Alicia & Brandon
Nothing Can Stop Us Now!
AliciaMcClarin
&BrandonDeMuro
November82025
Aurora, IL
Our Story
How We Met
A tale as old as time. How do all of the greats meet...the internet! Alicia and Brandon found one another via a photo of a Pym's Test Kitchen pretzel and the rest is history. Months of long distance, numerous Discord movie nights, and LA traffic featured phone calls started the love story that will go to infinity...and beyond!
Listen along to the soundtrack of our story: https://shorturl.at/QYkl7
Our Song:
Still Into You - Paramore
Her Songs:
Late Night Talking - Harry Styles
Through the Fire - Chaka Khan
The Wreck of Our Hearts - Sleeping Wolf
I See the Light - Tangled
Birds of a Feather - Billie Eilish
His Songs:
a thousand years - Christina Perri
Wherever You Will Go - The Calling
Umbrella - Rihanna
Dreams - The Cranberries
Riptide - Vance Joy
The Proposal
Where do I begin? Well, it would probably be better to talk about the journey the ring went on before it found a home on my fiancee's finger. After the ring was purchased, it was carefully placed not more than 20 feet from our bed in a old shoebox. Then the time came to take the ring out of the shoebox and propose right? Well, if you know anything about me, I always like to make things a little more dramatic than the norm.
The ring was placed in a carry on bag, that was stored about 5 feet above my fiancee's head as we headed to sunny California. Once we checked into our hotel, I proposed then right?? If you are gonna keep interrupting me, I won't be able to finish the story. Okay, where was I? Oh yea, the ring was stored in my luggage in a corner in our hotel room as its grand entrance wouldn't occur for a couple of days. On Sunday of our trip, we went to Disney's California Adventure and one of the rides we went on was Grizzly River Run, not once but twice. Needless to say, my clothes were soaked from head to toe. The following day was our trip to Disneyland and even though the weather in Cali was warm, at night it did get a bit cold outside. I decided to bring an extra pair of pants with me in my backpack to the park. This was the day for the ring to make it's appearance. However, it wasn't that easy.
As we are getting ready for the morning, I needed to transport the ring from luggage to jean pocket. My fiancee' seemed to keep appearing in every room possible in the room as I just needed her to stay put in one room for at least 30 seconds so I can put the ring in my jean pocket and put the jeans in my bag. "Will Security take my clothes out of my bag?" I asked my fiancee'. "No, they may just move it around a bit," my fiancee' replied. I thought this might have given her some kind of clue but luckily she didn't pick up on any subtle hints. Once we arrived to the park, I can tell you, I was super nervous but I knew it was now or never.
I told my fiancee' that was going to head to the bathroom. After taking care of some personal business, (my stomach was nervous) anyway, I then proceeded to take the ring out of my jean pocket and place it into my shorts. What seemed like an eternity to my fiancee' as the first words out of her mouth after I emerged from the bathroom were, "I was gonna leave you." Of course in a joking way but it was interesting to hear that just moments away from the biggest decision of my life. I escorted my fiancee' towards the castle, reluctantly, as she had other plans for the start to our day but I knew this was the time to do it. After taking a couple of park photos, taken by Disney employees. I walked with her towards the western side of Cinderella's castle and the words I uttered will live in my memory forever. "I like those pictures, but I'll like this one better." What felt like an eternity, I got down on one knee, opened the ring box and my fiancee's reaction was, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?," my fiancee uttered as she placed one hand over her mouth in shock and one hand out ready for the ring to be placed on her finger. I asked her to marry me, and her head nodded as I placed the ring on her finger. There were park goers looking on, cheering, clapping and one very nice cast member who took our picture literal seconds after we were engaged. The rest of the day felt like a whirlwind as we both were still shocked as to what occurred. As this wedding approaches, I look back on this experience and I wouldn't change one single thing.