It started with a business card.

How can romance and a marriage proposal spring from a business card?  Well, I can tell you, it is really difficult, and there has to be good fortune involved.

Marta and I met at our mutual friends’ engagement brunch.  Since we sat at different tables, we never met until the event was about to end.  Everyone was about to leave, and I had been exchanging small talk with Marta’s mother, who was in town visiting her.  Marta walked over to her mother, and naturally, we were introduced.

Marta and I talked for a few minutes.  I needed to leave, and I gave her my business card.   For those of you who don’t know, Washington, DC is a transient town.  People work in DC for the federal government or are appointed, and then they leave.  It is customary to have business cards ready, which is an efficient way to provide contact information. Romantic, isn’t it?

Of course not.

Well, one thing led to another (which includes email exchanges…  Marta may tell you that I was slow to respond to emails, but I wanted to make sure I sounded coherent and personable).  We eventually found time to meet and learn more about each other.

After deciding on sushi, we soon determined that in many ways, we are extremely different, yet similar.  How are we different? Marta is an only child, and I have several siblings.  Marta is often spontaneous, but I am very methodical.  She travels the world for vacation.  I travel for work.

And how are we similar?  We both enjoy good food.  It could be at five star restaurants or at the mom-and-pop diner.  We can spend hours upon hours together and not get tired of each other.  We are not talking about extravagant, I-want-to-impress-her activities.  I can spend the day helping her buy groceries and thoroughly enjoy it (really!).

Was there a specific moment when I knew we were right for each other? I knew she was right for me when she could ask me one hundred times how a dress looks on her, and I was more than happy to answer each time.

There are thousands of little details that make Marta special to me.  Marta knows when to and not to push.  She knows where I can stand improvement.  Her attempts to make me more fashionable (aside from my suits and ties) became an exercise in futility, but she hasn’t given up on me.  Marta says that I do the little things that most men will not do.

Thanks to our good friend Shayna, who was my co-conspirator, we kept Marta completely in the dark as to when I would propose to her.  Marta spent a few days visiting Shayna in New York City and to watch a Depeche Mode concert.  With flowers and a ring, I surprised Marta with the proposal at a café in Greenwich Village, and we spent the rest of the day roaming throughout the city.  For the past several months, we have been planning our special day, and we hope that it will be as memorable for you as it will be for us.