The most stressful thing was just the uncertainty of whether or not we were having a wedding. At first I crossed my fingers that it still might happen. I was very upset when we got to the point where we were like, we probably do have to postpone it. As hard as it was to come to realize that we were having to postpone our wedding as soon as we made that decision I felt a million times better.

Right off the bat, I just felt immediately comfortable with Angie, I knew after a few dates I wanted to be in a relationship with her. We’re not quite 40, but we’re getting there, so we weren’t interested in dating for many years and we also didn’t have our sights set on some big elaborate engagement or wedding. I tried my best to make it a surprise. We found a jeweler and we picked out a ring. The jeweler told me that it would be ready in a few days, but he sent an email to both us saying something happened in production and it’s gonna take another three or four weeks. That was the only lie I’ve ever told her.

I had the ring for a few days and it was burning a hole in my pocket. I knew I wanted to go out to dinner, but I didn’t want a public engagement. We went to a place called Bar 360 in St. Louis; it’s got 360 degree panoramic views. We were so high up that off in the distance we could see this giant ferris wheel. Angie suggested we go on the ferris wheel after dinner. I was thinking, OK, this has to be it, right?

As we were in line, I started studying the ferris wheel. You get about three rotations before it stops. On our second rotation, I did that move from “Back To The Future” and was like “What is that?!” so she would look away. When she turned back I was down on my knee and I had the ring out.

We just wanted to be married and we always talked about a small wedding. We decided it would be immediate family and the close friends Angie considers family. My parents live in Detroit and my brother lives in Berlin, Germany so we were trying to figure out a date that worked for everyone. We decided on Memorial Day weekend (which is about when we met) and the location was going to be at the park we had our first date at.

But then COVID hit and we realized that it was more than just people being trapped on a cruise ship. We wanted a small wedding, but we didn’t know how small we should go. Once we got into the thick of things and everything started shutting down it made it a little easier on us. Our location was closed and they gave us our deposit back. My brother and my parents couldn’t travel, so my side of the family would not get to attend the wedding in person.

When everyone was hunkered down and doing Zoom happy hours, we thought if we can play Cards Against Humanities on Zoom then why can’t we have a wedding on Zoom.

In the end it turned out quite well, we got married in the park we met. We had an officiant, a photographer, Angie’s best friend, her brother, her father and his girlfriend. My mom, my dad and my brother got to watch the virtual wedding via the phones that were held up by our guests, so they basically got the same view. Once we were pronounced man and wife, my families’ cheers were so loud that it caught the attention of the people walking by. I don’t think they would have even noticed we were getting married if it wasn’t for that.