I spent a beautiful fall evening with Melissa and Andrew this week at Millstone Cellars for their engagement session. These two were so sweet together and I learned so much about them! Melissa just ran the Boston Marathon, how amazing is that!? Also, Andrew has been to some of the hardest to reach parks in Alaska! I’m so jealous! They plan on hitting some of the East Coast parks soon as well as Southern Utah. There is so much more, but I’ll let you take a look at their pictures and sweet story below!

How did you first meet?

We met on one of the first days of freshman year at Tufts; our two good friends introduced us. Over the next two and half years we became close friends and eventually started dating our junior year of college.

What was your first date?

Our first date was one of Andrew’s fraternity formals. After a wonderful night of dancing, being the good pre-med students we were, we ended up tending to one of Andrew’s fraternity brothers who had gotten injured at some point during the night. But Andrew wanted to make sure the night did not end that way, so he took Melissa for a walk under the stars to look out on the beautiful view of the Boston skyline from the Tufts library roof.

How did he propose?

Once I found out Melissa was running the Boston Marathon (one of her dreams in college which she didn’t get to do), I decided I would surprise her in Boston that weekend and propose at Tufts. I couldn’t think of a better place than the library roof (which is actually a big area), where we ended our first date. Although I had to create a web of lies to deceive her about my whereabouts (because we were living together at that time), it worked out so that I was in Boston without her knowing.
She thought she was meeting one of her best friends from college back at Tufts at 2pm. When it got close to 2pm, I realized there were lots of college tours still coming by and prospective students and their parents kept wandering near my spot on the roof (I knew Melissa would want this to be private). I had to tell several people about having an “important alumni meeting” reserved there but one parent then started to ask me questions about Tufts because I’m an alumnus (it was 155 at this point and I was freaking out in my mind). He even asked me how often I had there (fake) alumni meetings. Somehow I got him to leave just in the nick of time and two minutes later, I saw Melissa walk onto the roof. She came up to me, extremely surprised, and I asked her if she remembered our first date. She said she did, and I told her this was where I first starting falling in love with her, and that I want to spend the rest of my life with her. As by now I had ensured our privacy, I got down on one knee and you know the rest.

What are your favorite things to do together?

We love outdoor activities. Hiking is one of our favorite things to do, whether exploring nearby parks, national parks or in foreign countries. We also love to travel, some of our favorite destinations include Crater Lake in Oregon and Positano, Italy. Although we have busy schedules, we enjoy making regular trips to the farmers’ market and cooking dinner together as much as much as possible. We also enjoy trying out new places to eat and drink.