Catherine + Stephanie

Read Their Love Story!

Well, I suppose, good day to whomever this reaches!
I was sent this wonderful chance to enter for this opportunity by a friend. My name is Catherine, and my fiancée's name is Stephanie. We've been together for two years as of February 3rd of this year. We currently reside in Jacksonville, FL which started allowing marriage equality on January 6th of this year, and is part of the 11th District Court, currently waiting on a response from the Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality. We met each other after both getting out of previously emotionally and mentally abusive relationships. We met at a Rocky Horror Picture Show shadow cast production our friends were/are in. We later came to be on the cast as well funny enough. I played Rocky, and Stephanie did a few PG/PG-13 strip tease pre-shows.
I was going through a huge change in my life, getting out of the United States Marine Corps after five years of active duty service, and going through cosmetology school in California. I am now a licensed cosmetologist in California, and Florida. Stephanie was leaving her position as a campus police officer at a local community college in California, and becoming a full time Best Buy employee. We went on a few dates, and the rest was history! In 2014 we moved out to Jacksonville, Florida to both be closer to both our families.
On New Year's Day this year, we spent the day in St. Augustine, FL being tourists, just enjoying the shops, the sights, and the sounds. Little did she know I had a surprise for her that night. I arranged for a horse drawn carriage to take us on a tour around the city, and at a point in the ride they stop at a "Love Tree". It is a palm tree that grows out of a pine tree, it's really beautiful. Well, the driver let us know that at a point during the ride we would be able to get out, and take pictures in front of the tree together. This was a hint to me, to be able to get out and propose. We came up to the spot, and he started mentioning that he specializes in marriage proposals where one person is unaware. I thought he was going to stop and let us know to get out, which he did not, so I completely missed my cue. I started scrambling at that moment to try and think of a Plan B. The carriage stopped and we were t the end of our ride. I threw the blanket we had over our legs off, and we had a glass Coke-Cola we had been sharing during the ride, which was now empty. I left the bottle inside the carriage, and ushered her out. I asked her to turn around and grab the bottle as I had forget it was there. When she turned back with the bottle, she found me on a bended knee. Her first words were "What are you doing?". Through a few "umms" and "uhhs", I managed to say "Will you marry me?". With all the replies she could have said, my wonderful lady replied with "Of course! DUH!". Just oh so magical, had it been any different though, it wouldn't have been us.
I thank you for the opportunity for me to share our story with you, and congratulations to all the happy couples, and marriage equality for everyone!
Thank you,
Catherine