At the beginning it may have been mere proximity, and then some might say, it was luck or destiny or just New York City, but whatever it was — our story starts in jury duty. Yep, you read that right. We met in the dingy halls of New York City’s finest Supreme Court. For those of you who have never experienced jury duty in NYC, it’s a horrible experience. Just to give you some color, you are forced to serve for two consecutive days (regardless of whether you are chosen or not!), and during this time overambitious district attorneys attempt to stick you on cases for NYC’s not-so-upstanding citizens. During one notable round of voir dire Marty informed the judge he was biased and therefore unfit to serve “because they are clearly guilty” – she didn’t like that. That was when Maria first saw Marty — not sure it was the first impression he was going for.

We were both dismissed that afternoon (not surprisingly on Marty’s behalf) and were eager to celebrate this new found freedom from our civic duty. After denying his first invite (and here’s where luck – or something bigger comes into play), Maria and Marty found themselves at the same bar, and how can you not celebrate then?

That celebrating turned into date nights, and then a “long distance” relationship (Upper East Side to the East Village) and then roommates, and now we’re ready to celebrate again!

the engagement

If anyone has ever met Marty and didn’t realize within the first 10 minutes that he is a planner, you should re-meet. And this plan, this is the most epic plan he’s ever conceived.

Virgin Gorda is near and dear to the O’Day family’s hearts. It’s an intimate and spectacular little oasis in the British Virgin Islands, that is so full of culture and simplicity — it’s hard not to immediately fall in love.

As soon as Marty knew he was going to propose to Maria, he began planning (naturally) and it all centered around a trip to Virgin Gorda.

They left on the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend and had planned to stay until Monday afternoon. Maria had happily turned over the planning to Marty and per usual everything seemed to be lining up nicely – hotels, cars, dinner reservations, you name it.

They had an incredible trip — eating, drinking, sunning, dining again (and then repeating). On the last night, Maria was sad to leave and couldn’t understand why Marty seemed so jovial. The next morning Marty popped up at 5am to go jogging, which seemed quite early to Maria — especially considering that our flight was at 11am, about 10 minutes from us – and the airport security checkpoint was an unmanned shack on the beach.

Marty and Maria packed up their villa (complete with putting all liquids in the checked bag), Maria put on her airplane clothes, loaded up their island Jeep and they started down the driveway. On the way out, Marty asked Maria if she wanted to see the villa Marty had booked for their trip next year — and take a photo so they could look at it during the cold NYC winters. She begrudgingly agreed while silently wondering how this view could be any different than the one they had just enjoyed for days.

They walked up the stairs and opened the door. Inside the villa flowers were everywhere, a bottle of chilled champagne sat on the table, photos were set up on the counters and a framed picture was in the middle of the table. Now, in retelling the story it seems like it was very obvious that this was in fact for Maria – however, taken completely off guard she thought that the pictures were of someone else, that the arrangement was for guests on their way – and quickly turned to Marty saying, “AH! We should leave!” When she turned around though, she found that Marty was on one knee, and after a quick turn back realized that the pictures were of her and Marty, and that the framed image indeed said, “Will you Marry Me?”. YES!

Turns out we were staying an extra day the whole time and Marty had conspired with the hotel and the car rental to send Maria fake itineraries (Delta wasn’t quite as accommodating, but neither here nor there). It was perfect and we spent a spectacular “bonus” day celebrating our engagement in paradise!