PAIGE:

Some Backstory: Not so long ago, I graduated from college and moved back home. Moving back home was not my first choice, or even my fifth choice, but it’s what ended up happening. In July, I began attending Castle Hills FBC, and it was there that I met Daniel Cheney (the best man *cough*). It wasn’t too terribly long before Cheney began telling me about this friend of his down in College Station. Before I ever met this Daniel Moreland, I knew he was very musically inclined, he was smart, and that Cheney considered him one of his very best friends. I have to admit I was intrigued—but I figured, “He’s in College Station. Don’t even think about it.”

First Meeting: Well, on December 16th of last year (2007), I went to church like normal, although I certainly hadn’t bothered dressing up for the occasion. I remember I was wearing jeans and a long-sleeved shirt underneath my LETU sweatshirt. Heh. During the service, I looked down the row in front of me, and I realized I didn’t recognize the guy sitting next to Cheney. Then it clicked—“I bet that’s Daniel Moreland,” I thought to myself. After the service, he turned around and introduced himself. Then he shook my sleeve—because it had slipped down over my hand. :)

DANIEL:

The Beginning: Well, the first time I ever saw Paige was on Facebook as a friend of many of my friends in San Antonio. My friend Daniel Cheney had mentioned her a few times, and I thought, “she sounds interesting, I’ll have to meet her when I get back to San Antonio.” Well, that was last fall. So in December when I went home for Christmas, I was sitting in church and found out that she was sitting in the row behind me and promptly introduced myself at the first available moment. It went something like, “Stand up and greet your…” “Hello my name is Daniel, it is a pleasure to meet you”. We chatted a bit after the service and parted ways. Yeah, I know, real Casanova. It was that next Wednesday in a hotel room in Ohio that I received a message on Facebook from her as I was preparing for my interview with Honda R&D. She wanted to know if I wanted to go caroling with her the following day, and I thought, “A date with a cute interesting girl and an interview with Honda in the same week. SCORE!!!!” I promptly called her to get the details and hoped that this would lead to something more. And well…it did, a lot more.

PAIGE:

The Beginning: From Day One, I just felt that there was something different about Daniel. I was so smitten in fact that I invited him (via Facebook) to go caroling with me and some friends that Thursday. I didn’t really think he’d take me up on it. The most I expected was a gracious, “I’m busy; sorry, but thanks.” What I got was a phone-call while I was walking around Walmart, asking for more details. The next night, my friends and I (including my now maid of honor Amy) got down to the River Walk and started caroling. Daniel arrived about thirty minutes later (that’s the soonest he could get downtown), and as soon as he started singing with me, I knew I had to get to know this boy better. After the singing wound down, I (very cleverly) mentioned that I was going to head to Starbucks to grab some hot tea. Daniel invited himself along. We got distracted outside Starbucks by this pretty cool mariachi band playing Christmas music, but once we finally got inside, I realized that Daniel was really easy to talk to. We talked so naturally in fact that we didn’t realize how late it had gotten until the Starbucks employees finally kindly asked us to leave because they were closing.

Dating: We “officially” started dating on New Years. We rang in the New Year together at a mutual friend’s apartment, with movies and Halo 3. When he held my hand during the movie “Hairspray,” I had a hard time keeping my excitement in check. (Ok, so I know hand-holding is so third-grade, but come on! I really really liked this guy, and he was holding my hand!!)

DANIEL:

The Long Distance Relationship: Long distance relationships…yeah, um, they suck (the long distance part, not the relationship part). I would like to thank AT&T unlimited mobile-to-mobile, the internet, Skype+webcam, Northwest, American, and Delta Airlines, and DVDs that sync together over 1100 miles for bringing much joy to the experience.

PAIGE:

The Long Distance Relationship: He left for his internship in Ohio on January 17th, just days before my birthday. I spent my birthday weekend in New Orleans with my friend Gracie, so that helped a little bit, but the start of our long-distance relationship made my birthday a little less…well…happier that I would have preferred. He sent me flowers (BEAUTIFUL! MY FAVORITE!!), and by the time I returned to San Antonio, I was the proud owner of a web cam.

The webcam has been our best friend the past five months, along with our unlimited mobile-to-mobile minutes (thank you, AT&T!). As we talked (and talked and talked and talked and talked) we began to realize something was changing. Saying “I kinda like you” wasn’t cutting it anymore because as we talked, we were growing closer and closer. Before long, I felt like I knew him better than I’d known anyone (ever), and it hit me—“Daniel is my best friend. I don’t want to spend my life without him.” But naturally I couldn’t tell him that. I had no idea if he felt the same way.

Well, obviously he did (and does).…but you don’t want to hear about all that. You want to hear about how he proposed.