Eric and I met on Eharmony. I had just gotten out of a bad relationship, and I wanted a new start. I wanted to find someone who was looking for the same thing as me, someone who wanted to find their life partner. I knew that a dating website would have people who were serious, and wanted to be in a healthy relationship like I did.

We started emailing each other and after four days of emailing back and forth, we decided to go to dinner and meet. We talked at dinner for over an hour, and then we decided to walk around and talk a bit more. We spent two hours walking around the shopping center and getting to know each other. We talked about everything from work and school, to our families.

I came home that evening to tell my parents that Eric was the most amazing person I had ever met.

Well, here we are... Five years later, engaged and planning our wedding, and he is still the most amazing person I have ever met.

In order to make the moment as unique and as memorable as possible, I wanted to propose to Melanie in the most creative way possible. So I decided to adapt the story of our relationship into a children's storybook and for several months I worked on writing, illustrating, and formatting that book. When the book was ready, I coordinated with the other teachers of the preschool Melanie works at, and they helped to have her read the book as part of an "exercise" during a teacher meeting. Without her knowing, I was in the other room waiting for the right moment of the story to enter and take over reading the story. Of course the story ultimately ended with me asking if she would marry me, and most fortunately she said yes.

One of the teachers at the meeting was kind enough to record the whole event, which you may see for yourself here.