Throughout the past 5-6 weeks, my dad and Rich had been working on our apartment painting, replacing the flooring, installing new furniture and prepping for George. Rich was so exhausted every weekend and we hadn’t gone on a date night for a while, so he suggested we go out. At this point, I was heavily pregnant and all I wanted to do was nap. He had to drag me out to Jersey City where we had such a fun night. Jersey City is another place we hold to close our hearts. During the first two weeks of my relationship with Rich, we went on a date by the riverwalk. Rich knew how I felt about PDA and that I wasn’t the type to make a move, but Rich was the exception. We were walking back to the car that night and I stopped and kissed him. So on October 14th (at 1am, so technically October 15th) he wanted to go for a walk along the riverwalk. I was totally dreading it because my feet were so insanely swollen, but I agreed to it. I complained the whole time about how tired I was and how I just wanted to get into bed. So as we continued to walk, he stopped me and started to remind me how defining certain moments were and how that kiss early on in our relationship sealed the deal for him. He got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. All I could do is hug him and cry—thank you pregnancy hormones! Anything and everything made me cry. I didn’t want to let go until he said, “umm.. don’t you want to see the ring??” I won’t say it was so perfect because I still think it’s perfect. Until this day, I think what made it so memorable was the fact that we didn’t have our phones and we truly shared such a beautiful moment.

So Rich and I were engaged for a total of 4 days before we tied the knot on October 19th. It was such a hectic time between his family visiting and making sure everything was ready for the wedding and baby shower. Our families were meeting for the first time and everything went so smoothly. Rich didn’t get his wedding clothes until the day before the wedding and I didn’t try on my altered dress until an hour before we were going to actually get married. All the girls had their hair done at the Nexxus Hair Salon and then my sister and I head over to get our makeup done. I had a total of 6 minutes to get my dress and shoes on before I had to meet everyone at Central Park for pictures. Not to mention, I had not finished writing my vows and my phone was on 6% battery. I quickly wrote them in a cab and texted them to my mom before my phone died. It had been months of keeping George’s name a secret and right before our ceremony started, we decided to ask the officiant to reveal his name during the ceremony. It was such an emotional time for Rich’s family as they knew the meaning behind it. After the ceremony, we explained the significance of the name George to my family and they instantly understood why we kept it a secret.

Two days later, we celebrated George at our baby shower with 60 of our closest loved ones. Our baby shower was so special to us as we were initially hesitant to have one. Not too many people knew about George’s heart and the troubles we could potentially face upon his arrival. It was hard to think about keeping myself together for a party considering what we had been dealing with.