Our Story

Steven and Virginia met in 2008 while on vacation at the beach. One night, both Virginia and her friends and Steven and his friends happened to visit the same restaurant in Sandestin's Baytowne Wharf. Ole Miss basketball was on the television and dueling piano music filled the air..

Her story:  My friends and I scanned the room, looking for the most attractive table of seemingly eligible gentlemen. We chose a table near the back and got comfortable. One of my more daring friends decided to liven things up by joining the neighboring table of gentlemen. One fellow got me talking when he saw how much I disliked the dueling pianists belting out college fight songs (for the right price).

He insulted Auburn football, mocking the tradition of "War Eagle" and our having two mascots. Now if you know me, you know that I am not one to laugh off an Auburn blow without first explaining the truth of the matter. Usually I would have been annoyed and would have focused my attentions elsewhere.. but I picked my battle this time, and I put his banter behind me. After all, he seemed to get a kick out of my sassy comebacks and I gave him the benefit of the doubt. Our friends were hysterical all night, and we continued to talk and laugh and dance the night away to the sounds of catchy dueling pianos.

His story:  Several of my college friends and I were on our annual post-graduation Spring Break, and we were more concerned with buying drinks than meeting women.  While hanging out near the dueling pianos, a random girl who shall remain nameless (but we will nickname her Beth) dragged her lady friends over to our table to flirt with us tanned young men.  The redhead, who I later discovered was named Virginia, caught my eye and I promptly managed to insult her college, Auburn.  She was obviously smitten, because she lied (twice) about her age when asked (she has me beat by a few years).  We hit it off for the rest of the night, and the rest is history...

Either story you choose.. even though Ole Miss lost the game that night, with help from the dueling piano music and a mutual love for college football, Steven and Virginia hit it off and have never looked back!

This photo was taken the night we met at the beach!
(also pictured are our friends Matt and Beth)

Our Engagement Story (in Virginia's words)

At the beginning of December, I went up to Memphis to spend the weekend with Steven. We had big plans between hiking with our two dogs, getting ready for Christmas, and watching the SEC Championship game (South Carolina vs. Auburn).  Saturday afternoon we watched the big game and had a grand time. After Auburn's big win, Steven thought it would be a great idea to go ice skating on the outdoor rink at the Memphis Zoo.  I was a bit nervous since it had literally been fifteen years since I last put on a pair of skates. 

After waiting in line for an hour, we finally got our skates and ventured onto the ice. Once we skated a couple of warm up laps I started feeling pretty confident. That confidence was soon lost however, as Steven let go of my hand and I went flying like a runaway train across the rink, grabbing onto strangers for dear life.  At last I caught myself on the handrail and regained composure. 

After that episode we continued to skate. When both of us were worn out, Steven suggested we go to the middle of the rink to take a photo. We laughed at our numb faces and he said he had a surprise for me. Being the Auburn fan that I am, and coming off of such a great win a couple of hours earlier, I exclaimed; "you got us National Championship tickets?!" Quite surprised, Steven said no but that it was the next best thing. He managed to get down on one knee without slipping and asked me to marry him. I do not remember what I said, but I do remember nodding repeatedly as I pulled him in for a big hug! Looking up outside of our bubble, we noticed that a crowd was surrounding us and starting to cheer. We continued to skate, feeling as if we were the stars in our own movie scene..

Photo we took in the middle of the ice rink, right before Steven proposed!