I’m just thrilled to be here as the guest blogger on Elizabeth Anne Designs and hope you will all enjoy some of the stories, projects and features I plan to share throughout my time here. I first started a blog in January 2006 and took a hiatus from posting right around the time I became engaged, to plan my own wedding in the Summer of 2007.

Inspired Goodness began in April 2008, coinciding with the launch of my event design company and has since become a place to learn D.I.Y. touches, discover inspiring resources and provide extraordinary ideas to help brides create the wedding of their dreams.

For my first post this week, I wanted to start at the beginning and share with you the story of how I met my husband and share the story of our engagement.

In the late Summer of 2000, I was a single girl looking for love in New York City, and figured to give the new (and taboo) online dating route a try by posting a profile on Match.com. After looking through the eligible guys available, I sent a note to one in particular, simply known as “John”. What began as one email, quickly became an everyday exchange full of similarities – both of us were from the Philadelphia area, had recently graduated from art school and were trying to make it in the big city. Back during the days when online romances were virtually unknown, we had something very interesting beginning.

After a month of corresponding by email, we arranged to meet at a bar in my neighborhood. En route to the front door, I was intercepted by John as he excited the cab; our eyes met and our first date began. After hours talking, we ordered dinner at a local restaurant and hours after the plates had long ago been cleared, we left and he offered to walk me home.

I knew on that walk across town, as we held hands, that John might be “the one”. We stayed up to the wee hours of the night talking on my front stoop and ending our first date with a perfectly sweet first kiss. We exchanged emails that same night to meet again the next weekend and that’s how our story started.

But of course that is just the beginning…

The second half includes our engagement, which happened one early evening in May ’06. Earlier in the week, my family suffered an unthinkable tragedy, when my sister-in-law’s father passed away. We were all taken aback with grief and with the funeral in the early part of the week, John offered me a night out that Friday to help us relax from the week’s emotions.

It began with him picking me up from our apartment, on W16th Street and walking toward the West Village. Of course, I have to tell you that every time we pass by my old apartment building, the site of our first kiss, we stop and kiss and say “first kiss“. Its just our little thing – and luckily at the time, we were living just a block away from this old building so on the way to dinner, I didn’t think of anything as we walked by that spot.

As we approached the spot, he took a step back. To be honest, it gets pretty fuzzy from this part on – I remember him getting down on one knee, seeing him so nervous, but hearing his heartfelt words, asking me to marry him and to spend the rest of my life with him – but the exact words have since escaped me. I pulled him up off his knee, we kissed and he placed the ring (of my dreams) around my finger. I remember that I kept asking if he was really sure, and think I keep telling myself inside “this is really happening”, over and over again.

Of course, if you know my husband and vastness of his creativity, you’d know that there is a great ending to the story.

We were both so excited, but John insisted that we had dinner reservations and was urging us to head towards the restaurant. Every few blocks on our way, we would stop or laugh and enjoyed excitement of being engaged.

We continued walking until we reached the restaurant, The Place, and again, John stopped and hesitated out front. He tried to suggest we find a bench because we were “a little early for our reservation.” And then, the biggest smile ever came upon his face at the same time a man I’d never seen before began to walk in our direction. John muttered something about his friend “Laos” whom he just spotted. Of course, as Laos came closer, the enormous camera around his neck came into my sights. John told me that he’d been following us the entire time and had photographed us all night!!!

We celebrated with a wonderful dinner and laughed all night long. Both of us kept thinking that all the wait staff could just tell we had gotten engaged – it felt like we had this glowing aura around us all night long!

We left dinner and called our parents to share the good news. The next day, we headed up to Long Island with my parents who were in town from Miami, to visit my sister-in-law and her family for a shiva call. As we exited the car, I saw my brother in the front yard and instinctively hid my new ring behind my back. I had the biggest smile on the inside and tried my very best to act normal, hoping for an opportunity to tell them both in person, when the time was right. We entered her mother’s house and my immediate family (aside from my other brother and sister-in-law) were in a circle, talking in the entryway. We talked for a moment and when the conversation grew silent, I slowing produced my hand from behind my back, flashed the ring and just remember the jubilation and happiness from my sister-in-law in her excitement for us. At such a hard time for her family, we were witnessing the other facet of life – living and rebirth. It was an awesome experience to hear the “Mazel Tov’s” and to receive the well wishes from everyone.

Last week, on August 11th, we celebrated the 8th Anniversary of that first kiss with a celebratory bottle of champagne!