Mandy and Joey

Date Engaged

December 31, 2009

Where did you meet? 

Joey and I met for the first time and for our first date on Sept 10, 2005.  We had casually been talking over myspace for a little while (a little embarassing to admit, lol). It was a spur of the moment decision to go out and quite late at night.  I had just gotten home from a Gator football game vs Louisiana Tech.  We won, of course but I was still in my game day getup with stick on tattoos and all out gator mania.  Even though it was late, I agreed to go out with him and he picked me up at 11:55pm.  We had decided to go get a movie and watch it at his place, and on our way to get a movie rental, my phone rang at midnight with my dad calling.  I picked up the phone, because I knew if I didn't he would have kept calling, and just listened...in the background Joey could hear my dad singing and was completely clueless as to why 1. I would answer my phone 5 minutes after I got in his car to talk to my dad? and 2.  why was he singing to me?   I spoke briefly with my dad and hung up the phone, then turned to address the situation.  Casually I laughed and said, sorry its my birthday today and my dad is always the first to call and sing happy birthday to me at the stroke of midnight, I had to answer it.  He stumbled out a shocked Happy Birthday and asked why I hadn't told him. We got to Blockbuster, and ended up renting Without A Paddle.  After the movie was over, we ended up talking till 4 in the morning.  We talked and joked a lot about different things, our age difference (I was two years older than him), why I looked the way I did, and how he could possibly not know who the Gators were let alone not be a college football fan. 

How did he propose?

It was a surprise! He took me away for the weekend (not telling me where we were going..but just to pack!) of New Year’s to one of our favorite locations, St. Augustine, for a mini vacation. After arriving at our room we decided to hit the beach for a walk before dinner. There was a great fireworks show going on to celebrate New Years. Having no idea what was going to happen, Joey suggested that we walk over to the grassy area where no one was so we could watch the fireworks by ourselves and as I turned to walk away he got down on his knee. I asked him if he had dropped something…hahah only to realize to my surprise that he was about to ask me to marry him. Tears and all…the answer was an astounding YES!

When is your wedding date? 

August 7, 2010

Why did you pick the area you are getting married in?

We had been to Savannah a number of times to visit family and just loved the history and beauty of Savannah. It reminded us much like where we got engaged in St. Augustine, FL.

Where do you reside now?

Gainesville, FL  (home of the Florida Gators)  and we just bought our first house together!

Anything else you would like to add? 

That we are complete opposites and it should be interesting to see what the wedding comes together like!