount of intentional time and work, but if we're both honest, it felt a lot more like play.

The Proposal

June 16, 2016. I (Glenn) slipped the ring and a bag full of arepas into a backpack to meet Bethany after work. With flowers in hand and a waffle for an appetizer, we walked to the West Side of Manhattan. A casual, picnic dinner while we watched the sunset. By appearances, just another date.

At this point, we had been talking together about getting married, and also with our families. If you've spent a lot of time with either of us, you may have noticed that we're crazy about each other, so taking these next steps was not too surprising. However, a surprise is exactly what Bethany wanted her engagement to be, a private moment for the two of us. A private moment in a city of 8 million people and surprising the person who knows you best in the world - Challenge accepted.

Walking under the Highline, a meandering stroll through the West Village, a subway ride to Brooklyn, flowers, Argentine sandwiches, a sunset on the Hudson. All pieces of our earliest dates for our final dating date.

We journeyed back to my apartment in Brooklyn and made our way up to the roof. The box with the ring was in my back pocket, as I twisted and turned to keep it hidden. New York's famous skyline rose before us. Those moments feel like a blur until I began to drop to one knee as Bethany exclaimed, "Oh, this is happening?!" A surprise proposal in a rare private moment.

She said, "YES!".