We were in the same friends group during our senior year of high school and spent most of our free time together as we senior-slid our way to the last days of school. The summer of 2010 was supposed to be a fun, summer "fling" before we both headed off to college - Shansi at BU and Brian at Montana State. However, our late night conversations continued as we began our freshman year and it was clear that neither of us wanted to let go of the wonderful memories. Brian made a couple weekend trips out to Boston during his first semester in college. While it was painful having to say goodbye after a weekend together, we both knew that this was turning into something more serious.
After a semester at Montana State, Brian transferred to UMass, which drastically decreased our distance apart. Nonetheless, we were inseparable, and spent every weekend together from then until the end of our college careers.
The Proposal:
Brian proposed on July 1, 2016 in Cape May, a place where Brian had spent his summers since before he was born, and where he started bringing Shansi a year into their relationship. He had just driven 3 hours from work to Cape May, ready to spend the July 4th weekend with family and friends. Shansi was already down in Cape May - in fact she had a fresh coat of nail polish on from a manicure she had gotten with Kim during the day (little did Shansi know, this was all planned by Brian). Brian arrived right before dinner and suggested that they go see the sunset on the beach. Shansi, thinking that they were going to have dinner when Brian arrived, was a little bit hesitant; you can't come in between a lady and her food! But she gave in and the two left to go see the sunset. It was a beautiful evening - the thunderstorm had just passed and the sky was a wash of pinks, purples, and orange. Before they could even get past the dunes, Brian got down on one knee and asked Shansi to marry him. Spoiler alert: she said yes!