How did you meet?
We have known each other since Secondary School and were friends from the age of 12 but after losing touch for a few years, our paths crossed again when we were 16 and that’s when things started to change… We made it official (boyfriend/girlfriend status) when we were 17 and have been together since! So I guess you could call us true childhood sweethearts…
We had a few challenges thrown at us along the way…
Jen went travelling for half a year, we spent 3 years at different universities and Rich spent a year in Paris as part of his degree. But we made it through and as all that made us stronger as a couple. So when it came to Rich decided he wanted to propose, he knew that he wanted to surprise Jen and catch her totally off guard but that’s a bit of a tall order when you’ve been together for so many years already! He certainly managed it though!
It was 2014…
That summer, Jen and Rich travelled to one of their favourite French destinations, Ile de Re. The island is ideal for cycling around so on one of the days of our holiday we planned to repeat a cycling tour of the whole island, which we had done 2 years before. We set of nice and early and our first stop was Abbaye des Châteliers, a beautiful abbey ruins.
In 2012, we had visited this abbey and Rich took a photo of Jen standing in front of one of the huge windows with her back to the camera: Rich said to Jen “Let’s recreate that picture”. And so he did: Then just before Jen could turn around, he crept up and got down on one knee and asked if Jen would marry him.
Then just before Jen could turn around, he crept up and got down on one knee and asked if Jen would marry him.
