(Seeing as Kelsey's has shamelessly adapted the popular 'Cheers' theme song as there own, it's only natural that I would lead off with it.)

Ryan and I were working at Kelsey's when we met several years ago. I started there in fall 1999 (it's ok, I know) and Ryan in late 2003. Given the nature of restaurant employees, many friendships were made between staff members and we were no exception. As Sammi and Ashley can attest, some friendships are worth hanging on to and remain special years later. By winter 2004 we were a serious couple and the rest is history. The restaurant and the life that comes with it is long behind us, but I think we both still hold dear the fact that it brought us together. We have seen many things together and can only hope that the years ahead of us will be even more fun, exciting and action packed!

Ryan promised me a mini-break to Kingston as my birthday present this year. Sadly, February and the rest of spring was an extremely busy and difficult time for the Hughes family and our priorities (for obvious reasons) were to spend as much time with in North Bay and with them as possible. We wouldn't have had it any other way. Once things settled, not only did I still have an ‘outstanding’ birthday present to claim but we both needed a serious getaway! Ryan planned a cute package at a hotel we had never been to but that had the sweetest fireplace in our room (we soo miss ours from the house in Orleans) and that came with Champagne and chocolate covered strawberries... I was excited! First he made the plans for a weekend in July but changed his mind and cancelled the reservation, then re-scheduled for the weekend of June 19th-20th. Just to make this story more confusing, Thursday, June 11th, 2009 we were emailing back and forth at work and I said that I was impatient to go to Kingston – I so badly wanted to go on our mini-break! Well lo and behold, Ryan was just as impatient as I and a few minutes later, we had changed our reservation from the following weekend, to the following night!

Friday morning we left for K-town and spent an absolutely gorgeous sunny day, enjoying a nice lunch at Aquaterra, and hanging out by the waterfront. Come dinner time I enjoyed what I thought to be the highlight of the night, of course, my Woodenheads Pizza and then we made our way back to the hotel room to watch the final game of the Stanley Cup playoffs! (It may not be football - but we just love sports!) We were sitting on the couch just chatting, enjoying the fire, and some Champagne when Ryan handed me an empty ring box. You see, he knew that I had some suspicions (thanks Sammi!!) and thought he would string me along a little. Needless to say, the box was all I needed and it was also about as long as he could wait! A beautiful ring was produced and he said something that I never want to forget; 'I don’t want to spend another minute of my life, not at least planning to marry you.' Naturally I said yes, though I probably should have said, 'what the hell took you so long?’ :)

Apparently, Mr. Impatient, had been dying to give me the ring since he had gotten it about a week beforehand, it would appear that we were lucky he waited that long. I now understand his impatience and the many date changes!

I guess once again, the rest is history - the best history ever! I will never forget June 12th, 2009 and our mini-break in Kingston.

*Edited to add: I apparently didn't give entire credit where credit was due in this piece. This was written from [Michelle's] point of view, so it is difficult to include all aspects (that I wasn’t privy to) in chronological order but I should mention something of great importance. It was brought to my attention that certain actions on Ryan’s part were not only well received but very appreciated by my parents and therefore merited being recognized as part of ‘our story’. Ryan did something that my parents for one thought, went out of style with hair scrunchies and Reebok high tops – he asked for their blessing. Ok now, pick your jaws up off the floor – yes Ryan, Ryan. If you ask Ryan why, he would tell you that he not only knew that it was important to me but also important to my family and our traditional nature. A true gentlemen and a true sweetheart.