How We Met

Our story begins with a late night make out session in front of Greenwood Cemetery. Well, it actually begins a few hours earlier with an unforgettable date at Mama Tried in Sunset Park. In an interior that looks straight out of a neon-soaked Florida bar, we sipped cocktails, talked for hours, and fell in the early stages of love. Then came the aforementioned make out session. Then came seeing each other as many times as humanly possible. Then came the pandemic, senile landlords, better landlords, two cats, and a perpetually stalling Subaru that truly tested our patience and love. We got married at the Bell House in February with a wedding that one guest said was, “So incredibly Zach and Rachel. From the rings to the music to the late-night dumplings.”

The Proposal

It was a Monday. Zach texted Rachel asking if she wanted to get a drink at Mama Tried after she saw her friend, Lindsay. This was strange for a few reasons. 1) Who makes spontaneous plans on a Monday, even with the person you live with? 2) We hadn’t been back to Mama Tried since our first date. Zach got to the bar 45 minutes early and scoped out the perfect seat. After swapping spots three times, he realized that the table he settled on was the same exact table where they had their first date. Rachel arrived and the first thing she saw was a hardcover copy of Philip Pullman’s ‘His Dark Materials’ – a book Rachel loves but had never gotten Zach to read – resting on the table. After what can only be described as ‘the forced, awkward conversation you have before you propose,’ Zach went into his proposal spiel, but before he asked Rachel to marry him, he passed over the book. Rachel opened it. First, she saw the table of contents, then the first chapter, and then she flipped a few more pages revealing hundreds of pages perfectly cut out with a ring box nestled inside. Rachel opened the box, saw the ring, and said yes. A few months later, Zach gifted Rachel a new copy of ‘His Dark Materials’ but this time without a ring-sized box cut in the middle.