I met Andy back in 2012. We moved into student accommodation, in the same flat, in rooms 3 and 4. We were both completely different back then, I moved in with highlighter pink hair wearing Nirvana tops, disco pants and creepers. Andy had a side fringe and 'lego' hair, wearing only red polos, straight leg jeans and Stan Smiths. On the second day of living with each other, he opened up a little bit more and over the first month we had some funny memories going out. I started trying to cook better meals and he wanted to get on board, so we had dinner together a few nights a week, as friends. He would work in the evenings at Tesco and if he was too tired after a shift and I couldn't be bothered going on a night out, we would stay in and watch The Big Bang Theory. It wasn't until two months in that I referred to him as my best friend, but it was so lovely to have a genuine friendship. Apparently during the Christmas break that semester, he spoke about me a lot to his family, and this was because he admitted later on that he had other feelings for quite a while. It wasn't until I was in the second semester that I realised that there were more feelings involved.


In April of 2013, he took me to the Quayside and asked me if I would be his girlfriend. I didn't think it was 'the thing' to be formally asked when you're in an adult relationship but the gesture was really nice and it meant a lot to me. We were already basically in a relationship, and just a week before he had told his family about me. Once the uni year was over, we both left Newcastle for the summer in our hometowns and met each other's families for the first time. It was quite strange, and his family definitely did not understand me for the first few times I met them due to my scouse accent. I didn't even know Chesterfield existed, so exploring where Andy grew up was cute. We had a rough second year and university with housemates who weren't exactly forthcoming, and after only a month we decided that our final year would be spent in a flat, just us two. We moved in during September of 2014, went on our first real holiday to Paris and celebrated our 21st birthdays together. 


After we graduated we moved back in with my Dad in Liverpool. I got a temporary job for Christmas and Andy moved stores due to his flexible work. We won a trip to Los Angeles which we decided to put all of our savings into and had the most amazing time. By the September, Andy had landed himself a graduate job and shortly after we started saving for our first house. In the past year we've saved just over half of the money needed for a deposit but we also secretly decided to save for something else, the ring. We had no idea what to go for, but we agreed to pay for it together as Andy wanted me to have something that was 'me', and I didn't like the idea of just him paying for it, since I'll be wearing it for the rest of my life.


Nobody knew of course because I was sworn to secrecy. A few people thought we would have been engaged after the trip to LA and when that didn't happen I assume they guessed we weren't ready. By the summer of 2017 we had bought the ring and it had been sitting there for months. In October we headed off to Wales for a joint birthday trip away, but since I had returned from Poland I had contracted a virus that was flaring up my asthma and I was so ill on the trip I asked if we could go home after the first night. We were too far away to come back, so we spent the second night in this cute pod/hut and Andy seemed more at ease. I smiled at him and said to him that I knew he was planning to propose, and he seemed surprised that I had seen through his plan. He has surprised me only two times in our entire relationship as I can read him like a book, so we had a giggle about me guessing. Once we were home I suggested that we should go back up to Newcastle as we hadn't been back since we left in 2015, basically giving him another opportunity. Now I can read him like a book, but he isn't the same with me, and didn't clock on that I had given myself time to get better so that he could still propose this year.


In December we made our way up to Newcastle and boy was it freezing. I know Liverpool isn't the warmest place but I had completely forgotten what the winds were like up there. On the first day there we met with our friend Katie who we hadn't seen in two and a half years and it was lovely to catch up. The next day we spent the morning revisiting the places where we hold the most memories, like all three of the places we used to live, the uni buildings, the park where we used to walk and the nightclubs we frequented. We had lunch and it was funny because Andy had the ring in his coat pocket, which I could see, and he was only the tiniest bit nervous. Once it was dark we went for a hot chocolate overlooking the river and reminisced about so many memories we had in this amazing city. 


See the spot in the photos above where there is a post with a gate across? That's where he asked me to be his girlfriend, at about 4pm in April 2013. It's also the place at about 4pm in December 2017, where he asked me to marry him. There was a little band playing in the background out of pure coincidence, and he put his arm around me to keep me warm and popped the question. It was different to what I expected but so personal to the both of us that made it so special. It felt full circle and now Newcastle holds an extra memory in our hearts. So here we are, engaged and planning a wedding. It was a week before Christmas, and we had a lot of 'in law' cards from family and friends already which made me chuckle. We're so happy and really looking forward to writing about the next chapter in our lives.