Rachel: I moved up to northern NH after college to start my career at the Omni Mount Washington Resort, which just so happened to be where Steve was already working. He was in a relationship at the time and I was his boss, so the romantic interest was not there immediately. But a couple of years later when he was single and leaving his job at the resort, our mutual friend set us up and we immediately hit it off! We never intended for it to be anything serious, but, well, here we are and loving it!

Steve: I can’t elaborate on perfection, she nailed it.

Rachel: I think we had been seeing each other for at least 6 months at the time, but we were not very open about our feelings towards each other since we weren’t looking for anything serious initially. He started looking at me in a certain way at random times – looked right at me with this smirk that made the corners of his eyes crinkle. Whenever I asked “what,” the only response I would get back was “nothing bad!” It drove me crazy because I couldn’t determine whether or not he had feelings for me, but I loved the coyness of it and the way his eyes crinkled when he did it. From the first time we hung out, there was never an uncomfortable silence and conversation came so easily – I hadn’t experienced it with anyone else before. These 2 things made me know he was it for me!

Steve: From early on Rachel has been the easiest person I’ve known to talk to, laugh with, confide in and even share in our general love of all things food. I have a son from a previous relationship, 11 years old currently. He met rachel a few years ago sometime after we had been seeing each other for a while. The night we left after having the two of them met, T had asked me we could go back to spend the day with her. He adored her and couldn’t wait to spend more time with her. My son gave me the nod of approval and I never looked back.

Rachel: I went with him to get my ring custom made, so I definitely knew it was coming! Unfortunately, that was right before Covid-19 came around, so everything got delayed and I didn’t know when he was actually going to ask the question. It ended up being at the Falmouth, MA marina. We went on a walk one morning while at my family’s vacation house down to the marina. We were sitting on a bench in the sun watching the boats go by when he asked. Even though I knew it was coming, I was so excited!

Steve: We had talked about the idea and decided it was time to think about a ring, she had a photo saved from years ago of a ring she loved so we had one made. I had initially planned to propose on a trip we had to cancel due to Covid. We went on a long weekend sometime after to her family’s home in Falmouth, a morning walk at the marina seemed like the perfect time. I don’t remember being nervous that morning, calm and relaxed, the real excitement came after she said yes!

Rachel: I love that he understands how I operate depending on my mood. I’m a person that needs my alone time and he’s aways very respectful of that without being upset by it. He’ll give me my space when I need time to decompress and reset, but is just as quick to give me attention and spend time together.

Steve: There is no judgement with her. I could have a bad day and eat an entire box of girl scout cookies straight to my face, she would nod and ask if I wanted something to drink. This seems over simplistic but I think anyone can understand 🙂

Rachel: I’ll often catch him making his own sound effects to match whatever he’s doing at the time or to add to a story he’s telling. He does it when he’s making the bed or cooking or any other normal tasks – always cracks me up!

Steve: Happy food dance. Im guilty of this as well but she will do a small dance after eating a bite of something she loves. It cracks me up when I see her do it!

Rachel: I was most looking forward to it being just the two of us for our elopement rather than a big traditional wedding. Having worked around a lot of big weddings, it never seems like the bride and groom get to spend a lot of one-on-one time with each other on their wedding day. Since we decided to elope, we got to spend the entire day just focusing on each other, which to me has always been the most important part of it all.

Steve: Time together. The elopement felt perfect since it really gave us an opportunity to enjoy our day together. There was almost no pressure, just two people who love each other making their commitment it the nicest and most intimate way possible.