Michelle & David
MichelleIgnasiak
&DavidSmith
April262025
Grand Rapids, MI
Our Story
How We Met
David and I met 10 or so years ago when we both worked for a local grocery store called Plumbs. Back then I was in a relationship and had 3 young boys, and he just moved back to Michigan from the state of Wyoming.
Being human, of course, I thought he was a good looking guy, and was always a gentleman. We spoke when we worked together, had lunch together with other co-workers, but that was all I really knew of when it came to Dave was work and that he was probably one of the nicest guys I had ever met.
Fast forward about 10 or so years, on January 12th, 2019, I was in the middle of ending a terrible relationship when I was not in the best of spirits, and possibly had one too many drinks, when I opened up Facebook messenger for the first time in a very long time to see a message from you guessed it…David Smith! Now, Dave says that I was ignoring him all this time as he had sent that message months before, but this was not the case! I just never checked these messages. But I will say that logging into messenger was probably the best decision I made that night, and I have no regrets at all. David says he was in his garage when he heard the notification go off and he couldn’t believe I finally responded!
The first time we hung out was January 25th, and on March 26th he came to my work at 11 pm to officially ask me out(I worked third shift)! It was the best night ever, and we have been together ever since.
He met my boys for the first time April 6th, and December 15th we bought our first house together! We spent our first anniversary through a very emotional/exhausting pandemic, but it also helped us grow as a couple. We adopted our first dog, Tucker, March of 2021, and three months later we rescued a second dog, Whiskey! We have been together now for over 5 years and Dave has always been there for me and the boys. He has made it to every single game of theirs, has come to most of my work and family functions(even when he probably didn’t want to lol), he has been to two of the boys graduations so far. Through all of this, I have appreciated him more than he will ever know.
The Proposal
After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, and everyone asking when it was going to happen….he did it! He finally asked me to be his wife!!
We had a few days of vacation to burn and Dave mentioned he was taking September 26th off because it was his dads birthday, and I just wanted to have a nice long 4 day weekend for once, so we both took some time off. I took Monday and Tuesday off because I needed the full 4 days, he originally told me that he was only going to be off on Tuesday because it was his dad’s birthday, but come Monday morning, he didn’t go in! We spent the weekend redoing the fence in the backyard and just relaxing. Nothing big, no reason to really go anywhere, and had just a nice weekend to ourselves.
That Tuesday the 26th, we planned to be lazy all day, watch a good movie, do some work on our spreadsheet for our Ebay account, but nothing out of the ordinary.
Dave mentions my favorite movie PS I Love You and says I should put it on while I do the work on the spreadsheet and while he heads in the basement for a few to clean up some of our Ebay stuff.
Meanwhile, he is up and down a few times, we have a few day drinks(because why not!), and he is just sweating and on the go!
I am done with the work needed and enjoying my movie when he calls me from the basement! He tells me to put down what I’m doing, put the dogs in their crates, and come downstairs. I am thinking he needs help with cleaning, but as I walk downstairs I see lights, candles and flowers everywhere!! He is standing with a rose in his hand, lights that lead up towards him, and I just could not believe it!!! A random Tuesday, while day drinking and watching a movie, I never would have thought this was the day. Lol
He was sweating so much, and wearing a button up shirt with his gym shorts😂, but it was the cutest thing ever!!! After he read his poem he wrote for me, he then opens a safe sitting on the bar and takes out a huge pile of envelopes with every letter he has ever written to me since the day we started dating, and with all the proof needed that he has been planning and wanting to do this for a while now.
He then finally gets on his knee and asks me to marry him!!!🥰💗
This was honestly my favorite day ever and I am so glad that it was here, in our first home together, and with no one around.
I have since read every letter and started a scrapbook.
Now I can’t wait to start our forever!!