Karen & Tom

We're finally getting married!

Karen Corning
&
Tom Bishop

Aug 27th, 2022

At Long Hill

Beverly, Massachusetts

Long Hill

572 Essex St.

Beverly MA, 01915

Get Directions

Our Story

How We Met

In a thoroughly modern love story we met on Match.com. We both popped into each others "matches" just as Tom was jetting off on a business trip to Italy. In a flurry of emails while he was away we made arrangements to meet for drinks upon his return. Karen arrived at the Black Cow in Hamilton first so she could get herself situated as she was sporting a leg cast at the time. Tom arrived and we began chatting like we had known each other for a lifetime. During the course of our evening Tom felt that he couldn't draw his eyes away from Karen's lips, then in a very bold move he leaned in and kissed her. Let me just say it was magic, the rest of the world melted away and we knew right then and there we had found "the one".

The Proposal

Tom surprised Karen at Crane's beach with a very romantic proposal on the day before our 8th anniversary. He'd been plotting and planning in secret. He laid the ground work earlier in the week asking what Karen would like to do after finishing work on Saturday knowing full well that she would suggest a trip to our favorite beach.

Saturday morning arrives and once again asked if Karen was still up for a trip to the beach, of course the answer was "yes". As soon as Karen was out the door, Tom gathered a cooler, bottle of champagne, some snacks and a beach umbrella and raced up to Crane's Beach. He unpacked the supplies and schlepped almost a mile down to our favorite dune to set up the beach umbrella, placed the cooler underneath and tossed a beach towel down leaving everything to look as though someone would be returning shortly.

Then Tom made the mad dash all the way back home so he could be there well before Karen came home from work. One last time, very nonchalantly, he asked if Karen still wanted to go to the beach. Karen said "sure" and Tom sighed a big sign of relief. Off they went with their standard beach kit; chairs, towels, cooler books etc. They found a comfy spot settled in to relax, Karen was calm and relaxed, but Tom was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. After feigning that he was "reading" his book for a few minutes Tom announced that he'd like to go for a walk and would Karen care to join him. Karen paused, thought a bit then said "sure, that would be fun".

As they strolled along Tom asked how far Karen wanted to walk (secretly hoping she would want to go to their special spot). Karen immediately replied "oh, let's go to our dune", (fist bump) . As they strolled closer and closer to the dune Karen could see in the distance that someone had set up their beach umbrella in "their" spot. Tom called Karen over and held her hands. Karen glanced up at the dune worrying they were encroaching on someone else's space. She turned back and Tom was down on one knee with a little blue box in his hand. It was all a bit surreal. Karen had imagined this moment, but was totally surprised. Tom had practiced his speech and the technique of flipping open the ring box with one hand, and it went off flawlessly. Tom told Karen that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. She could hear him speaking, but was having somewhat of an out of body experience, so wasn't really conscious of what he was saying. When she came back to Earth, she realized that he had proposed and replied with a big "YES".

Tom took Karen by the hand, led her over to the beach-umbrella, where he opened the champagne and broke out the snacks. They toasted to their new life together, stared at the sparkling new ring on Karen's finger and relished the magical moment.