Engagement Story

Joe and I met through a friend our sophomore year in college. It was funny because I had actually met all of his friends before meeting him. Once I met him, he finally asked me on a date, but I just didn’t feel like between school and work that I had enough time to take on a relationship. He asked for months and I continued to turn him down. He finally stopped asking. My schedule changed a little bit and I called Joe up for a date. We went on one date and I knew immediately that he was the one I was going to be with. We dated for almost 5 years before we finally got engaged. I knew the reason we dated so long was because he was getting his Master’s and trying to get a job. That still didn’t stop me from talking about it or asking about it. I knew we would get married, but I never imaged that Joe would propose the way he did.

We are HUGE Indianapolis Colts fans. We go to games, went to the Super Bowl etc. For Christmas last year my parents got him a brick for the Walk of Fame outside the new Lucas Oil Stadium. Basically there are all kinds of personalized bricks at the main entrance of the stadium. After much consideration Joe and I decided on something to put on it. “Go Colts, Joe & Risa 2008”. We thought that was pretty basic and to the point. Now mind you we had to order these back in November to get them in time for Christmas and for them to be able to get them placed at the new stadium in time. Finally, August 22, 2008 the stadium was open for the first time for a high school football series hosted by Peyton Manning. It just so turned out his brother was coaching one of the teams so all of the families had loaded up to go see his brother and to also see the new stadium. We got down there and we were so excited to find our brick my parents had gotten for us. After we found it, his mom said to me “Risa, come look at this brick I just saw”. I walk over there and she tells me it’s the 2nd row, 5th one down. I’m having trouble for some reason, but I find it and it says “Risa, will you marry me?” I turn around in tears and Joe is down on his knee. He bought a brick back in January with that on it! Now the brick will be there forever outside of the stadium for everyone to see! I never thought he would have gone to that much trouble to plan something like this. He is amazing and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with him!