What was supposed to be an ordinary Thursday turned into one of the best memories I will forever hold in my heart. What made it more surreal is to find out she asked not only my mom, but also the most important men in my life— my brothers, and my grandfather. What could make it even better? She held in her hand, the ring my grandfather proposed to my grandmother with 52 years ago. I have always been so in love with the significance of this ring and to have Tasha propose with it made it 500x better.
How long have you been together, and how did you meet?
Tasha and I have been together for two and a half years. We met on a blind date. I just moved to Louisiana on a job contract and didn’t know anyone here. I had a previous customer who I grew to love become a close friend of mine. I asked her and her wife if she knew anyone single because I was looking for a date to my best friend’s wedding. I just got out of a toxic relationship, so I just began learning to do things independently.
A month later, I got a message from J saying she has this friend who just got out of a relationship and is just looking for new friends. I agreed to text her that night, which led to a three-hour conversation after working that evening. The next night she told me she wanted to meet up with me.
J and N set it up for us to all meet for dinner and drinks that night.
Meeting her for the first time, we instantly clicked. She had this beautiful blonde hair and a gorgeous smile. I immediately became attracted. I kept saying in my head she’s just a wedding date, she’s just a wedding date.. but then my heart said otherwise. At the end of the evening, I knew this was someone I wanted to get to know. We lived an hour and a half away from each other, but we made it work.
The rest was history.
Tell us about the planning process for the proposal.
Eight months after we got together, we purchased a home together. Living in Louisiana was not a permanent plan, but something about Tasha made me want to drop my next contract job and stay here with her. She made the future so bright. We discussed early on we wanted to get married within the next three years, but Tasha explained she wanted to propose to me the correct way rather than just a business proposal.
Tell us about the proposal! We want all the juicy details!
What was supposed to be an ordinary Thursday turned into one of the best memories I will forever hold in my heart. We were scheduled to take Christmas card photos and got in an argument earlier on the way about how to pronounce names from the state of Louisiana and Mississippi. I used my political science/debate skill set to prove a point, and all she could do was laugh and say she may marry me in two to four years.
I paused and looked shockingly like we hadn’t discussed this before, but something felt different. We were almost finished with photos when Clesi asked if we could do one photo that looks super cool with how the lighting hit us. Clesi then had us standing back to back, taking pictures in different angles, then said, okay, let me change my lens hold on, stay right there, so I don’t have to repose you.
We both kept saying we were freezing and ready to move around some more. She then finished her pictures and said, okay, I’m done now both of y’all face me. I turned around to find Tasha crouching down on one knee, with tears in her eyes and the same smile that caused me to flashback to our first meeting together. I kept dropping ‘F-Bombs’ and kept saying, is this for real? Are you serious!? You’ve got to be kidding me. She just kept smiling while I got down on my knees with her and said, “stop asking if I’m F-ing serious and be my wife?” Of course, I finally screamed and said yes! The moment was absolutely perfect, and the sentiment next made it more wonderful.
What made it more surreal is finding out she asked my mom and the most important men in my life- my brothers and my grandfather. So what could make it even better? She held in her hand the ring my grandfather proposed to my grandmother 52 years ago. I have always been so in love with the significance of this ring and to have Tasha propose with it made it 500x better. It’s a beautiful round (perfect, slightly included) diamond in the original yellow gold solitaire setting.
What does your engagement mean to you both? Has anything changed?
The engagement signifies that love will always prevail. We had, like everyone else in the world, a rough 2020. We experienced hardships, illnesses, loss, and heartache. But at the end of the day, we both were in it together. Our engagement also shows that our love is real and that no court could ever stop us from finding our person.
Photography by Clesi Guice
