We're getting Married!

Shortly after moving to California, Stephanie was headed to Newport Beach to meet up with friends for the usual weekend festivities. After endlessly searching up and down the peninsula for a parking spot, she got a call from her friend, Jeff, to let her know that his cousin had graciously offered up his prime spot in the garage for her. If you know anything about parking in Newport, then you know this was some serious chivalry! Steph burst in the door to find a cute guy in a Hawaiian shirt sitting on the couch, to which she looked at Mitch and asked, "Are you the cousin? Thanks for the parking spot!" We spent the rest of the weekend together at the beach, staying up for hours talking, and the rest was history!

On this particular morning, Mitch was on his way home from working a graveyard shift. He noticed that the little Newport pier farmers market that we wanted to attend was closed. Unfortunately for Mitch, he had planned on proposing to Stephanie on the pier that morning after riding our bikes down to the pier. He needed to get her down to the beach. Later that morning, while they were in Target, Mitch got a phone call from his cousin Jeff asking if they wanted to go the beach later. With no hesitation, Mitch agreed and quietly stepped away from his hopeful future fiancé so he could tell Jeff he wanted to propose to Stephanie while at the beach. Instantly excited, the two of them started making plans for the special moment. Later on that beautiful sunny afternoon, the three of us rode our bikes down to the beach. We swam and relaxed on the warm soft sand for hours. With a quick thinking distraction from Jeff, Mitch was able to grab the ring out of his backpack and put it in his pocket without Stephanie noticing. Mitch then convinced Stephanie to walk down to the waters edge with his while he jumped in the water one last time. Before he jumped in and standing with our feet in the water, he pointed out toward the vast ocean and pretended to see some commotion. He got Stephanie to look off in the distance and before she even noticed what happened, she turned around to find Mitch on one knee holding a beautiful ring in his hand and asking her to spend the rest of her life with him. And in her very own words she said “I didn’t say no!”