Stephen and I have been together for over half a decade. We met while working at Modern Luxury Magazine (him a writer and editor; myself in marketing) and on one of our very first dates, we went to the Botanical Garden. This was a date to walk off some nerves before meeting my parents for the very first time later that evening. Stephen was SO nervous. He asked to sit down and the first nearby spot was this little blue wooden bench in the English Garden by an Ivy-covered brick wall. We sat there for a moment and he told me how much I meant to him and how excited he was to meet my parents. While we sat, a nice couple walked over and asked if we wanted our photo taken, and we did! Every year since (minus the couple because of Covid) we would go back to our bench and get a photo and it’s become a special little spot for us.

Fast Forward to August 2023, Stephen wanted to go to the Botanical Gardens again (nothing out of the ordinary). As we walked through the English Garden, like we had so many times before, heading for our bench we stumbled upon a white tent. Strange we thought maybe they were giving away seeds, something for gardening, or setting up for a wedding. But as it happens, on the day Stephen decided to propose, there was a tent offering impromptu poems with two people on typewriters from a company called “Poems While You Wait.” Happily, I said we should get a poem and asked Stephen (who was sweating because he was mere moments away from proposing) what the poem topic should be about. He said “Falling in Love in a Garden.” Our poet said come back in 15-20 minutes. While the poet crafted our poem, Stephen led Ally to a peaceful spot by a pond and proposed!

We went back to the poet to pick up our poem and told her we had just gotten engaged. Thrilled, she said that had never happened before in all her years of writing. We excitedly told her that her poem would forever be part of our little love story at the gardens and couldn’t wait to frame it next to our engagement photo.

We felt like such a serendipitous little wink is a testament to the truth that when you meet the right person, all the right things do fall into place. <3

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